The Scathing Atheist

by Noah Lugeons

Last Sunday some bigoted redneck jackass got behind a pulpit and preached the most virulent anti-gay filth one could imagine. Well, to be fair, a lot of bigoted redneck jackasses did that last Sunday, but one managed to catch national attention. One Sean Harris of the Berean Baptist Church in Fayetteville, North Carolina actually went a bit too far when he advocated beating children who exhibited “gay” behaviors.

Plenty has been written about this vile douche-gargler so I’m not going to add to that.  He’s since offered a series of halfhearted pseudo apologies and the media has dutifully reported on them right along with the despicable tape of his Nazi sermon. And they can have that. I’m certainly not going to fault the media for putting these foul-mouthed xenophobes under the scrutiny they deserve. But I will fault them for acting like they were surprised.

Seriously? A baptist preacher in North Carolina has something horrible to say about gays and that’s shocking? The church writ large is the only major organized political force in the country that is still willing to state its bigotry toward gays publicly. So why should we be shocked when one of its members is caught stating his bigotry toward gays publicly? And why should we be shocked at all when a Christian endorses child abuse? Just look at what god put his kid through.

The major news outlets can’t distance Sean Harris from the Christian tent fast enough. Every major piece about him eventually includes some reverend or minister there to explain that what he’s advocating isn’t really the Christian way.

The only problem is that it is. The Bible is pretty clear as an ethical arbiter. Being gay is a mortal sin and beating your children isn’t. Hell, even stoning them to death is defensible in certain circumstances. If you truly believe that your child is in danger of going to hell if they try the butt sex, wouldn’t beating them at the first sign of a limp wrist be the lesser of two evils?

Any time a pastor gets in front of his flock and calls homosexuality a sin, he is subtly advocating exactly what Sean Harris was expressly advocating. I for one am not shocked when a Christian acts like a Christian. That’s because when I say “acts like a Christian”, I’m judging that by how Christians act rather than how they say they act.