In October 2001, a group of nonprofits in Utah sponsored a conference entitled Hate Behind the Mask of Religion. I attended that conference and have periodically referred to the contents over the years. I'm stealing their title for this first in what I expect will be an ongoing series of diaries and posts here and at OneUtah.
The video of Anderson Cooper interviewing Stacey Pritchard has made the rounds. Pritchard is a member of Charles Worley's congregation and went on Cooper's show to defend Worley in the wake of his calls to put gay folk into concentration camps (video of that here with some reactions here). I think some things should simply be beyond the realm of human decency and one of those things is supporting the creation of concentration camps and sending people into them. Haven't we learned that lesson by now?
Worley has a long history as a loud mouthed bigot (he preached decades ago extolling the old days when gay folk were strung up on oak trees). His congregation members support Worley and his sermons. Pritchard's public appearance was a hot mess of word salad and blunt bigotry trying to dress itself up as old time religion. Watch the video here. You'll feel sorry for her. It's apparent she's never really given much thought to the issue - her responses are a grab bag of right wing anti-gay talking points (they can't reproduce) and dreary religious nonsense. Cooper gives here a number of softball questions that flummox her because she's trying to do two things she's not good at - think and speak in public. I swear I mean that bitchy.
It's nothing more than hate behind the mask of religion. So many of these anti-gay "christians" tub thump on about the bible and Jesus and the good lord and saving souls but the truth is ugly and simple. They hate gay people and they're too dishonest to just own it so they pretend it's some sort of religious duty. And the Charles Worleys of the world are more than happy to cash their checks and preach their hate and call it religion and so it metastasizes into the blunt ignorance of Stacey Pritchard.