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Richard Land has to be the most homophobic Baptist redneck I have ever read about. I know plenty of gay people and they don't think anything like he claims they do. I wonder where he gets information that he is so convinced is right.

http://www.abpnews.com/content/view/6771/53/

Hey now! I know plenty of Rednecks, and they are nothing like Richard Land!!!

Just because someone likes living in the country, appreciates animals, being outdoors, and working with animal/plants/dirt(farming)/etc. doesn't mean that they are homophobic.

Now, apologize to Rednecks everywhere. They are nothing like Richard Land.

Actually, they are the people that would have stuck Richard Land in the locker at school. Land comes across kind of nerdy to me.

On a more serious note, it seems that we've (hetero/Christian) already done a good job of grinding the meaning of marriage out of existence. If not, then why are the divorce rates of Christians so similar to non-Christians. Supposedly, (I've been unable to verify) there was Newsweek article in 2010 that says the divorce rate for Pastors is the same as the general population. Seriously, as hetero-christian people, we are our own worse enemies (imo).

Tim

See the previous post for evidence of Land's comments. The term "homophobic". Just what does that mean? It really doesn't matter, because it's used to marginalize anyone who disagrees with the acceptance of homosexual behavior as being as valid as heterosexual behavior. It matters not how one treats homosexuals. The term is assigned to you based solely on the fact of your opposition. If you disagree with redefining a thousands-year old human institution from male-female to something else, then you're "homophobic". The substance of reasoning is not relevant. The fact that someone does not give their stamp of approval on another's behavior makes one "homophobic", no matter the reason.

News articles, television shows and other media provide too many examples to list.

My most sincere apologies to all rednecks everywhere. I never actually meant to include them with a homophobe--and besides that, some of them are my relatives.

Homophobes are sinners just like gays are. The insidious thing about all of this, on both sides, is the sneaky way it tries to get you to treat sinners (of whatever stripe) as human beings just like the rest of us, instead of a protected classes, which makes them sound more like spotted owls or morphine derivatives, which are surely more like what Jesus wants us to view them as...

Or yes, rednecks, I'm sure the Endangered Species Act could be stretched to cover them, too.

I'm not one to come to defense of Richard Land. His dissembling to Stan Hastey of the Alliance of Baptists in 1982 put him in the wrong column for me long time ago.

Still Alan Carter may be quick to the punch here. But his calculation Foy Valentine's legacy with the monthly Christian Ethics Today could be as suspect as Land.

Google the most recent issue and read the discussion there; and come back and tell me how it is okay for a roughly CBF publication to entertain some views very close to Land, but not okay for Land to espouse them

Foxy,

I read the CET issue (you referring to Howard Batson's response to the original pro-gay article by the 95-year old minister whose name I forget?).

I'm not sure how Batson was like Land.

Land's rhetoric has become increasingly extreme in recent years and he's developed a penchant for making assertions that can't be substantiated. He'll employ offensive language till his buddy Abe Foxman asks him to apologize. Land apologizes and months later does the same routine again.

To be a guy who has sold himself as a pro-racial equality fella who was always progressive on the issue unlike many of his older conservative brethren - Land sure has revealed himself to be a guy with a penchant for insensitive comments and drawing inappropriate analogies that tick off both Jews (see his Nazi references) and African-Americans (see his slavery references) and rejecting the civil rights efforts of racial minorities at every turn beginning with civil rights legislation in the 1980s.

His anti-gay rhetoric is the next wave for Land.

For Stephen, it is more the issue than the person. He sees CBF as having a more liberal view on social issues because he does, and because the organization itself is a response to the conservative resurgence in the SBC. Therefore, if Richard Land is "homophobic" or "anti-homosexual," CBF leaders must take the opposite position. Of course, it is a long distance between not believing that God did not intend for two individuals of the same gender to be involved in a marriage relationship, or that the sexual acts between them are sinful, and being "homophobic" and the assertion that Land is such is ridiculous and baseless. Richard Land is a lot of things, and at his worst when it comes to secular politics, but he's not a homophobe.

It would not surprise me to discover that most CBF leaders, and most members of CBF churches, believe that homosexuality is a sin. Their response to individuals in their churches who are involved in it may, in some cases, be different than the typical Southern Baptist church response would be, but CBF is on record as being opposed to affirming homosexual behavior, and has discovered that it doesn't get along well with partnering organizations that do.

Those are some good points, Aaron.

Thank you!

Tim

Ed: Aaron I plan to have some more questions and comments on this latter but after driving all day and being in a horrific thunder storm for an hour before getting to our motel in Va. Beach, I aam only going to ask one tonight. Is that upcoming conference on homosexuality sponsored by Mercer and CBF National or The Georgia CBF & Mercer ?

It's sponsored by CBF National and Mercer's , Ed.

Here's the FB page description:

"Through plenary presentation and smaller Community Dialogue Groups, this Conference, co-sponsored by the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and Center for Theology and Public Life at Mercer University, aims to provide Baptists and other interested Christians an opportunity for honest, compassionate and prayerful dialogue around matters and questions of sexuality.

Concluding a year-long practice of prayerful convenant community, presenters and facilitators (both Baptist and non-Baptist) will offer diverse perspectives that encourage thoughtful reflection and conversation among participants. Above all, participants will be encouraged to consider what it means to live as convenant people the contemporary and emerging situation.

Everyone is welcome.

For more information, visit www.thefellowship.info/conference. "

PS: I don't know if "convenant" is misspelled or a word I don't recognize.

covenant