.
.
.
.



Michael stone writes ...
========================



"They call it Christian love: A new report shows that America’s 100 largest churches are all anti-gay, with many openly preaching against LGBT people.

A new report via Church Clarity shows that the 100 largest churches in the U.S. are all anti-LGBT, with not a single one having policies that affirm the rights of LGBT people.

The following is an excerpt from the report that scored “the 100 largest churches in America in 2017 as featured in the Christian publication, Outreach Magazine”:

0% of Outreach’s 100 Largest churches have affirming LGBTQ+ policies

Only 35% have CLEAR LGBTQ+ policies on the main pages of the websites

65% of these church websites either obscure policy language (54% UNCLEAR) or entirely omit (11% UNDISCLOSED) their actively enforced LGBTQ+ policies.
Writing for Religious News Service, Jonathan Merritt comments on the new report:

While progressive Christians often claim that same-sex issues have largely been settled, America’s mega-churches have apparently not received the memo. None of them have policies affirming same-sex people and relationships. This staggering statistic will doubtlessly provide firepower to conservative Christians who claim that LGBTQ+ affirmation is a slippery slope to liberalism and a congregation killer.
That’s right, simply affirming LGBT people is “a congregation killer.” Because nothing says Christian love like “I hate the gays.”

While it is true that there are some progressive Christians who promote acceptance of the LGBT community, it should come as no surprise that the overwhelming majority of large Christian churches strongly condemn the LGBT community either directly or indirectly.
And, as Merritt notes, the fact that not one of America’s largest 100 churches will even affirm the LGBT community is a powerful reminder of the bigotry and hatred that continues to permeate and motivate mainstream Christianity in the U.S.

Indeed, while many megachurches try to mask or hide their bigotry and intolerance towards the LGBT community, others are much more open in expressing their hatred and contempt.

For example, in 2014, the senior pastor for a megachurch in Tennessee, Brainerd Baptist Church Senior Pastor Robby Gallaty, told his large congregation that “gays must be put to death” because God commands it.

At the time Gallaty told his large congregation that Christians should “never stop discriminating against homosexuals,” claiming that gays could choose to be straight if they only accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.

As for the new report, in addition to the homophobia, the report also shows that the 100 largest churches in the country are almost all are led by white men.

Bottom line: Christianity is toxic – the numbers prove it."

Ghawd is consistent!

Wonder if he'll eventually give in, like he did with the Blacks?

rather than places of worship...

Chrisitian churches or Christian denominations? It wouldn't surprise me in the least if the largest churches (think evangical and televangical) are anti-gay. The largest denominations, OTOH, probably have a number of gay-friendly faiths.

exactly. UCC, and several other affirming denominations all have to be within the top 100. Unless they are just talking about literal huge churchy buildings with the largest number of congregants.

and mega-churches, led by charismatic assholes, pretty much by definition have to be anti-lbgt.

+1

Churches don't fool me. Men are what they are.

I find the word church and the word justification to be interchangeable.

Thanks for that post Dave.