Sunday, May 27th saw a massive protest in the town
of Maiden, N.C. against the Baptist preacher whose aggressively homophobic
sermon went viral earlier in the month.
Reverend Charles L. Worley of Maiden’s Providence Road Baptist Church
delivered a sermon on May 13th after President Obama’s endorsement
of gay marriage. In a two minute clip
that was pulled from the church’s website after the outcry began, but that
spread on YouTube and other outlets, Worley declares that he, God, and anyone
with sense are against gay marriage and then proposes his own appalling
solution to so-called problem of homosexuality: build a 150-mile electric
fence, inter all gays and lesbians behind it, and air-drop food until the
population dies out as they fail to reproduce.
The viral spread of the video led to the
organization on Facebook of a “Love, Not Hate” rally in opposition to Worley
and the sort of intolerant rhetoric he has espoused. The protest drew a geographically diverse
crowd of as many as 2,500 people to the Catawba County Justice Center twelve
miles from Maiden. Organizers placed a
good deal of emphasis on the peaceful intent of their demonstration, and local
law enforcement handed out no citations for anything other than minor
offenses. That’s not to say that there
was no antagonism, however, as the rally drew some counter-protesters who were
on hand to show support either for Worley or at least for the sentiment that
homosexuality is a grave sin under Christian dogma.
Interviewed by Charlotte-based NBC affiliate WCNC,
longtime Providence Road Baptist Church member Geneva Sims asserted that her
pastor had every right to say what he said about homosexuals, adding, “The
Bible says they’re worthy of death.”
Other congregants defended Worley’s remarks by suggesting good
intentions on the part of the preacher.
Some assert that he was attempting to scare homosexuals straight in
order to save them from the torment of Hell.
Others lodged the feebler defense of reminding critics that Worley’s
plan involved feeding the would-be prisoners, as if to suggest that leaving
someone to die is morally defensible in a way that simply killing them is not.
Among reasonable people, who evidently are not
present in Providence Road Baptist Church, there cannot be the slightest bit of
doubt about the moral status of Worley’s remarks. What may be less obvious are the possible
legal consequences. At the beginning of
the clip, Worley refers to President Obama directly, and uses the gay marriage
endorsement as a starting point for his homophobic rant. Towards the end, he mentions being asked whom
he is going to vote for, and Worley loudly declares, “Not for the baby killer
and homosexual lover.”
Some protestors are focusing on the partisan
nature of this commentary from the pulpit in trying to combat the potential
effects of Worley’s vicious attitudes.
The New Civil Rights Movement website, for instance, has reminded its
readers that Worley’s Church, like all other churches, has tax-exempt status,
and as such should not be engaged in political advocacy of the sort seemingly
on display in the YouTube video. Several
readers of the site have reportedly contacted the IRS in response, as has
Pastor Barry W. Lynn, the executive director of Americans United for Separation
of Church and State.
Federal tax law clearly forbids any 501(c)(3)
organization from intervening in any political campaign for or against a
specific candidate, or from making partisan comments in official publications
or at official functions. It could be
argued, then, that on the basis of his fairly explicit encouragement that his
congregation vote against Barack Obama in the coming election, Worley’s church,
and any church that makes the same mistake, ought to lose its tax exempt
status. But that is perhaps beside the
point. On the basis of the horrid
intolerance and immorality of his remarks, what Worley’s organization ought to
lose first and foremost is its designation as a place of worship.
As protestor Liz Snell was quoted as saying at
Sunday’s demonstration, “I just can’t believe that Jesus Christ would be about
the kind of hate that we were hearing. It’s important for all of us to stand up
against that.”
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