At the time of this writing I received the following news release from Beltsville, Md., headlined "Targeted by national gay rights group:"
"Soulforce, a national gay rights advocacy group, will protest outside Hope Christian Church in Beltsville, Md., this Sunday (May 25) Bishop Harry Jackson, senior pastor of Hope Christian Church, is one of six religious leaders the group has targeted for protest and demonstration.
"Unlike other churches that have been confronted by Soulforce ... Bishop Jackson has invited Soulforce to debate homosexual rights and gay marriage with church elders this Saturday prior to the demonstration.
"In light of the recent California Supreme Court decision, we welcome the discussion with the members of Soulforce and are confident in our positions on traditional marriage based on biblical morality," said Bishop Jackson. "We have invited the members of Soulforce who plan to protest this Sunday's service to come inside the church, and hear the truth of the Gospel."
That this so-called Soulforce branch of the Sodomy Lobby planned to picket this large and predominantly black Christian church is, if peaceful, legal – whatever its degree of morality.
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Will all homosexuals agree with this organization's decision to engage in public picketing of churches to deplore the Bible's frequent denunciation of sodomy?
Apparently that real possibility of many homosexuals opposing church picketing does not deter Soulforce.
But just suppose that that Soulforce picket line was either joined – or emulated in a different sidewalk position outside the church – by protesters from additional sexual orientations?
- Suppose the 5,000-member Rene Guyon Society sent demonstrators who unfurled a large banner with their motto: "Sex before eight – or else it's too late"?
- Suppose this California-based organization was joined by a similarly sexually inclined (and much more notorious) organization in Massachusetts – which also displays its banner: "N.A.M/B.L.A. – The North American Man/Boy Love Association"?
- Suppose that yet another banner was unfurled by the Eulenspeigle Society. This is nationally headquartered in Manhattan's Greenwich Village. Their banner could proclaim: "Pain is pleasure – both inflicted and received."
- Suppose that yet another band of demonstrators unveiled their banner: "Real animal love." And they distributed pamphlets noting the following (from Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia).
"The activity or desire is no longer classified as a pathology under DSM-IV (TR) (The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of The American Psychiatric Association) ... while Princeton University Professor of Bioethics Peter Singer, in his 2001 review of Midas Dekker's 'Dearest Pet: On Bestiality', wrote of: 'mutually satisfying activities' of a sexual nature may sometimes occur between humans and animals."
"Singer believes that although sex between species is not normal or natural, it does not constitute a transgression of our status as human beings, because human beings are animals, or, more specifically, 'We are great apes.'" (Think about that, Tarzan!)
From Ingrid Newkirk of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, in her comment on Professor Singer's article "Heavy Petting": "If you French-kiss your dog and he or she thinks its great, is it wrong?"
And finally:
- Suppose that Soulforce picketing of Bishop Jackson's church was joined by yet another alternative sexual orientation, this one with a banner reading: "The absence of AIDS and syphilis – in necrophilia."
In "The Histories," Herodotus writes that to discourage intercourse with a corpse, Ancient Egyptians left deceased beautiful women to decay "for three or four days" before giving them to the embalmers.
In summary, is there anything remotely comparable to the AIDS and syphilis rates of sodomists – among such other sexual orientations as pedophilia, sado-masochism, bestiality and necrophilia.
There is not.
So why should that orientation embraced by Soulforce ever be accepted in churches, synagogues and mosques when these other orientations – with no such deadly rate – are not?
Why isn't Soulforce also campaigning for equal marriage rights for practitioners of polygamy, as well as incest?
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Postscript – Monday, May 26:
The Washington Times reported that 30 conservative black Pentecostals from Hope Christian Church dined with 30 activists from Soulforce.
Bishop Jackson recalled, "I have been threatened with physical harm by people who are openly gay." Michelle Freeman, a lesbian from Houston, Texas, who attended with her lover, contended, "Homosexuality is not a choice, it's biology. So it's a civil rights violation" to oppose our orientation.
There were no other sexual orientations (pedophiles, sadomasochists, animal lovers or necrophiliacs) who were at this church dinner, or who engaged in the picketing of the church.
But there is always the future.