First Baptist Pastor Robert Jeffress has made his predictable entree into the newly opened front of the culture war centered on Chick-fil-a.
"The liberals have gone into a frenzy," said Jeffress, according to the Christian Post (via DMN). "Their first response was to try to stop the expansion of businesses with which they disagree. That should be of great concern for every American," he added.
It's kind of true. Boycott Chick-fil-a, sure, but things kinda jumped the shark when elected officials started pledging to block new restaurants. But never mind. We now know where Jeffress stands on chicken sandwiches. If it wasn't clear before how he feels about gay people, Right Wing Watch reminds us.
Jeffress was a guest on Thursday's edition of The Janet Medford Show when the topic turned to homosexuality. They lead a "miserable lifestyle" more prone to "depression, or suicide, or alcoholism." Jeffress doesn't suggest it, but maybe that's because a sizable chunk of the population equates homosexuality with bestiality and incest, as Jeffress proceeds to do, per RWW's transcript:
Jeffress: God's plan for sexuality is one man with one woman in a lifetime commitment called marriage. Any deviation from that is sin. And of course, I'm always, the retort to that is 'oh! Are you pulling a Rick Santorum and saying that homosexuality is like bestiality, uh, incest, or pedophilia'? And I say 'Yes.'. It is just as immoral as those practices. But then I'm quick to add, it's also just as immoral as adultery, pre-marital sex, or unbiblical divorce. Any deviation from god's plan is sin.Mefferd: Well, but so much of what they're trying to do now is not just say "accept us and don't be discriminatory in your beliefs". But also, embrace it, see that the bible really was wrong in these passages, in Leviticus and Romans I and it's really not commending homosexuality. It's almost as if they're trying to co-opt the bible and make it say what it obviously does not say.
Jeffress: Absolutely, you have to do so many hermeneutical gymnastics. But what you really have to do is just throw out the bible to get to the point that you say, that uh, it's uh normal. There are two agendas that homosexuals have in order to gain acceptance. First of all they try to normalize their behavior but also to marginalize as bigots those of us who oppose homosexuality. Normalize and marginalize are the two tactics. And they are being extremely successful about it.
...
Jeffress: We're the ones that have a message of hope. And the message of hope we have is you don't have to stay the way you are. You can experience freedom. You can experience life as god intended you to have it, by trusting in Christ and following his plan. You know, it's the liberals that have no message of hope. It is the liberal message; 'you're born that way, and you have to stay that way until the day you die.' I mean, why is it that gays, and I talk about this in my book, you know, have such a more preponderance for depression, or suicide, or alcoholism. It is a miserable lifestyle. And that is why we, as preachers of the gospel and Christians, we've got the message of hope, and we need to quit being ashamed to share it.
