Yesterday, I blogged about Pastor Charles Worley’s recent sermon on homosexuals. He wanted them fenced in a camp where they couldn’t reproduce with the thinking that eventually they would “die out.”
It just makes my heart heavy as the sermon continued with, “They say that you’re gonna get in trouble with the government. Well, I just want ‘yuns to know that I like that bubble gum stuff, so bring it to me. And I like sunflower seeds, so bring me some of them, because if you have to go to jail for preaching the word of God – someone told me the other day – said you’ll be the first one locked up. And I said ‘Thank God!’ Amen. Hallelujah. That’s good preaching.”
I just cannot understand how a man of God could preach such hatred. And, I worry about the children of this church, what type of hated they are going to grow up with.
I don’t care that Pastor Worley said the mere thought of homosexuality made him “pucking sick.” I don’t care that he said the Bible was against homosexuality. I don’t care because as an American citizen, he has the right to proclaim all of that. And unfortunately, he also has the right to say we should put a group of people in camps against their will because his disapproves of their behavior. That’s the downside of our rights.
But, if I walked into my church on Sunday – a church I love and attend on a regular basis with my 8-year-old son – and my pastor said anything remotely close to what Pastor Worley said, I’d walk out and never return.
I doubt that all the uproar over this sermon is going to do anything to warm Pastor Worley’s heart. After writing two blogs about this, I have calmed down a bit and now, more than anything, I feel sorry for him. I am sorry that he dislikes a group of people so much. I even find myself wondering if he knows some homosexuals, but doesn’t realize it because they are afraid to come out, afraid of the type of hatred they’d experience.