Louie Giglio, Laminin sermon, uploaded June 2008
He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
Paul's Letter to Colossians 1:17
Unfortunately, Louis Giglio doesn't believe in holding all things together.
Back in 2008, when it was announced that Pastor Rick Warren had been selected to give the invocation at President Obama's first inaugural, a cry went out for all the intolerant and -- dare I say -- un-Christlike things Warren had said and advocated.
It hurt all the LGBT activists especially to have Warren -- an avowed conservative and homophobe -- be given a position of honor after those activists mobilized to really bring out the vote for Obama. So you'd think that perhaps the Obama administration would be a little more sensitive this time around. I mean, since Obama's election, eight states have legalized same sex marriage, Don't Ask, Don't Tell was repealed and Warren's pet campaign of Prop 8 in California has been found unconstitutional (although still in a legal appelate limbo). But apparently, teh gays just need to be satisfied that the country has evolved past hatred (and DC), because the president is still throwing bones to the haters.
Here we go again. If you hated Rick Warren giving the invocation at the first Obama inaugural, then you’re gonna love Pastor Louie Giglio being selected to give the benediction this time around. (SPOILER ALERT: He thinks being gay is a “malfunction.”)[..]Here a few of Pastor Louie Giglio’s thoughts about gay people, via Andy Towle at Towleroad:
Gays are going to Hell:
(47:40) First Corinthians, Chapter 6. In verses nine and 10, it talks about the things that prevent people from entering the Kingdom of God. It talks about all kinds of immoral behavior. And right in the midst of that passage, right in the middle of that verse it says “and those who are homosexual.” It’s clear.
Gay people can become straight through Christianity:
(40:25) As the church of Jesus Christ, we cannot sit on the sidelines, we cannot sit back inside our churches, but we must reach out and we must aggressively move toward the homosexual community because we have a message and we’ve got something to say… our message is we know Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ is powerful enough to do anything and to do everything. And the only way out of a homosexual lifestyle, the only way out of a relationship that has been engrained over years of time, is through the healing power of Jesus.
(43:16) We’ve got to say the homosexuals, the same thing that I say to you and that you would say to me… it’s not easy to change, but it is possible to change.
(31:45) We must lovingly but firmly respond to the aggressive agenda of not all, but of many in the homosexual community. … Underneath this issue is a very powerful and aggressive moment. That movement is not a benevolent movement, it is a movement to seize by any means necessary the feeling and the mood of the day, to the point where the homosexual lifestyle becomes accepted as a norm in our society and is given full standing as any other lifestyle, as it relates to family.
Gays are sinner:
Men, women, I can’t say anything other to you tonight than this, that if you look at the counsel of the word of God, Old Testament, New Testament, you come quickly to the conclusion that homosexuality is not an alternate lifestyle… homosexuality is not just a sexual preference homosexuality is not gay, but homosexuality is sin. It is sin in the eyes of God, and it is sin according to the word of God. You come to only one conclusion: homosexuality is less than God’s best for his creation. It is less than God’s best for us and everything in our lives that is less than God’s best for us and his plan for us and his design for us, is sin. That’s God’s voice. If you want to hear God’s voice, that is his voice to this issue of homosexuality. It is not ambiguous and unclear. It is very clear.
I'm just tired of this. You cannot tell me that there are no pastors in all of the US who do not demonize homosexuality. President Obama also picked an openly gay Latino to recite a poem at the inaugural and civil rights activist Myrlie Evers-Williams to give the invocation (the first non-cleric to do so). But even this display of diversity, as much as it outrages the right wing, does not make up for the slap in the face to the LGBT community that Giglio represents. Chuck Hagel, mindful that his earlier homophobic remarks against ambassador nominee James Hormel hurt his chances of being confirmed for Secretary of Defense, apologized.
But in this case, I think the Obama administration owes us an apology. It is exactly this kind of embracing of hate and intolerance wrapped up in a pious blanket that makes gay teens so hopeless for their future.
Here's my idea: instead of yet another intolerant preacher ignoring the actual teachings of Jesus giving the benediction, why don't we give it to a sexy liberal? Oh John Fugelsang....
UPDATE: Happy to report the Obama administration caved. Maybe there's a chance for Fugelsang after all...
