The Carytown neighborhood of Richmond, Virginia is a notedly bohemian area. No one expected one of the most progressive neighborhoods in the capitol of Virginia — found this year to be the most LGBTQ-affirming state in the South — to host an explicitly queerphobic billboard above a local establishment. Last week, that’s exactly what residents were faced with.
The recently installed rainbow billboard reads “LGBTQ” in bold letters across the top. A fine sign… until one hits the following text.
“What did Jesus say?” the billboard asks. “What does the Bible really say?”
The questions are followed by a link to the website of the Christian organization Seed Sowers, where the billboard’s message is made very directly.
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The site’s “LGBTQ” tab attempts to contextualize the words of the bible’s various authors as the words of God himself, and insists that true believers must turn their backs on their gay/trans “desires” to walk with Christ.
They condemn things like Old Testament stoning, while also clearly believing that queerness is absolute sin conflated with adultery and incest. Yada yada, same old same old.
Related: The best way to respond when someone tells you “homosexuality is a sin”
Of course, the surrounding community saw to the true message and intention of the signage immediately.
“I can say that I was very disappointed, I was sad… I was frustrated,” local LGBTQ+ community member Oliver Lesher explained to WWBT. “They placed it over Carytown, which is composed of people from my community — like that’s one of our main neighborhoods in Richmond — so I very honestly believe that this billboard was an intimidation tactic against our community.”
Even the business it was placed on without their knowledge, Mary Angela’s Pizzeria, opposed the billboard’s posting.
“We don’t own the billboard, and we don’t own the building, we rent it,” owner Mario Lopresti says. “It’s frustrating sometimes to see things that happen on top of your head that you can’t do anything about.”
Related: Gay reverend shares hilarious read of homophobic troll and the church library is open, children!
It’s clear that the “Seed Sowers” chose the wrong neighborhood for their hateful rhetoric to overlook. Due to public backlash, the sign was torn down without a scrap of its faux-rainbow in sight in less than a week.
The thousands of dollars it cost to get their discriminatory message up lasted all of a few days.
Naturally, folks are celebrating its downfall:
Covid Hermit
What did Jesus say [about gays]? Um, nothing at all, folks. (This is coming from a confirmed atheist who actually knows the truth about what’s in the Bible!).
Chrisk
The Bible is very clear. Death to men for lying with each other. It’s also very clear about other things too. Things like killing non believers, adulterers, kids for being too mouthy with you, etc, etc..
If anyone took the bible literally it would be a non stop bloodbath.
KerryB
The bible states that adulterers are to be stoned to death. It’s a good thing it’s a work of fiction, there aren’t enough rocks in the world.
Ronbo
So sleepovers are Biblically deserving of punishment! And this “Lying” thing… well the tRump is a death sentence – no one lied to more people more times. And even worse – shrimp is hereafter death!
We need to understand that this storybook was NOT written by Jesus or God. It was written centuries AFTER the ‘reported’ virgin birth by groups of people trying to control others. The bible isn’t even a cohesive book – It’s a cumulation of stories that has been edited and changed regularly by slaveholding men trying to justify their actions – over tens of thousands of years. Christianity won because Charlmaigne wanted to unify his power and the Pope’s greed.
There are some good messages it it – but they will go over the head of children. Those messages aren’t important to most bigots and conservatives. They like the miracles, the fear, the hate the control elements. The bible is like a complex wine – bitter notes tasting of sweat, fear and threats all bound together with just enough alcohol to attract unhappy people.
Ronbo
And one more note on the word “slave”. My people (jews) were slaves back then. In fact, the history of the world is chock full of slaves of every color creed and race. Women were enslaved far more often than any other group. Slavery was far more common than indoor plumbing! There is not one person alive whose genetic history does not include being enslaved.
How about we stop self-centered naval gazing dreams of cash payments and reward EVERY victim of slavery with free public education thru community college? The best revenge is served cold with self- empowerment.
Rambeaux
Jesus did mention gays in the Bible.
He said that no gays were allowed at the Last Supper. Except the waiters.
BigE
Many of your commentators are “quoting” Leviticus, a book of the old testament or Hebrew Torah written by a group of rabbis exiled in Babylon when Israel( then known as Yehud or Judea)was a minor part of the Persian Empire approximately 300 years before Yshua was born and was list of laws for Orthodox Jews to insure their survival. The only reference in the modern Bible between Yshua and a “gay” man occurs when a pagan Roman soldier approaches him and asks him to cure his male lover. Yshua cures the man of his illness and then berates his deciples, because the pagan Roman soldier had more faith in him than they do!
[email protected]
God said that “Everything child is knit together by God in the womb “ ! To me that means all children whether straight or gay is a child of God. People should read the New Testament and the reason why Jesus came to this world. He didn’t judge, condemn, stone, kill; he FORGAVE! Something that Christians seam to selectively forget! The last place I would go to if I had a problem would be to a church filled with so called believers because I know what happens. No wonder why people hate going to the church. Full of bigots.
elemirion
The bible didn’t even mention homosexuality till the 1930′ when an American evangelical church paid a German publishing company to put it in. They changed all the references to pederasty a very common practice of the time, to Homosexuality. Christians don’t even know their history let alone history in general. Its like that scene in the Last Temptation of Christ when Paul says they didn’t need the real Jesus, only the one they wanted to make up. Christianity is a made up religion and keeps getting farther and farther from what it originally was conceived of as.
rcon131
Exactly. And the Old Testament excuses have now been proven a mistranslation of of the word homosexual from Greek source texts. The word “Homosexual” never existed in Bible iterations prior to 1946.
RSD
Ready first Samuel. It talks about king David and his love for another man, they were lovers!
dbmcvey
@Chrisk
The Bible also says you shouldn’t wear blended fabric. It says you shouldn’t eat shellfish. It says a lot of things that most people don’t care about anymore.
ScottOnEarth
Just a quick correction – the billboard wasn’t queer-phobic, it was queer-hating. The difference matters.
Brian
…What now? If the Christians paid for it, there must’ve been some contract or fine print. Can they keep re-installing it for some set amount of time?
Neoprene
I LOVE “lying” with men, but only of the non-they/them variety.
[email protected]
Christians should be silent ….keep it in your circle where it belongs. They should expect persecution , what they’ve done for 100’s of years to others .
FROLIC
The bible is used by hateful people as a tool to oppress and control others whom they believe are in a lower class than them. By doing so, they feel more secure in their salvation, more powerful and privileged than others, and mostly they feel supreme over others they deem to be lesser than them. Their religion isn’t Christianity, they worship hate and white male power. If you don’t fully respect their white privilege and standing, they claim victimhood, “religious persecution,” which they are trying to outlaw all across this country. It is pure evil.
Fname Optional Lname
Spot on FROLIC!
Rikki Roze
Can we all agree to just totally ignore anything about god, the bible or religion?
Fname Optional Lname
As long we don’t have to ignore Jesus, he had washboard abs.
wikidBSTN
So you think we should just back down and slink away from God because some bigots say so?? Do you think you should leave your city, your state or your country b/c some bigots say so? Religion and God may not be your “thing” – but it is important – to a lot of good people.
RoyM
@ wikidBSTN You can believe anything you want but your religious zealotry shouldn’t be allowed to interfere with anyone else’s rights. Religious people are ignorant, weak, people who have to cling to the supernatural to make sense of their pathetic lives. The vast majority of religious people are narrow- minded, hate and greed driven people who use the Bible to justify their hate and bigotry. Most are not “good people”.
barryaksarben
seed sowers sounds like a gay group. GOD knows I sowed my seeds pretty much everywhere