A year and a week ago, anti-gay bigots and bible-thumpers were preaching loud and long about how gay marriage was going to destroy the American family (as if 50 percent divorce rates hadn't already done so).
Here in Ohio, state issue 1 was on the ballot and these small-minded gasbags couldn't say enough about how passage of Issue 1 was needed to save the American family.
Well, Issue 1 got a lot of the followers to the polls and it passed. It also helped the Cheney Administration win Ohio.
One of my favorite "family values" guys from last year was Bishop Eugene Ward Jr. of Cleveland's Greater Love Missionary Full Gospel Baptist Church, who was so full of the spirit (or something else) to say gay marriage was a bigger threat than bin Laden.
Here's what the Rev. Ward told The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer on October 29, 2004:
"If we allow same-sex marriage, it will be the beginning of the fall of the nation," said Bishop Eugene Ward Jr. of Greater Love Missionary Full Gospel Baptist Church. "It's important to the future of humanity."
...
"It's not that I say it's wrong. It's that the Bible says it's wrong," Ward said of same-sex marriage. "I'm a firm believer if we're going to save our society, I'm not worried about Osama bin Laden coming in and attacking Cleveland. But I'm concerned about the enemy that is already within."
Ward's name appeared in the paper again, this time on Friday.
"Police chaplain jailed on charges of domestic violence"
Friday, November 04, 2005
Gabriel Baird
Plain Dealer Reporter
A Cleveland minister who is also a Police Department chaplain was jailed Thursday, accused of beating his wife.
Bishop Eugene Ward Jr., the 51-year-old pastor of Greater Love Missionary Full Gospel Baptist Church, was charged Wednesday with domestic violence and aggravated menacing.
Antoinette Sims-Ward told police that the couple were at home about 9:30 p.m. Tuesday when they began to quarrel. She said she was on the phone and he was upset by her conversation.
"I'm tired of you and your mouth," he said, according to her statement. He told her to get out and "go see your boyfriend."
Ward declined to comment on the charges, but in a police report he said he was attacked by his wife. He told police his wife started the fight.
Both told police that during the tussle, her nightgown and panties were ripped off.
She said he choked her with the phone cord until she saw white dots and nearly passed out.
Officers said her neck was slightly bruised and red. Ward denied choking her. He told police he accidentally knocked her down some stairs.
Naked except for an overcoat, she ran to a neighbor's home.
She told police Ward had assaulted her three times in the past 12 months.
They married about 10 years ago and have an 8-year-old son.
Ward filed for divorce in December 2002, but the case was dismissed in 2004 when the couple didn't attend a hearing, a court official said.
The enemy within indeed.
