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Texas hate group Christian churches

Evangelicalhumanist

"Truth" isn't a thing...
Premium Member
In the early 1970s in Toronto, we had a church (The People's Church) with a pastor by the name of Rev. Paul D. Smith. Smith was preaching the extermination of "sodomites" at the time, and had announced the date of his "most important sermon" on the topic.

The People's Church was (as these sorts of things often are) a very large one, in a somewhat rural-ish area of Toronto.

Myself, and a group of 4 others (so we totalled 5 people, altogether), decided to attend this sermon, and we arrived early enough so that we could get seat in the front-and-centre pews of this "church in the round." We also made sure that we "looked gay." Not in drag, mind you. Not disrespectful. We just made sure everybody there knew what we were without needing any helpful commentary.

As the service proceeded, we did what would have been expected of anyone in the church. We stood when told, knelt when told, bowed our heads when told. And when the time came for the anticipated sermon, the Rev. Paul D. Smith ----- completely abandoned it!

And then we left (although I admit we were all scared ****less by the large numbers of other congregants leaving behind us at the same time, in a not-very-populated area).

Who won, would you suppose? Paul Smith, by the way, shut up completely after that, and never said another word about it. And homosexuality in Canada was decriminalized a long time ago (and since 2005 we've been able to marry all across this nation).
 

Nakosis

Non-Binary Physicalist
Premium Member
In the early 1970s in Toronto, we had a church (The People's Church) with a pastor by the name of Rev. Paul D. Smith. Smith was preaching the extermination of "sodomites" at the time, and had announced the date of his "most important sermon" on the topic.

The People's Church was (as these sorts of things often are) a very large one, in a somewhat rural-ish area of Toronto.

Myself, and a group of 4 others (so we totalled 5 people, altogether), decided to attend this sermon, and we arrived early enough so that we could get seat in the front-and-centre pews of this "church in the round." We also made sure that we "looked gay." Not in drag, mind you. Not disrespectful. We just made sure everybody there knew what we were without needing any helpful commentary.

As the service proceeded, we did what would have been expected of anyone in the church. We stood when told, knelt when told, bowed our heads when told. And when the time came for the anticipated sermon, the Rev. Paul D. Smith ----- completely abandoned it!

And then we left (although I admit we were all scared ****less by the large numbers of other congregants leaving behind us at the same time, in a not-very-populated area).

Who won, would you suppose? Paul Smith, by the way, shut up completely after that, and never said another word about it. And homosexuality in Canada was decriminalized a long time ago (and since 2005 we've been able to marry all across this nation).

You showed that regardless of your gender identification you otherwise held the same values.

A group, in order to work, exist together, has to have a common set of values. When you focus on common values groups are going to be more accepting of each other. If you had gone out and attacked their values I'd expect your reception would have been a lot different.

Go out and attack this idea of marriage, what do you expect? You're not going to generate acceptance.
 
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