Lies Straight from the Pit of Hell

Wow: U.S. House science committee member calls evolution, Big Bang theory 'lies straight from the pit of hell':

Georgia Rep. Paul Broun said in videotaped remarks that evolution, embryology and the Big Bang theory are "lies straight from the pit of hell" meant to convince people that they do not need a savior.

The Republican lawmaker made those comments during a speech Sept. 27 at a sportsman's banquet at Liberty Baptist Church in Hartwell.

Broun, a medical doctor, is running for re-election in November unopposed by Democrats. He sits on the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology.

"God's word is true," Broun said, according to a video posted on the church's website. "I've come to understand that. All that stuff I was taught about evolution and embryology and Big Bang theory, all that is lies straight from the pit of hell. And it's lies to try to keep me and all the folks who are taught that from understanding that they need a savior."

Broun also said that he believes the Earth is about 9,000 years old and that it was made in six days. Those beliefs are held by fundamentalist Christians who believe the creation accounts in the Bible to be literally true.

It's not surprising that this [unprintable term] is a politician, but it's scary that he's a doctor.

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Mississippi's Legislator Calls for Death for Gays

Andy Gipson, Mississippi Lawmaker, Won't Apologize For Citing Bible Passage Calling For Gays' Death:

The Mississippi state lawmaker who cited a Bible passage on Facebook calling for gay men to be "put to death" has taken to the social networking site again to refuse to apologize for the remark.

Rep. Andy Gipson (R-Braxton) went on Facebook Friday to say that although he has been receiving emails and calls from around the country about his citation of Leviticus 20:13, as well as Romans 1:26-28, in a May 10 Facebook post on President Barack Obama's endorsement of gay marriage, he will not say he's sorry. The emails have come in response to a petition calling on the lawmaker to issue an apology and to meet with LGBT groups in Mississippi.

"To be clear, I want the world to know that I do not, cannot, and will not apologize for the inspired truth of God's Word. It is one thing that will never 'change,'" Gipson wrote. "Anyone who knows me knows I also believe that all people are created in God's image, and that all people are loved by God, so much so that He gave us the truth of His Word which convicts us of the reality and guilt of our sin, and He gave us His Son Jesus who paid the full penalty for all our sins, by His grace through our faith in Him as we repent of our sin. John 3:16. It is this message that I preach every Sunday. I sincerely pray God will reach someone through this message."

What passage from the Bible did he cite?

The passage from Leviticus that Gipson first cited reads: "If a man has sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They are to be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads."

Most Christians draw selectively from their "Old Testament," either ignoring or embracing its barbaric condemnations of homosexuality as they please. Of course, they have a right to believe whatever wacky claims they please, however immoral and indefensible. What's not right -- and not acceptable in a free society -- is attempting to give those religious commands force of law.

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Dan Savage on the Bible

Dan Savage has taken a lot of heat for these critical comments on the Bible, but I think he's right. Just as modern Christians ignore the Bible's teachings on shellfish, masturbation, and slavery, they should ignore the Bible's teachings on homosexuality.

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Christian Stonings?

In my last post, I reported on the impending stoning of people for sexual offenses in Iran.

So would Christian theocracy be any more civilized? Surely not. The Hebrew Bible harshly condemns supposedly deviant sexual behavior as abominable to God. For example:

If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbour, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall be put to death.

The man who lies with his father's wife has uncovered his father's nakedness; both of them shall be put to death; their blood is upon them.

If a man lies with his daughter-in-law, both of them shall be put to death; they have committed perversion; their blood is upon them.

If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall be put to death; their blood is upon them.

If a man takes a wife and her mother also, it is depravity; they shall be burned to death, both he and they, that there may be no depravity among you.

If a man has sexual relations with an animal, he shall be put to death; and you shall kill the animal.

If a woman approaches any animal and has sexual relations with it, you shall kill the woman and the animal; they shall be put to death, their blood is upon them. (Leviticus 20:10-16)

The evangelical Christians seeking to transform the United States into a Christian nation have not renounced those passages. (How could they, if the Bible is the unerring word of God?) Instead, they frantically oppose any and all attempts to portray and treat homosexuals as normal people. For example, see this response to a Heinz ad featuring a gay couple. Any recognition of the fact that gays can and do form loving families is horrifying to them; it must be squelched -- now.

The Christian theocrats are not concerned to uphold and protect individual rights. They care only for God's will. As Colorado's Amendment 48 shows, they seek to impose God's law on everyone by force, including dissenters and disbelievers. That, combined with their obsessive dehumanization of gays, leads me to believe that Christian theocracy would be no more tolerant of homosexuals than the Islamic theocracy of Iran.

It's a frightful prospect.

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