Tag Archives: Southern Baptist Convention

Dwight McKissic: The anti-Christ is gay; Obama’s support for marriage equality worse than Katrina

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Dwight McKissic

At its annual meeting in New Orleans, the Southern Baptist Convention on Wednesday passed a resolution opposing same-sex marriage and declaring that marriage equality is not a civil rights issue. According to the Associated Press, the resolution was co-authored by the Rev. Dwight McKissic of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Arlington, Texas.

“It’s important to sound the alarm again, because the culture is changing,” McKissic said of the resolution, adding that it’s “an unfair comparison” for gays to equate marriage equality with civil rights.

“They’re equating their sin with my skin,” McKissic told the AP.

The AP story goes on to suggest that while opposing marriage equality, with acceptance of gays growing in America, the SBC at the same time wants to distance itself from more hateful anti-gay rhetoric. For example, the SBC has long since ended its boycott of Disney over Gay Days, and the resolution approved Wednesday includes a statement that the SBC stands against “any form or gay-bashing, whether disrespectful attitudes, hateful rhetoric, or hate-incited actions.”

But if the SBC is truly trying to temper its anti-gay teachings, it has chosen the wrong spokesperson in McKissic. That’s because McKissic statement rhyming “sin” and “skin” — which is not new but will undoubtedly be repeated by anti-gay SBC pastors all over the country — pales in comparison to some of his other recent anti-gay rhetoric.

Continue reading “Dwight McKissic: The anti-Christ is gay; Obama’s support for marriage equality worse than Katrina” »

—  John Wright

What’s Brewing: LGBT leaders meet with SBC president; Weiner tells friends he’ll resign

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Your weekday morning blend from Instant Tea:

1. All eyes remain on the New York State Senate, which is still one vote short of the majority needed to legalize same-sex marriage in the nation’s third-largest state. Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s marriage equality bill cleared the Assembly on Wednesday night but must pass the Senate before the session ends next week. The Williams Institute reports that the bill would affect more than 42,000 same-sex couples.

2. After hand-delivering  a petition calling on the Southern Baptist Convention to apologize for its anti-gay positions, LGBT leaders met for more than 30 minutes Wednesday with SBC President Bryant Wright. From the Baptist Press: The remarkable meeting — cordial the entire time — took place between the morning and afternoon sessions of the SBC in Wright’s annual meeting office at the Phoenix Convention Center. The nine-person coalition included representatives of the Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists, Faith in America and Truth Wins Out. They protested outside the convention hall and requested to deliver petitions to Wright, who decided to turn the event into a dialogue. Several members of the media also attended.

3. Congressman Anthony Weiner has told friends he plans to resign. From the New York Times: The news comes as Democratic leaders prepared to hold a meeting on Thursday to discuss whether to strip the 46-year-old Congressman of his committee assignments, a blow which would severely damage his effectiveness. Mr. Weiner, a Democrat, came to the conclusion that he could no longer serve after having long discussions with his wife,  Huma Abedin, when she returned home on Tuesday after traveling abroad with her boss, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

—  John Wright

What’s Brewing: El Paso DP benefits fight not over; petition calls for Southern Baptist apology

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Your weekday morning blend from Instant Tea:

1. The El Paso City Council’s 5-4 vote Tuesday to reinstate domestic partner benefits likely won’t be the last word on the matter, the El Paso Times reports. Two of the council members who voted to reinstate benefits are leaving office this month, and at least one of their replacements says he would have voted against reinstating DP benefits. Meanwhile, another of the council members who voted to reinstate benefits says she wants to put the issue back on the ballot as a charter amendment in November. And the anti-gay pastor behind last year’s ballot initiative to rescind DP benefits, Tom Brown, says he’ll launch recall petitions against Mayor John Cook and two councilmembers who voted in favor of DP benefits and are not leaving office.

2. A coalition of LGBT groups will deliver a petition containing nearly 10,000 signatures today to the Southern Baptist Convention during its annual meeting in Phoenix, calling on the SBC to apologize for the harm its teachings have caused LGBT people. “We call on the Southern Baptist Convention to stop misusing the Bible to promote religion-based bigotry and start recognizing the enormous pain and suffering caused by its mistreatment of LGBT people, particularly vulnerable youth,” said Dr. Jack McKinney, a former Southern Baptist minister and spokesperson for Faith in America. “History has not been kind to the Southern Baptist Convention’s record on minorities, and it is making the same awful mistake today by perpetuating abuse against gay people.”

3. The Houston GLBT Political Caucus is asking people to contact local media outlets and demand accurate and respectful reporting about transgender victims, after several outlets identified a murdered transgender woman as a “male prostitute,” a “cross-dresser” and a “transvestite” this week. The Caucus says only one of six outlets made an effort to get it right and correct their coverage. Here’s the contact info for the others: Houston Chronicle – 713-362-7171; KPRC – 713-778-4910; KHOU – 713-526-1111; Fox 26 – 713-479-2600; Houston Press – 713-280-2400.

 

—  John Wright

What’s Brewing: Tom Leppert, Broadway Baptist Church, Chris Colfer at the Golden Globes

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Your weekday morning blend from Instant Tea:

1. Dallas Mayor Tom Leppert officially won’t seek re-election this year, and instead likely will run for Senate in 2012. No surprise there, but our biggest question remains unanswered: What does this mean for Leppert’s openly gay chief of staff, Chris Heinbaugh? Will he go to work on Leppert’s Senate campaign? Will he find another job at City Hall? Will he go back into broadcast journalism? As of last week, Heinbaugh officially wasn’t saying.

2. Southern Baptists simply can’t seem to get over the fact that Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth treats gay members like human beings. Broadway Baptist has already been kicked out of the Southern Baptist Convention and left the Baptist General Convention of Texas over the issue. Now, the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary is going after the church, albeit indirectly. The seminary wants the Tarrant Baptist Association to vacate an office building it has long occupied on the seminary’s campus, in part because Broadway Baptist is one of the TBA’s members. The seminary also wants the building for a welcome center, but apparently believes the anti-gay excuse sounds more Christ-like.

3. As Arnold Wayne Jones pointed out below, the Golden Globes were about as gay as could be last night. Above is video of Chris Colfer’s acceptance speech.

—  John Wright

Southern Baptists: Proposal to repeal DADT based on 'indulging strong sexual desires'

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Richard Land
Richard Land

Not surprisingly, the Southern Baptist Convention has approved a resolution opposing the repeal of “don’t ask don’t tell.”

Richard Land, president of the SBC’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, told those attending the denomination’s annual meeting in Florida this week that repealing DADT would “destroy” the military, according to the Associated Press.

“I’m told that there will be massive resignations … if we try to impose this social experiment on our military forces when we’re in the middle of two wars.” Land says in a video from the meeting posted on the SBC website. “We will end up with a military that will have a higher than national percentage homosexual population rather than a lower than national percentage homosexual population, and it will lead to discord and disharmony in the ranks, and it will destroy the finest fighting force that the world has ever known.”

The Baptist Press notes that Land also talked about the church’s efforts to defend Proposition 8, California’s same-sex marriage ban.

The SBC resolution opposing DADT states that,”No government should implement standards or policies regulating the lives of military personnel based on nothing other than indulging sexual desires, however strong …”

—  John Wright