Justin Griffith reports on yet another fundamentalist preacher in Fayetteville, North Carolina, where he is stationed at Ft. Bragg, who thinks that beating the gay out of one’s kids (not that this would succeed, of course) is not only acceptable, but mandated by the Bible.
Justin helped to organize a protest at Berean Baptist Church in Fayetteville, home of Sean Harris, the pastor who told his congregation that if their sons should start to act the least bit effeminate or daughters the least bit “butch,” they should punch them and beat them until they understand proper gender roles. And in a local news article on the protest, Pastor Mark Rowden left the very first comment:
Pastor Harris should be praised for his bold stance in scripture. People get so bent out of shape over things. If America don’t stop allowing such ungodliness to go unchallenged, we’ll find our nation like Sodom. We forget the Bible says “spare the rod, spoil the child.”
And he wasn’t alone. Another commenter, using the name Charlie Charles, wrote:
GOD HATES FAGS, Jesus said if your eye offend you better to pluck it out and enter heaven with one eye rather than enter hell with both. and you whiney faggots call disciplining your brats ”violence” sthu
Fred Phelps, who does, in fact, beat not only the gay out of his kids but any thought of non-compliance with his fascist views, would be proud.
12 comments
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slc1
May 9, 2012 at 10:42 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
In many jurisdictions, such behavior could result in charges of child abuse and anyone taking the advice of fucktard Harris could end up facing jail time.
Bronze Dog
May 9, 2012 at 10:49 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Double feature of disgust: There’s the bigotry, and then there’s the lack of imagination. There’s other ways to discipline children. I would think beating children to discipline them effectively teaches them that violence is an acceptable means of dealing with conflict.
DaveL
May 9, 2012 at 10:56 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Actually, it doesn’t. That particular wording is a corruption of Proverbs and comes from Samuel Butler’s satirical poem Hudribras.
Which, amusingly enough, mocks puritanical religion.
raven
May 9, 2012 at 10:58 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Violence is the first resort of the incompetent.
It is child abuse.
In the last few years, fundies have beaten three of their kids to death that I know of by following Pearl’s book of abuse instructions. This form of human child sacrifice is considered murder by normal people and they usually end up charged with first degree murder.
It also isn’t surprising. Fundie xians have been sponsoring and supporting xian terrorism for decades.
tassilo
May 9, 2012 at 11:09 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I wonder if Charley Charles ever considered this might apply to people like him?
raven
May 9, 2012 at 11:12 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Not only is this child abuse, it’s a good way to screw up your kid’s minds and life forever.
Here on the West Coast, there are a lot of Russian and Ukrainian fundie xian immigrants. For cultural and religious reasons, they are big on beating their kids hard and often.
The kids and young adults end up troubled and in trouble with the law often for mostly minor and really stupid things. The states are aware of this and sometimes try to stop it.
Not all of the US Slavic xian violence is minor though. When you teach your kids to hate and that violence is acceptable, a few of them will take it too far.
Michael Heath
May 9, 2012 at 11:17 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Ed’s blog post title:
This could be viewed as progress. As I’ve noted before in Ed’s venue, as a teen-ager in in the mid-70s I reported two teenagers bullying a gay teenager in the high school hallway. A bit of a verbal debate ensued between me and some local authority figures given my temerity to behave as if the victim was the perp. A fundie church elder following up on my narcing out the two bullies told me we should instead, “throw them [gays] into the sea”.
Hearing that was one of the most the most chilling events of my young life. Especially since we’ve seen the hatred for gays by conservative Christians exponentially increase since then. It lays bare the antipathy conservative Christians as a population have towards some of the most emphasized edicts the Bible has Jesus making. Back then it was more of an abstract hatred and bigotry, mostly never raised since gays weren’t yet coming out of the closet or demanding their rights. “Secular humanists”, black Americans, “Darwinists”, feminists, and university professors were taking most of their heat back then IIRC.
Marcus Ranum
May 9, 2012 at 11:47 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Ah, this would be “enhanced parenting”, I presume?
kenradaniels
May 9, 2012 at 1:41 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I suppose this “man of God” would be surprised to know he’s carrying out the devil’s work, wouldn’t he? Spreading hate, violence, and intolerance has no place in true Christianity, fundie or not.
laurentweppe
May 9, 2012 at 1:45 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Yes, and once children have grown stronger than their parents and start beating them back, it’s “enhanced leaving the nest”
Rip Steakface
May 9, 2012 at 8:59 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
if their sons should start to act the least bit effeminate or daughters the least bit “butch,” they should punch them and beat them until they understand proper gender roles.
Because all gay men are just women with penises and all lesbians are just men without penises!
Seriously, you’d think they’d realize by now that being effeminate doesn’t mean gay, nor does being butch mean being lesbian. Some gay men are far (by the typical cultural standard of the word) manlier than you are – Rob Halford and his leather and motorcycles comes to mind. Likewise, there are femme lesbians too (Teagan and Sara are fairly femme – they were the first somewhat well-known femme lesbians I can think of, excuse my ignorance).
If it weren’t for the Romans’ complete denial of female sexuality, I’d think their views on it would be a lot better. To them, it was less about homosexuality/heterosexuality and more about dominants and submissives. A bit like BDSM (which isn’t my thing at all, actually), but it probably applies in the greater sexual realm too.
Rip Steakface
May 9, 2012 at 8:59 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Bah, blockquote fail.