Close to a cool three-quarters of a million viewers have watched a minute and a half clip of Charles Worley's Mother's Day sermon uploaded to youtube. I suspect every pastor would like that kind of traffic on a sermon he'd preach >>>
However, the longtime pastor at Providence Road Baptist Church, a "King James Only" independent Baptist church in Maiden, North Carolina,1 did not receive the views he did because of his magnificent preaching skills. Instead, he got viewed for the hatred he spewed about homosexuals:
...the Bible's against it [homosexuality], God's against it, I'm against it, and if you've got any sense, you're against it... I figured a way to get rid of all the lesbians and queers, but it couldn't get past the congress. Build a great, big, large fence -- 150 or 100 mile long -- put all the lesbians in there; fly over and drop some food. Do the same thing for the queers and the homosexuals and have that fence electrified so they can't get out. Feed 'em, and you know what, in a few years, they'll die out. Do you know why? They can't reproduce.
Since the video went viral, yet another sermon surfaced which Worley allegedly preached in 1978. Below is a brief audio clip2 of Worley's apparent statement that suggests forty years ago (from 1978) "they woulda hung 'em [i.e. homosexuals], bless God, from a white oak tree":
Worley was immediately and soundly--and might I add justly--condemned by communities inside and outside evangelicalism for his irresponsible, Christ-less rhetoric toward fellow human beings, human beings made in the image of God. I first heard from Boyce College professor, Denny Burk about what he called the "justified censure of a reckless pastor." Not one to usually name names in his critiques online, opting instead to keep his criticisms generically written, Burk offered no apologies in naming Worley (and rightly so):
The preacher’s name is Charles L. Worley, and it is horrific...Why highlight it here if it is so bad? ...a lot of people are starting to pay attention to it and to make judgments about Christianity. Countless news organizations are pushing the video with the implication that this is how Christians in general feel about homosexuals...Nothing could be further from the truth
Burk went on to suggest Worley's words represent the kind of thing that "props up caricatures of Christians and which harms the progress of the gospel." We agree. No amount of moral reasoning can justify such horrific words coming from the community of faith much less a conservative Baptist congregation.
Nevertheless, Providence Road Baptist Church members have since spoken to news agencies and apparently are defending their pastor's words. According to a news report at WCNC Charlotte, Geneva Sims, a member of Worley's congregation, said this in defense of her pastor:
"He had every right to say what he said about putting them in a pen and giving them food,” said Sims. “The Bible says they are worthy of death. He is preaching God’s word.”
Another member reportedly said:
Sometimes you’ve got to be scared straight... He is trying to save those people from Hell...He has nothing to hide...He’s not afraid of anything he said. He’s a good man. It’s a good church and he speaks the truth. He doesn’t tiptoe around it3
Of course no one is biblically required to "tiptoe around" around ethical questions--even tough ethical questions. We are biblically required, however, to speak the truth in love (Eph 4:15) treating all men and women, no matter how morally fallen, as persons made in the image of God (Gen 1:27; cp. Gen 9:6). But Worley's language clearly bears no marks of either. Instead he comes across as hating the sinner even more than he hates the sin.
The truth is, Charles Worley constitutes the quintessential model so many pro-gays offer when they bash conservative Christianity as being "homophobic" and "homo-hating." In other words, we are routinely broad brushed as being exactly like Worley--if not publicly then privately (i.e. what we really believe inside). One commenter captures the spirit of what I'm suggesting: "This guy just says what a lot of evangelicals think" (//link, comment #1). As honest as I know how to be, while I've travelled in some fairly strong conservative circles, I have never, ever heard the level of hatred in conversations I've had which could sink to Worley's level of demonstrative hatred for homosexuals. Worley, therefore, thankfully remains the exception rather than the rule in regards to homosexuals among Bible-believing peoples, and certainly among Southern Baptists.
Finally, Worley's unfathomable example is precisely why I raised the issue concerning provocative rhetoric4 with Al Mohler last year about this time during the Southern Baptist Convention. He himself broad brushed evangelicals by explicitly asserting "we've lied about the nature of homosexuality" and have "practiced what can only be described as a form of homophobia." If Al Mohler had men like Worley in mind, then we stand with him to condemn such immoral rhetoric as Christ-less and hate-filled. The problem is, we don't know who Mohler had in mind since Mohler has never explained what he meant. Assuming Mohler did have examples like Worley in mind when he asserted evangelicals have "lied about the nature of homosexuality," is he not contributing, at least in some notable way, to the very problem Burk cites in his concern with Worley's viral video--"Countless news organizations are pushing the video with the implication that this is how Christians in general feel about homosexuals"?
Hence, while Dr. Burk rightly remains concerned that Worley's message implies that his view is how Christians in general feel about homosexuals, we wonder if inexplicable, vague rhetoric like Dr. Mohler's does not also contribute to the same false perception the public has toward evangelicalism's view on homosexuals and homosexuality. Personally, I think it does.
1Worley has been pastor at the church since 1976. Apparently, the church is not tiny. Not only do glimpses of the facilities bear this out, but also, according to the archived website, it presently supports 64 missionaries
2we're indebted to Jeremy Hooper at Good as You blog for this particular audio clip
3these quotes separated by an ellipsis are scattered throughout the article and thus are not to be taken as if spoken as one unit
4by no stretch am I suggesting or implying Mohler's "provocative rhetoric" was/is the same as Worley's decisive homo-hating rhetoric. Rather I am suggesting that while Worley contributes to a false perception people have that evangelicals by and large hate homosexuals as Burk rightly pointed out, Mohler's inexplicable rhetoric implicating evangelicals in deceiving people about the nature of homosexuality contributes, in some significant way, to the same false perception on an entirely other front
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