Would you like to know why you can’t have nice things? Because of people like Reverend Bud Locke, who decided to cancel Easter Sunday Service after accidentally sending an invitation to a church that welcomes LGBT people.
And this didn’t happen in some remote southern town where they’ve never heard of soap — this was in Stockton, just outside San Francisco.
It’s a longstanding tradition for the Stockton Leadership Foundation to hold services — they’ve been doing it for nearly two decades. But this year, Rev Locke accidentally allowed an invitation to go out to Valley Ministries, a small church with LGBT members. When he realized what he’d done, he emailed Valley Ministries’ Reverend Terry Miller — from a city email address, since Locke also works for the police department — to disinvite them.
It’s all very Christian, isn’t it?
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After word got around about Locke’s bigotry, he first re-invited them, then decided to cancel the whole thing because it was getting too much publicity. He says that he had to cancel the ceremonies because all the attention they were getting. So now they’ll be celebrating in a much more effective way: not at all. Good job!
Of course it’s not the first time LGBTs have been excluded from a celebration under flimsy pretenses. Last year, various cities were still embroiled in controversy over whether gay people should be allowed to march in St. Patrick’s day parades.
Mack
A pathetic excuse for a Christian.
Jeremy Greenwalt
Jesus is coming hide the eggs!!! Not the gaysð???
rickhfx
A TRUE Christian.
GG
How does Rev Locke know that members of his own church or of other invited churches (other than Valley Ministries) aren’t LGBT?
Also, to Qwerty: Since when does “90 miles” qualify as being “just outside” anything??
mmedesevigne
@rickhfx: It’s not as though Christianity has been tried and found wanting. It’s been found difficult and not tried. By no stretch of the imagination is this unbelievable fool a Christian.
1EqualityUSA
They’re cracked! We shell not forget. No yolk intended. Ova ‘n’ out.
rickhfx
He walks dogs part time?
rbernard
What would Jeebus do?
Marshall R. Krug
I do not….repeat: DO NOT NEED SUCH A CHURCH. neither does anybody else!
Glücklich
Stockton. ‘Nuff said.
Would have been equally unsurprising in Fresno or Bakersfield, all three being the unwiped assholes of California.
To my fellow Californians: ever notice how this kind of stuff happens out in the Valley but an equally far-flung and country place like Redding stays out of the news? Must be something about Highway 99.
John Malin
May the Easter Bunny poop in your bonnets!
Tracy Pope
Stockton is a sh****le. The few people I know from there all got out as quick as they could. Most of the central valley in California is as red as any southern state so I’m not surprised this buffoon was tripping all over himself when he realized OH MY GOD I INVITED THE QUEERS. It’s the end of the world. Hateful bunch of morons.
Blake Arsenault
That’s ok. I’d rather cancel Easter, then celebrate with a church…..
Korree Johnson
How very Christian…
Matthew Farris
How about a photo credit? I directed that photo shoot with Lady Bunny and photographer Danielle Levitt for HX magazine. I can’t imagine how you have legal claim to use it.
WillyWilly
I try my best to respect gays who go to church (I come from a very religious family whom I love despite our differences – I however am an atheist rather than an agnostic apologist. I really feel that it is delusional to try to make Christianity into something that it was never meant to be. You’d have to rewrite considerable portions of the old and new testament to have anything even remotely accepting of women, let alone gay people (and yes, the modern church has made many changes that would be questionable if scripture was to be taken literally). For me, if the bible was the word of god or even a particularly well-written philosophy created by mere human beings, it wouldn’t require such creative interpretations to arrive at some kind of palatable truth. You read Plato or Aristotle and you don’t find yourself doing squinty-eyed handstands to have the text seem intelligent by post-modern standards. Oh, and I think that we should stop judging people for judging people. We all think at some point that someone should go to or is going to hell for not sharing our beliefs… Most of us just don’t congregate once a week on Sunday to formally share our intolerance.
Robin Troy
All that godly Christian love.
Frankie Trice
I think this proves that Xtians are bigots first, then God comes second. They truly have left God to pursue their causes.
dwes09
@mmedesevigne: “By no stretch of the imagination is this unbelievable fool a Christian.”
The only metric we have for determining who is a Christian is their word. Their beliefs are only interpretation, and interpretaion varies. You may be absolutely certain that there are many people out there who would consider Rev. Locke more of a christian than you, for standing up to “sin”. What the actual historical Jesus (if there was one) might have done will never be known.
Sluggo2007
Religion is bullshit anyway.
Charlie Gall
WWJD? Not this… o_O
Brent Labee
oh babs
RIck Dean
Sounds like “reverend” Bud Locke needs a lesson, or better yet a commandment. Like the ONLY commandment issued by Jesus Christ; :My commandment tis that you love one another as I have loved you.” Get a clue reverend, you need to be a little more Christlike!
Scott Bailey
Heading should read “church cancels Easter rather than celebrate with humans”
The Other Team
🙂 😀
Christopher Michael
Lol exactly Scott Bailey ð???ð???
Michael Clifford
Cause that’s what Jesus would have done, right???
GayEGO
Bud Locke really doesn’t care about Easter, if he did, he would welcome all human beings.
bookworm
Anymore, I pretty much cringe whenever I hear the term “Christian”. Because when is the last time you heard it in a positive context? It just means haters.
Bob LaBlah
The middle of California all the way up to the Canadian border was settled by a lot of people who were displaced by the Dust Bowl of the 1930’s. They took their values with them and that is why, starting with middle California, the place is much more livable than the southern part of the state. Thats also depending upon where your spot are on the totem pole is. But the farm jobs they offer are popular. Gar bars and such are not.
California, or at least Southern California didn’t experience population booming until the late 1960’s, thanks mainly to the hippie invasion that occurred about that time. As the hippies moved north they chose San Francisco more than the farm producing part of the state to keep their shit going.