Friday, May 25, 2012

Small minds in a small town

Pastor Charles L. Worley of the Providence Road Baptist Church in Maiden, North Carolina was recently shown in a video in which he stated that gays and lesbians should be put behind tall, electrified fences until they "died out." He did mention that they should get food drops but because they couldn't reproduce, there would be no more gays and lesbians once they died.

No human language exists that can adequately express the disgust and shame that I feel when I realize that I share an atmosphere with such an individual. That my county shares a border with his county is even more appalling. What he says isn't right. It's not even right enough to be wrong. Again, there isn't a word for it because it goes beyond wrong. I supposed the phrase "stunningly and embarrassingly ignorant" begin to describe it.

Where does he think gay people come from? Do they spontaneously appear? Are they created in labs? Or are they people who are born to heterosexual parents?

As for rounding people up and putting them behind fences, it's been tried. The parallels between Worley's suggestion and the Third Reich's "Final Solution" are all too obvious. I'm generally loathe to compare these nuts to Nazis but let's be honest, here. There is no other way to describe it.

Pastor Worley then went on to tell his congregation not to vote for Obama. Oh, he was careful not to mention names but it was more obvious what he meant. So if he's going to preach politics from the pulpit, he needs to surrender his church's tax exempt status immediately. He's in violation of federal law.

This man is spreading a dangerous message of hatred and intolerance. The fact that his congregation didn't walk out on him or correct him shows that a large number of Maiden's citizens are cut from the same cloth. If you watch the video, you can hear some cheering him on.

Before you go on about respecting a preacher, if he's saying things that are wrong, his parishioners have an obligation to correct him. I remember my grandfather leaping to his feet in church and shouting at the priest, "Rubbish, young man!" So it can be done.

On behalf of those in my state who actually use their brains for more than warming the insides of their hats, I apologize to the world. We aren't all like this.

Thursday, May 03, 2012

Charlotte Mayor Anthony R. Foxx has declared today, May 3, 2012 to be "A Day of Reason."

 

The text:

WHEREAS, the application of reason, more than any other means, has proven to offer hope for human survival upon Earth, improving conditions within the universe, and cultivating intelligent, moral and ethical interactions among people and their environments, and

WHEREAS, those who wrote the Constitution of the United States of America, the basic document for governing the affairs of humankind within the United States, based it upon principles delineated within the philosophies distinguishing the historical Age of Reason, and

WHEREAS, most citizens of the United States purport to value reason and its application, and

WHEREAS, it is the duty and responsibility of every citizen to promote the development and application of reason

NOW, THEREFORE, I, Anthony R. Foxx, Mayor of Charlotte, do hereby proclaim May 03, 2011 as


“A DAY OF REASON”
 
in Charlotte and commend its observance to all citizens.Witness my hand and the official Seal of the City of Charlotte.

Signed “Anthony R Foxx, Mayor”