If you drive around Toledo, OH, you might get the impression the town is divided about LGBT equality. In April, the Central United Methodist Church posted a billboard declaring that “Being Gay is a Gift From God.” But this week Rev. Tony Scott and his 2,500-member Church on Strayer voiced a counterargument with nine billboards declaring “Being Gay is NOT a gift From God. Forgiveness, Love & Eternal Life are.”
All doctrinal debates should be fought via billboards, dontcha think?
Not surprisingly, the local gay community is none too pleased with Scott’s message. He tells the Toledo Blade:
“I love everyone. There’s nothing on that billboard about hate… I’m getting hate mail from lesbian and gay people, but my point is that I love them too much to let someone believe a lie. I love this city too much to let a lie be sown.”
If Scott loves the city so much, maybe he could have directed the substantial money he shelled out for all those billboards toward a homeless shelter, city park or community project.
Actions speak louder than words, even if the letters are ten feet tall.
Source: Toledo Blade via On Top Magazine
Michael
“I love everyone. There’s nothing on that billboard about hate… I’m getting hate mail from lesbian and gay people, but my point is that I love them too much to let someone believe a lie. I love this city too much to let a lie be sown.”
True words from a true Christian even if I am a nonbeliever: God is love judge not lest ye be judged those who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones let he who is without sin cast the first stone etc….
People like this are sadists they are NOT Christians they hide behind their bibles propogate and spread hatred and preach hatred in the name of their GOD.These individuals are false prophets liars and hypocrites in the worst possible way.
Amazing how someone can claim to love everyone yet they specifically prove that they do not love EVERYONE…. only those who are heterosexual.
ChrisC
Just another example of how religion is a cancer holding the world back from achieveing it’s full potential.
Cam
Funny how the people that CLAIM to put everything in God’s hands all seem to pretend that they know everything.
Ian Bower
God doesn’t exist so it really is a complete nonsense.
Mav
Do religious people really not have anything better to do?
…I mean, really?
Starvation in third world nations, anyone? World peace?
WWJD?
Probably come back for the explicit purpose of kicking the shit out of people who put up billboards like this.
roger
How about a billboard saying “there is no place for hate in the house of god” clean your house”
Pete n SFO
And “New” today in pissing contests…
Did you ever hear the expression, “Don’t argue w/ a craZy person, ‘cuz the passer-by can’t tell the difference”?
God is a man-made, mythical, fabrication. The guy who placed the initial billboard ought to have found another way to reach out to a community that needs help. What a tremendous waste of time, money, & effort.
On the other hand, his first billboard has generated far more publicity than his initial output of dollars, but I seriously doubt that was his intent.
Build bridges w/ your allies in the community; don’t fight with your detractors. Play in the mud, everyone gets dirty.
gayfrog
Well I don’t know about God, but what’s sure is that being gay sure is not a gift…
Pete n SFO
@gayfrog: that’s too bad… and I TOTALLY disagree. I’m grateful every day that I view the world with a different set of eyes. I meet & spend time with people that are engaged in life & far more open to new ideas & expression. I absolutely LOVE my gay life, & if you don’t see it as a gift, you need to make a Gratitude List or find some new people to hang out with.
Sending you some E-love, girl. Gay not a gift?! CraZy talk! 🙂
B
No. 4 · Ian Bower wrote, “God doesn’t exist so it really is a complete nonsense.”
… ironically, that makes the first sentence on the billboard, “Being gay is not a gift from God,” completely true: you don’t get gifts from figments of your imagination! Of course, we all know what they mean, but sometimes it is fun to point out what they actually said.
Maybe we can get these Christians to claim that being gay is a gift from Allah (The word “Allah” simply means “God” in Arabic, but a lot of fundamentalist Christians don’t know that.)
Ogre Magi
Typical christian crap!
soakman
LOL, wtf? I don’t think anyone has ever made the argument that being gay is a gift from God anymore than being Male, Female, Black, White, etc. Life is a gift –> Gay AND all the other colors of the rainbow are gifts.
Why does it seem like the GLBT community isn’t even responsible for these arguments anymore. People just have them to have them.
the crustybastard
FTFA: “I love everyone. There’s nothing on that billboard about hate…”
Likewise, if you hit kkk.com, the first sentence is: “Bringing a Message of Hope and Deliverance to White Christian America! A Message of Love NOT Hate!”
So there you have it. No hate at all.
Nosiree.
Michael
@gayfrog:
It is a gift my dear it is indeed. Every gay lesbian bisexual transgendered brother and sister in this world is a gift.Our uniqueness is a gift our creativity is a gift our capacity to love and accept ( for the most part) while others reject and hate is a gift as well.
Lefty
@Michael: “Ah, men!” 🙂
Michael
@Lefty:
Hehe Loved that 😀
Jim Hlavac
Well, when the debate is moving to the billboards I dare say we have won it. I’m sure all the mothers of all the gays, and all the hetero friends of those gays, are going to say “why of course my boy is a gift from God!” And it sure gives lie to the “we promote” ourselves; when they’re the ones putting up the billboards.
ewe
Being gay is a FACT.
ewe
I will define what “gift” means to me by myself without some non profit new wacky religion that just springed up out of some whitewashed shack in ohio rudely butting in unwanted.
Tinstaafl2
As Bishop Joseph Spong so eloquently put in his Manifesto:
“I will no longer listen to that pious sentimentality that certain Christian leaders continue to employ, which suggests some version of that strange and overtly dishonest phrase that “we love the sinner but hate the sin.” That statement is, I have concluded, nothing more than a self-serving lie designed to cover the fact that these people hate homosexual persons and fear homosexuality itself, but somehow know that hatred is incompatible with the Christ they claim to profess, so they adopt this face-saving and absolutely false statement. “
Tinstaafl2
As Bishop John Shelby Spong so eloquently put in his Manifesto:
“I will no longer listen to that pious sentimentality that certain Christian leaders continue to employ, which suggests some version of that strange and overtly dishonest phrase that “we love the sinner but hate the sin.” That statement is, I have concluded, nothing more than a self-serving lie designed to cover the fact that these people hate homosexual persons and fear homosexuality itself, but somehow know that hatred is incompatible with the Christ they claim to profess, so they adopt this face-saving and absolutely false statement. “
HM
And Tony Scott is NOT a Man Of God. He’s just another middle level executive in Hate, Inc.
Red Meat
It’s not a gift, it’s a blessing. Oh wait I’m an atheist.
chpinnlr
After about four or five beers on a good saturday night I think I’m God’s Gift…but thats probably not what they mean!
Trey
REAL Christians should know that God loves everybody. I hate it when the church has to be so bigoted.
btseven
@gayfrog.. maybe you should look up the website and see what they can do for you. Maybe they can set you up with Senator Michelle Bachman’s husband and he can deprogram you of your gay life.
Hyhybt
Hey, they’re right on three out of the four 🙂
Forgiveness, love, eternal life, AND being gay are gifts from God. It’s just that the ones they recognize are those available to anyone, while being gay is given only to a few.
lemon-lime
@Hyhybt: Here, here!
@Trey: Christians do know. Lots of them. The problem isn’t religion. The problem is fear, pride, ignorance and old fashioned prejudice. Something many of the commentators on this website seem to have in no short supply.
As a gay Christian I’m just lovin’ all the anti religious venom in here guys. Just lovin’ it. You sure do know how to make a guy feel loved. Hypocrites.
If we’re judging Christians based on their historical treatment of glbt people, then I guess my experience based on this website is that gays are just pompous self aggrandized assholes who have nothing better to do than sit around on gay blogs and have anti-religious intellectual circle jerks to make them feel better about themselves.
I don’t believe that, because I don’t paint people with a wide brush. What’s the point of fighting hatred with more hatred?
B
No. 28 · lemon-lime wrote, “As a gay Christian I’m just lovin’ all the anti religious venom in here guys.”
There was one comment that qualified as “venom” (No. 2. calling religion a “cancer”).
No 11 might qualify (“typical Christian crap”, which suggests that typical Christians
express the views on that billboards instead of just the really nutty ones). Otherwise, there were negative comments directed against the people who put up that billboard, statements expressing an individual belief (e.g., that there are no gods), etc., but those are hardly venomous. One should point out that expressing a non-belief in a deity is perfectly reasonable and not an attack on individuals for holding religious beliefs. Similarly it is reasonable to doubt that any deity, real or imagined, that would create a universe whose ‘horizon’ (the farthest we can “see” from earth) is some 13 billion light years away, would have any particular concern about how a creature some 2 meters tall would express its sexuality via a particular use of its penis. It’s not like we are the center of the universe. We aren’t even at the center of our own galaxy (something we should really be thankful for given the conditions there).
Judas
I want to know how much money this shit pile is making out of this latest move; remember how much the latest end of the world idiot made? This “I Hate Gay People” advert should bring the bastard a chuck of cash.
Jerry
It’s true it’s not.The gay community is full of assholes.I wouldn’t wish being gay on my worst enemy.
Mike
Its called favoritism—God only gives the best to good people–That is why he made us Gay–To show the world the good and the bad—These jesus preachers wernt given anything special from God–Cause they are evil-BAD…
ewe
@Jerry: Please put your head into the cement next time and stay there long enough for it to harden.
Hyhybt
@Jerry: The WORLD is full of assholes, gay and straight alike on that regard.
B
Hey guys, check out this church’s website at http://thechurchonstrayer.com/ for some amusement. Aside from cartoon graphics on the “home” page, some of the other pages are unreadable. Try http://thechurchonstrayer.com/kids/ for an example – the morons put images behind the page’s text and at various points, the printed text merges into the background image. The result is that you can’t read the damn thing.
http://thechurchonstrayer.com/our-story/ makes a similar mistake. http://thechurchonstrayer.com/our-leadership/ has the email addresses of the two people listed as the church’s leaders.
It also has an attached “store” wher eyou can buy silly trinkets.
B
… one catch regarding No 35: to see the weird, unreadable text (I was using firefox), you have to have Javascript disabled – they apparently didn’t do any decent QA testing.
chpinnlr
@lemon-lime: I hpe the second part of your commonent was satire, That was the funniest thing I’ve read on this blog in a while! Hilarious!
Zaedon
It’s about time that somebody stands up and says it. Just because our corrupted government driven by votes continues to abolish morales doesn’t mean that religion should follow suit. I think all chrches should speak out against homosexuality, it is a disgusting disease ridden affair that goes against the laws of nature.
Little Kiwi
oh Zaedon. You do realize, of course, that your “argument” means that Jews should be allowed to force you to abide by a Kosher diet and that you should respect the traditions of Islam…..right?
Think being gay is “wrong”? Don’t marry someone of the same gender. For you, however, to think you can force others to live by your religious beliefs that they themselves do not share makes you no different from the “radical Islamists” you no doubt think are the Enemy.
ten bucks says you don’t follow a kosher diet, even though the judeo-christian bible has many a food law 😀
Queer Supremacist
@gayfrog: The hell it isn’t. It’s not only a gift, it’s a blessing and a virtue.
@lemon-lime: I’m not anti-religion per se. Just Christianity and Islam, for they are the two primary perpetrators in the Jihad against their gay superiors.
@the crustybastard: Actually it is a message of love. They love black people TO DEATH.
rjachrist
First I don’t see any hate in saying that “being gay is not a gift from God”, at the same time saying “being gay is a gift from God” is not saying I love. People confuse toleration with love as if they are synonymous. I can tolerate a liar but dosen’t neccessarily mean I don’t tell him/her that its wrong to lie, in fact, if I don’t correct his/her lying I don’t love that person because lying effects not only themselves but others in a negative way; lying is a contradiction to truth or the flow of life. If we remove lying from the world, life would be as if not more consistent then it is now. Therefore, saying “being gay is a gift from God” is like saying “being a liar is a gift from God”. Both if left to itself, life is not tenable, both are sins. In order to reconginze sin, put it in a world by itself, if life is not tenable then most likely its a sin. If life is tenable then its not consider a sin. If you put homosexuality in a world by itself there would be no world (no reproduction) therefore it qualifies as a sin. Both lying and being “gay” is still a sin wether you accept it or not.