Religion: The Underlying Source of Evil

Like most in the nation's LGBT community, I remain in shock over the massacre on early Sunday morning at Pulse, an LGBT club in Orlando, Florida.  So many mostly young lives snuffed out by a terrorist claiming allegiance to the Islamic extremists of ISIS.   Perhaps equally shocking is the reaction of far too many Americans to the slaughter, including pastors and some Republican politicians: they are either celebrating the deaths of so many LGBT individuals or saying that they deserved death for their failure to adhere to Bronze Age myths and babbling of ignorant herders from 2500 years ago.  

ABC News has a compilation of past violence against LGBT venues and ALL were perpetrated by those at least nominally Christian.  While foul individuals like Ted Cruz try to point the finger at Islam, he conveniently forgets that he himself shared the stage last year with a Christian pastor who advocates for the execution of gays.  Cruz is not much better than the gunman in Orlando when it comes to clinging to ignorance and religious based hatred.

Pastor Steven Anderson

Here's a sample of a sample of what some "godly" pastors have been saying via Patheos:

Pastor Steven Anderson, whose hate knows no bounds, celebrated the deaths of 50 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando in a 4-minute mini-sermon that cited the Bible as justification for why they needed to die. (And if it didn’t happen via a shooter, it should have happened by way of government execution.):

The good news is that there’s 50 less pedophiles in this world, because, you know, these homosexuals are a bunch of disgusting perverts and pedophiles. That’s who was a victim here, are a bunch of, just, disgusting homosexuals at a gay bar, okay?

But the bad news is that this is now gonna be used, I’m sure, to push for gun control, where, you know, law-abiding normal Americans are not gonna be allowed to have guns for self-defense. And then I’m sure it’s also gonna be used to push an agenda against so-called “hate speech.”

The Bible says that homosexuals should be put to death, in Leviticus 20:13. . . . these people all should have been killed, anyway, but they should have been killed through the proper channels, as in they should have been executed by a righteous government that would have tried them, convicted them, and saw them executed.

Sadly, this type of misogyny has probably been uttered from countless fundamentalist pulpits.

But the hate isn't coming just from church pulpits.  Politicians are stepping up as well, such as Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick tweeted Bible verses seemingly approving of the slaughter.  This from the New Civil Rights Movement:

At 8 AM EDT Sunday morning news was spreading that 20 people had been shot to death in an Orlando, Florida gay nightclub, Pulse. The death toll has now been raised to 50 dead.

Also at 8 AM, then 30 minutes later, Texas Republican Lt. Governor Dan Patrick, who has been working hard to position himself as a national leader against the LGBT community, posted two tweets.

The first bible verse, "Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows," from Galatians 6:7. The next, from Psalm 37:39: "The Salvation of the righteous come from the Lord; He is their stronghold in time of trouble." The second included the message, "Have a blessed Sunday!"

Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick

And if one truly wants to be sick, read some of the comments on places like here.

Closer to home, we have politicians like Randy Forbes who have repeatedly supported anti-gay legislation and organizations.  Indeed, one of the few things Forbes has done in all his years in Congress is to push resolutions that would grant special rights or recognition to Christian extremists. Right Wing Watch has a compilation of some of Forbes' anti-gay, pro Christian extremists activities. 

Anti-gay zealot Rep. Randy Forbes

Personally, I am done with religion other than opposing the hate and bigotry and violence it condones.