CNN’s Gary Tuchman tried to attend a service at Greensburg, Indiana’s Apostolic Truth Tabernacle “Ain’t No Homos Gonna Make It to Heaven” Church, but he ain’t even barely gonna make it onto the parking lot. Tuchman was refused entry into the church, and the majority of congregants he tried to interview remained zipped at the lip. One congregant claims the whole angered hoopla of a toddler singing a virulently anti-gay song is “blown out of proportion,” and that the churchgoers “love everybody. But they don’t love sin. It’s all in the Bible.” Yes, yes, yes, it’s always “all in the Bible.”
CNN wasn’t allowed inside due to the nature of threats received by the church, even though the local police and Pastor Jeff Sangl’s own son claim there have been no verifiable threats. It leads one to wonder what preaching is happening inside that they don’t want folks to see.
Meanwhile, Pastor Sangl, brave Messenger of God’s Love, fled town a few days ago without warning and without bothering to tell his congregation. One parishioner, however, claims he’s in Italy!
Damn! Sangl stands so strongly by his word that he fled the continent! If he believes homos ain’t gonna make it to Heaven, does he believe cowardly bigots do?
How about we take this to the next level?
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A round of applause for the protestors from Greensburg rallying outside the church. It’s refreshing to know this community has a brave faction not full of homophobic hate.
Caleb
Typical of this kind of group. They preach hate, then deny that they hate anyone. When the backlash starts, they paint themselves as the victim. Only on the United States can a hate group claim to be the victim!!!
Alexi3
What I want to know is how can a tax-exempt entity keep anyone from entering during the hours it is open to the public. Especially a church.
Houston Bill
Exactly what public purpose was served by tax subsidies (e.g., donations) for the pastors trips to Italy?
samthehook
the pastor is in italy? home of the whore of babylon? pope-lovers everywhere, rejoice!
BJ McFrisky
Why would we care what a bunch of churchies say about us? Grow up, people.
@Alexi3: FYI, tax-exempt status does not mean you have to allow anyone and everyone onto your premises. It’s still private property.
MDH
Does the bible say anything about “cowards”?
Chris-MI
@MDH: Funny you should ask that. One of the obscure words in Corinthians (“Will not enter the kingdom of heaven…”) that these supposed literalists like to translate as “homosexual” means cowards.
Although to be completely fair no one has any idea what Paul was really trying to say. It may be some sort of slang for a sex act.
Erik
It’s so over the top it almost seems like a campy parody.
FunMe
Hate and Bigotry masked in religion is still Hate and Bigotry.
Hillers
Why do these people tiptoe around their myopic bigotry and hatefulness, and still try to come off as “loving the sin and not the sinner”. They should be proud of their bigotry and intolerance, and stand side-by-side along Westboro the next time they’re protesting the funeral of a soldier or some toddler who was murdered. The WBC is the end result of this kind of wily brand of bigotry; they just think God hates everyone because some alleged tolerance of gays.
Speaking of which, when did we finally become tolerable to everyone? Did I miss the memo on that?
wnyguy
Further evidence that hate is taught. I wonder if the boy even knows what he was singing since it is obvious by the words he used that an adult taught him the words.
Ogre Magi
This is the true face of Christianity
JD
Ogre Magi-You mean fundamentalist Christianity.
Not all Christians are like this and there are many LGBT people who are Christian, and are out in their churches.
I agree with wnyguy that the boy singing that song did not know what he was singing about at all.
1equalityUSA
This is the face of uninformed Christianity. Hatred of any person is hatred whether or not it is cloaked in poorly interpreted Scripture.
Jason
Seriously? They’re saying people are blowing the child’s No Homo’s Gonna Get into Heaven out of proportion while they’re possibly continuing their fire and brimstone style sermons and supporting the message in the song being sung by a 3 year old who’s probably being influenced by delusional parents? Who are the hypocrites now?
JayUVA
@Alexi3: Churches are within their legal rights to refuse admittance to whomever they choose. Tax-exempt status does not make them a public venue like city hall or a courthouse.
DouggSeven
Man, that’s a pretty big house for a pastor? Didn’t the bible say something about speakers of god taking a vow of poverty? Isn’t that what priests do?
axon
Whoever came up with the idea that God hates the sin but not the sinner, was a perverted genius. By somehow separating gay people from gay acts, the morons can just go on hating! (Yeah, I’m aware they use this phrase for everything, but it seems a bit more logic to separate a thief from burgling.)
What I’m wondering is how this hating-the-sin-but-not-the-sinner works for God, in reality? Practically? How does he manage to hate a gay person being in love and at the same time hating the love itself? His face must look very strange, half of it hating and the other half loving… is he schizophrenic?
axon
Well, sincerely sorry – apologies to people struggling with real mental illnes.
B
No. 18 · axon wrote, “What I’m wondering is how this hating-the-sin-but-not-the-sinner works for God, in reality?”
Simple – it’s a marketing scam. You run an ad campaign telling the customers that they are all sinners, but that God only hates the sin, not them, and will let them into heaven anyway as long as they repent (and show their sincerity by putting those dollars in the all important collection plate). There are a lot of sins, but making sex a sin is shear brilliance – what better “sin” than something most people can’t stop doing?
While they finally stopped the practice, in the past the Catholic Church would sell “indulgences”. Besides Heaven and Hell, they had an intermediate zone called Purgatory for ordinary, everyday sinners, where they’d suffer for a while but would finally be let into Heaven. But, for a “small fee” (whatever the market would bear), you could get your rakish Uncle Jake out of Purgatory by bribing the Catholic Church. This scam brought in a lot of money from relatives who could not bear the thought of poor Uncle Jake burning for 200 years before being allowed into Heaven.