Say hello to Jack McCaffrey (pictured). This adorable blonde-haired, blue-eyed babe was born last October and truly is a bundle of joy, according to his parents.
But leaders at the Cathedral Church of St. Luke in Orlando, FL. wanted to deny him entry into the eternal kingdom of Heaven because… he has two dads.
That’s right, when Rich and Eric McCaffrey went to have their newborn son baptized, Dean Anthony Clark and Bishop Greg Brewer essentially said “Nope. Sorry. Maybe some other time. We’ll let you know.”
Related: Gay Dads Respond With Love After School Sends Homophobic Rejection Letter
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
The baptism was schedule to take place on Sunday, April 19. Everything seemed all right until that Thursday, when Clark called the dads to let them know the holy ceremony could not proceed as planned.
“The Dean shared there were members of the congregation who opposed Jack’s baptism and although he hoped to resolve the conflict, he was not yet able to,” Rich McCaffrey wrote in a Facebook post. “After probing further the Dean said ‘the issue is with you and Eric being the first two men who will baptize their child at the Cathedral.'”
“Three days before our son was to be baptized,” McCaffrey continued, “he was turned away. At that moment, he was unwelcomed by the church, and denied his rite to be recognized as a Christian. I was speechless, angry, and heartbroken.”
Related: Dutch Catholics Getting “De-Baptized” To Protest Church’s Homophobia
After McCaffrey’s post went viral, church officials had a change of heart.
Brewer released a statement saying that, actually, on second thought, the Cathedral Church of St. Luke would be happy to perform Jack’s baptism.
Rich and Eric McCaffrey, being true Christians, said they are willing to forgive church officials for the pain they caused and plan to have Jack baptized there this summer.
“We are returning because we still have faith in the goodness of people, and we trust people have good intent and ultimately will do the right thing,” McCaffrey said. “This is not to say faith or trust should be given blindly, but there are moments when you must choose to rise above the fray and acknowledge you are part of something bigger.”
Related: 10 Bible-Based Reasons Why Christians Should Love Homosexuality
Dennis Sandoval
Why would they want to baptise him?
Patrick Cremeans
Religious gays. Ugh.
Crane Stephen Landis
People – the church is not a governmental organization. They are allowed to discriminate. The Constitution only protects you from the Government. Not from each other.
Go find a church that accepts gays. There are PLENTY.
Kieran
The Episcopal Church motto “All are Welcome” should come with a postscript. All are Welcome*
*depending on the local Episcopal church you attend. (We certainly don’t want to offend our homophobes)
Darryl Moir
BURN THE FUCKING CHURCH DOWN, on a sunday, bolt the door and burn them out.
Steven Shelton
The little guy will be alright , with two great parents that will show him love and caring thats all that matters , all the rest is just supersition
Paco
I don’t understand the desire of some gay men to be accepted by a fairy tale and its followers. And on top of that, imposing it on their children, rather than allowing them to choose for themselves later in life from an objective and uninfluenced position. You can teach your children right from wrong with better examples than the bible.
I don’t care what any religion has to say about anything, anymore than I care what a Disney fairytale has to say. It is historical (and I am being generous with that label) fiction created by men.
Reniel N' Michael
Holy water tends to be rife with fecal matter. Perhaps this is a blessing in disguise.
Robert Becker
Suffer the little children….
Rodney Church
He’s already Baptised in LOVE 🙂 Shame on PHONY CHRISTIANS
Glenn Wentzel
WWJD?
Danny Severino
This is totally stupid now.. I must admit baptising a child is against its human right, every child should have the right to choose their own chosen religion, to baptise them takes that choice away …doesn’t matter what age they are..
Clark35
If he wants to get baptized he can do this when he’s older and under his own free will.
Jimmy Lee
The Church has now agreed to Baptize the child, although for the life of me WHY the fathers are still going along with it is beyond me.
Michel Filion
Come up North.
Nick Hung
Depending on the churche;s beliefs it might make sense. A friend came out to his wife and kids, after they could not convince him to be straight, his catholic priest finally said, as last resort, stay married and just keep living your secret sex life you were living, since if he divorced his wife, the children were then un saved and going to hell or something like ridiculous like that. My friend divorced anyways, so I guess his children that were once saved are unsaved, not for t heir actions, but actions of others. How Christ like, Depending on what they believe, it might actually make sense not to baptize,
Adrian Michael Ornelas
I don’t agree with baptizing infants or children, if they find they wan’t to have some irrational belief system when they are adults fine, but forcing it on infants and children is just wrong.
Ralph Emerson
Churches are allowed to discriminate but yet they pay zero in taxes because they are exempt.
Lee Morris
also if you who are Christians read your bible you would know that no where in the scriptures does it mention baptizing a baby, maybe because being baptized meant full body immersion, not some hypocrite in a dress sprinkling water on a babies head, the purpose of baptize is a conscious public declaration of devoting your life to Christ, something a baby is not capable of.
Ken Nolan
This is old news. The situation has been handled by the bishop. The baptism will take place.
bjohnmasters
@Lee Morris: @Paco: See, that kind of statement is as bigoted as you would accuse the Bishop of being. Those two men are as entitled to their beliefs system as you are, but you crawl all over them for theirs. Maybe the church is important to them for a lot of reasons, and it’s not for the rest of us to judge.
bjohnmasters
@Adrian Michael Ornelas: You know, parents force a lot of things on children…most for their own good. How about we quit acting like the evangelicals, and let these two fathers raise their own child the way they see fit.
Clai Green
Then go to a goddamn other place gays stop bitching not everyone loves us. !
Dan Oliver
This is old news. The church has agreed to baptize the child, which should happen this summer.
http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/7223744
Mary C Scohera
what happened to ‘hate the sin, love the sinner”. Not any church that cute little boy needs to be a part of.
Glendon Robert Frank
I would walk away from that church and never darken the door again… who needs that?
Karen Cloyd Dawson
There is no hell, so rest easy parents
Stache99
@bjohnmasters: So I suppose your also in favor of Christian parents withholding medical care because it’s against their religious beliefs or maybe parents teaching their children about satan being the one true god. Would you also be ok with that?
It’s all fairy tale nonsense passed down from one generation to the next. I don’t feel sorry for them one bit except for the kid. Oh please like us. Please, please accept us. LMAO.
Transiteer
Why would you think that there would be no trouble, in you going to a Catholic Church for this? It’s Catholic. It’s a bigoted institution. The ‘baptism’ is only a ceremony to insure indebtedness to the Organization anyway – it has no real purpose other than the political one.
I’m surprised that you’re surprised. They want to punish the innocent to get back at you. Quite simple. And you want to belong to this? I’d re:evaluate my spiritual commitments.
John Kuehnle
Would that church rather that baby have a Dad who beats his wife or cheats on her? Get out of the dark ages.
Ron Russell
A better church will do the ceremony.
Milk
When are people going to realize the employees of the Vatican are the minions of satan? All those churches are house of horror that serve no purpose to further development of humanity except their own bank accounts? Keep your children away from the hands of evil.
Paco
@bjohnmasters: What’s bigoted about admitting I don’t understand the motivations of others? I never said they don’t have the right to believe in myths that so readily reject them for who they are or that they couldn’t raise their child with those same myths. I said I don’t understand it.
M.J. Christensen
Don’t worry about it. Hell doesn’t exist, little guy.
money718
Religious gays are so stupid.
Sidney Davies
Why are same sex couples even going to the churches that have hurt them?
Prinny
Hahahahaha services you right.
Atrius
Meaningless bull..
Barb Kipper
Whatever church that is…he is fine to be WAY OUT of it.
Todd Michael Simmonds
Baptism is for forgiveness of sin. There is no where in scripture that baptizing children is appropriate. The child is under the age of accountability and therefore is in God’s hands.
Gee Rosato
And God will prepare a place in hell for the church members who would not baptize a person seeking shelter in the house of the Lord
Matt Evans
Shame#
lcandela123
This really is one of the loonier pieces of religious bullshit in Christianity. It goes like this. Many moons ago, there was a mystical place called Eden. Therein lived two humans named Adam and Eve, along with all of the other creatures of the earth in loving harmony. The evil serpent tempted Eve to disobey the Bronze Age Sky Deity known as Yahweh, by eating an apple from the tree of knowledge. Eve did this, and compelled Adam to do the same. Yahweh was so fucking pissed off that he banished the two from Eden, and there began the entire saga of human suffering. All because of an apple that dear sweet loving Yahweh was so fucking pissed off about for some fucking reason. As a result, all descendants of Adam and Eve (all humans) equally bear their original sin, for some fucking reason. So, magic water must be sprinkled on every infant. Why? So that dear sweet loving Yahweh doesn’t throw their evil baby souls into Hell. Isn’t Yahweh just the sweetest fucking deity around?
David Bolton
“This really is one of the loonier pieces of religious bullshit in Christianity.”
I like “… and then God made a special pretty rainbow to indicate He would never send a Great Flood again [because fire, pestilence, locusts, earthquakes, gay marriage, etc. (see “Revelations” for entire list of Plan “B”) is more thorough.]”
Jack Anthony Owen
Find another church that will welcome in faith and love ..u deserve better!
Donald Jecker
Guess they forgot to ask WWJD.
Or they did, but didn’t like His answer.
Paul Luccia
SIns of the fathers ?
mmichael_24
@Danny Severino: Do you also believe that parents shouldn’t get their children vaccinated until the child is old enough to want to get it? Or people shouldn’t raise their kids in a certain culture until they are old enough to decide on their own rather or not they want to live their life I that culture?
jwtraveler
It is beyond the limits of my comprehension to understand why people are so eager to belong to an organization that treats them with absolute contempt. And the notion that they want such an anti-human organization to embrace their child strikes me as something akin to child abuse.
Matthew Dale Roemer-Cacy
The church forget Jesus had two dads
James Decino
Find another church of quit going all together.
jwtraveler
@Danny Severino: So you sprinkle some water on him and say a few magic words. It’s not like this is going to affect him in any way. I’d be more concerned about where the priest puts his fingers while he’s holding the baby.
money718
@lcandela123: Haha
tjr101
I just can’t with the gays who long for the acceptance of organized religion.
Robert Hillyer
Time to find a new church.
DarkZephyr
This is surprising to me considering that it was an Episcopal Church and not a Roman Catholic one.
Rick Strandlof
Umm, Jesus had two dads.
ted72
@Patrick Cremeans: Totally! Contradiction in terms.
ted72
@Robert Hillyer: Time to wake up and smell the coffee and walk away from religion. The biggest sham in history of humankind. Selling a non-existent product.
onthemark
And then the Bishop went diagonally across the chessboard and captured the QUEEN!
David Conan
Yet they molest little boys
Maria Beck
Find a different church. period. these people do not behave in a very Christian way. And may be re-read your Bible. I am saying the latter to the church.
Gregg Ray
Tom Knapp
Religion is a waste of time. Love yourself, as religion will teach you how to hate.
Xzamilio
@bjohnmasters: No it’s not… his opinion isn’t stopping them from raising their son how they see fit… that bishop’s opinion, however, is. So try again with defending the woo woo magic sky daddy bullshit because it is straight bullshit, from an intellectual and common sense level.
SteveDenver
Religion is for idiots and these gay dads need to get over the fairy tale and get on with their FAIRY TALE.
courthousedoc
And when they return, they can lead the congregation in that wonderful old time hymn “What Kind of Fool Am I?”
Bruce Dillon
How judgeMENTAL! The child is better off without superstition rituals!
(*;*()
James Hart
VERY UNCHRISTIAN!
mrzodiac2003
When will people comprehend that if this church refuses to meet your needs, go find a church that will. If they are that determined to have their child baptized there is more than one church or religion to choose from. Leave this very Unchristian church and find a better church.
tricky ricky
@Darryl Moir: that has ben done before.
Chuck Stevenson
Some great Christians running that “church.”
silveroracle
Once again religion rears its ugly head.
jenbot
Hang on, didn’t Jesus kind of have 2 dads??
Sluggo2007
After they denied the baby his baptism, Dean Anthony Clark and Bishop Greg Brewer frolicked naked in the baptismal font. Religion is such bullshit!!!!
Matthew Chaney
Who needs religion? Look how f’d up it is.
Alex Rothwell
I say go to a church that will. Anyway all that Damming to Hell nonsense is made up and ridiculous to say the least.
Valerie Anderson
Just awful!
Foster Billingsley
I wish the article mentioned the sudden acceptance and baptism of the baby. Seems convenient that the church changed its tune after pressure.
Teresa Smeltz Fawber
My God is a loving God…he doesn’t Dann babies to hell for any reason….
Anne Conzemius
When a practically all Catholic country votes to make Gay Marriage legal, and Pope Francis does not come out against it, you know it won’t be long that it will be accepted and made legal worldwide.
Rick Isrigh
Clickbait. Denied baptism bit allowed baptism….in the same article?
Allen Manual
:D!!! Lol
Patrick Flanagan
Churches & FUCKED UP RELIGIONS IS WHAT MAKES A HATEFUL WORLD!