If you want to know just how hidebound the homophobes really are, look no further than a pastor in the Colorado Springs area.
Dave Buehner is pastor of Christ the King Covenant Presbyterian Church in Larkspur, north of Colorado Springs and a frequent guest of Kevin Swanson, the host of the hyperfundie Internet webcast Generations Radio. Swanson, for those who don't remember, thinks that gays want to make Jerry Sandusky's behavior legal and that 9-11 was part of a conspiracy to get a Muslim in the White House. Well, back in December, Buehner reacted to Rick Warren's claim that he has "many, many gay friends" by saying it was the same thing as having cannibals, child molesters or wife beaters as friends. Those remarks caused quite a stir in the gay community after People for the American Way highlighted them.
Yesterday, Buehner doubled down in an interview with KOAA-TV in Pueblo. He claimed that being gay is no different from breaking natural law, and that gays deserve the same treatment as murderers, rapists and child molesters.
As the Colorado legislature reopens the issue of marriage equality this session, Beuhner is speaking out not just against civil unions, but calling for discrimination against gays, equating them to cannibals, rapists, and child molesters. "The word of god is quite clear. He's destroyed every culture that has embraced homosexuality. The sin is similar to that of cannibalism and child molestation in the sense that it's a sin against society," Beuhner said. "I'm calling for discrimination against adulterers, rapists, murderers, homosexuals. Yes, we must discriminate as a society."
Beuhner went even further, saying that if lawmakers don't pass laws that allow gays to be thrown in jail, they'll have to answer for it before God.
He's even calling on lawmakers to remove homosexuals from society, saying they'll also pay the price at the golden gates if they don't fall in line. "God's law to the civil magistrate in terms of homosexuality says you should remove the abomination from the land, so that's God's instruction to the people who work up in the capitol who make our laws. That's what they're going to be held accountable for," he said.
Wow. Absolutely staggering, even by the standards of one of the most fundified towns in the country. And yet, in the same breath he claims he's doing it out of love. So calling gays no different from murderers, rapists is somehow showing love? Yeah, okay.