Things are getting rowdy in my lovely home state of North Carolina. May 8th is coming. The date when NC will put into place (if the vote determines it) a law that defines marriage as between one man and one woman, and will ban any other type of “domestic legal union” such as civil unions and domestic partnerships–gay or straight. The consequences of such a move could be devastating.

On a related note, check out this sermon clip below from Sean Harris, Senior Pastor or Berean Baptist Church in Fayetteville, NC. In it you can hear his wise instructions for dealing with children who exhibit supposedly ‘gay’ tendencies. You can also read the full text below it.

“So your little son starts to act a little girlish when he is four years old and instead of squashing that like a cockroach and saying, ‘Man up, son, get that dress off you and get outside and dig a ditch, because that is what boys do,’ you get out the camera and you start taking pictures of Johnny acting like a female and then you upload it to YouTube and everybody laughs about it and the next thing you know, this dude, this kid is acting out childhood fantasies that should have been squashed. 

Dads, the second you see your son dropping the limp wrist, you walk over there and crack that wrist. Man up. Give him a good punch. Ok? You are not going to act like that. You were made by God to be a male and you are going to be a male. And when your daughter starts acting too butch, you reign [sic] her in. And you say, ‘Oh, no, sweetheart. You can play sports. Play them to the glory of God. But sometimes you are going to act like a girl and walk like a girl and talk like a girl and smell like a girl and that means you are going to be beautiful. You are going to be attractive. You are going to dress yourself up.'”

Hey, I don’t like digging ditches.

"Just trying to keep it real!"

And don’t just write this off as standard heterosexist, misogynistic ‘hillbilly’ drivel. This is not some backwoods church. It’s a rather large church in a bustling area. I guess this is just what passes for standard fare these days.

Mark Driscoll must be so proud.

Ah, isn’t it heartwarming to know that all of these Southern churches have learned so much from their history? Given their historical support of brutality toward women, Native Americans, African Americans and immigrants, you would think they would, by now, have the ability to see how they continue to rehash the same kind of hatred and prejudice for one group after another after another after another ad infinitum ad nauseum . . .

I guess you just can’t love Jesus if you don’t have someone to hate.

Vote against Amendment One on May 8th.

[And if you’re really worried about having only Bible-based marriages, at least be consistent. Do you really want to legalize polygamy (I’m game!)? Perhaps we can advocate for the marriage between a ‘master’ and his ‘slave’? How about between family members? What do you think about male soldiers and female ‘spoils of war’? Or, how about bringing back that lovely Biblical principle that allows rape as long as you marry the raped after you rape them? Lucky gal. She gets to be married to her rapist. What kind of person would ever force a woman to marry her . . . oh wait. Crap. Deuteronomy 22:28-29. Hmm. I think I just discovered why Jesus and Paul were such big advocates for singleness.]