As members of major American Sports teams make the decision to come out and live their lives as openly gay professional athletes, one wonders what the response will be from most Americans. We have a better idea of the response from christians on the conservative right. They likely will treat openly gay athletes the same as they treat everyone in the LGBT community.
Pastor Charles Worley of Providence Road Baptist church in North Carolina preached that LBGT should be rounded up and detained in an electrified compound until they all die ( http://www.rawstory.com, May 23, 2012). This vile diatribe, from the pulpit no less, exemplify the moral depravity of the Not-So Christian right.
Likely he received a big "A-men!" from his congregration when he said "The Bible is against it, God is against it, I'm against it." Likely, he received thunderous applause and laughter when he continued: "...and you know what, in a few years they'll die out. You know why? They Can't reproduce!"--with the last three words likely resulting in a standing ovation. To everyone who believes they have a God-given right to kill or otherwise victimize anyone who doesn't share their vile morality of hate, venom, and mayhem we remind you of the following.
1. Anytime you feel righteously and morally compelled to deny another individual or group of their civil rights, their personal freedom, and their personal dignity, it is because you believe it will never happen to you. However, the next time you feel so inclined, search your memory, your Bible, or your city library, if you have one, for the long list of humans who have been exiled, denied, imprisoned, enslaved, "cleansed", tortured, killed, or "exterminated" by their own kind. Too much evil is done in the name of God.
2. Neither God nor your "Lord and savior" Jesus Christ advocates murder just because you disagree with someone else's lifestyle. God may justify personal and national defense against an aggressor who violates personal and national security. But Jesus Christ was a liberal who loved all people without discrimination. The Christ would never condone a pre-emptive strike against another human being just because you disagreed with his or her personal beliefs. And The Christ never suggested or said that a member of the LGBT community was doomed to Hell.
3. God does not need mortal assassins to murder--either in His Name or for any other reason--other humans whose behavior are a threat to no one.
4. Repeating the mantra; "It's in the Bible" is not a moral justification for murder and other vile acts of immorality. The member of Pastor Worley's church who proclaimed:"The Bible says they are worthy of death. He is preaching God's Word." , should know that even if they may be worthy of death, it is not by our or your hands.
You do not have a moral right, a natural right, or a God-given right to do that.
Fortunately, Americans in increasing numbers are rejecting the belief that men and women-only some of who are athletes- who "come out" do not deserve murder, disrespect, hate, violence, and a violation of their civil rights. It is their right to be who they are born to be. It is not the right of hatemongers, many of whom hide behind religion and The Bible, to make that decision for them.
Advocates of hate, violence, and murder on and for gays and other LGBT are not Christians as taught by the liberal Jesus Christ. Nor is it moral superiority or sexual superiority. It is a moral bog. And if the Bible these haters quote is correct, it is a one-way ticket to Hell.