Faith in America's Town Hall Meeting

A recent town hall meeting in Greenville, South Carolina, was the site of a debate between Methodist minister and Faith In America founder Jimmy Creech, and Evangelical minister Rev. Kevin Boling of Mountain Bridge Bible Fellowship. Faith In America's "Call to Courage" campaign was implemented on the heels of the May, 2007, death of Sean Kennedy who died from injuries sustained after being assaulted for being gay. According to Creech, religion-based bigotry has historically been, and continues to be, used to justify social inequity and individual attacks such as the one that felled Kennedy. Naturally, the knuckle draggers like Kevin Boling use the tired old excuse of "religious beliefs" in order to discriminate against those who are different, just as in the past the same refrain was used to suppress blacks and women, ban inter-racial marriage and other forms of bias. Here are some highlight's of Faith in America's positions:

The world’s great religious traditions practiced within the United States of America emphasize the love of neighbor as well as the love of God. Compassion, justice, freedom, and respect for the dignity of all people are their most authentic and noble expressions. Religion-based bigotry is hostile and discriminatory attitudes, opinions and behavior toward a group or class of people motivated by fear and ignorance, based on and justified by religious teachings.

Religious teachings that justify bigotry must not be sanctioned by our religious communities. Rather, they must be publicly exposed and denounced. This expression of religion-based bigotry against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people has historical precedents, including violence, intolerance, and inequity toward women, people of color, and people with religious traditions different from those of the majority, such as Jews, Roman Catholics, Mormons and others. These precedents are recognized today by the mainstream of America to have been misguided, wrong and evil. To end the persecution of gay people engendered by religion-based bigotry, its common link with these historical precedents must be acknowledged.