Tag Archives: church

TENNESSEE: Anti-Gay Pastor Arrested On 8 Counts of Sexual Molestation of Minor Boys

TENNESSEE: Anti-Gay Pastor Arrested On 8 Counts of Sexual Molestation of Underage Boys

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Nashville, Tennessee police have arrested a long-time anti-LGBT pastor who has been charged with eight counts of aggravated sexual battery for alleged molestation of multiple boys, WBRC News reported Friday.

Matthew Dennis Patterson, 45, who goes by Denny, resigned from Nolensville Road Baptist Church on September 24 and moved to Pennsylvania. Three days later, members of the congregation went to the police precinct with complaints about his requests to “engage in strange activities” with children, authorities said.

Children at the church told adult members that Patterson had asked them to sit on his face and stomach, sometimes in their underwear, according to a police statement.

After interviewing multiple church and staff members, police said the detectives identified multiple victims, most of them boys, who were molested from 1998-2017. Police did not say how old the children were at the time of the alleged abuse.

Patterson has been indicted on eight counts of aggravated sexual battery. Each count is linked to a different child, according to police.

Police said more charges relating to additional victims “are anticipated” as the investigation continues.

Patterson was a vocal opponent of anti-discrimination bills considered by the Nashville Metro Council in 2003. The measures were designed to protect jobs and housing for lesbian, gay and bisexual people.

“We want to make sure we keep the pressure on, let them know that anytime they bring this up, we’ll be down here to oppose it,” Patterson told The Tennessean in an article published Feb. 5, 2003.

Nashville police arrested Patterson in Pennsylvania on March 8 — he refused to talk to investigators. Patterson was extradited to Nashville on Friday, and his bond was set at $100,000.

LGBT Friendly Church In Montana Vandalized With Swastikas and Anti-Gay Pamphlets

LGBT Friendly Church In Montana Vandalized With Swastikas and Anti-Gay Pamphlets

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The Billings Gazette is reporting that a week after someone left a stack of anti-gay pamphlets at the gay-friendly Grace United Methodist Church more messages appeared in and around the building, including swastikas and a hastily scrawled “No gays” on the sign board outside.

Grace United has been a vocal advocate of LGBT issues and rights, hosting LGBT gatherings and fighting discrimination within the community.

Pastor Sarah Beck called the recent acts “unacceptable,” and said the congregation had been concerned, not just for the church but also for the people responsible. “That is a sign of some seriously dark stuff,” she said.

Last Sunday, the church hosted a public forum to speak out the against anti-gay literature placed inside the church Jan. 25.

Then on Thursday, church volunteers discovered a swastika painted on the choir room door and more anti-gay literature pinned to a bulletin board inside the room.

Outside on a church sign that reads, “Open doors, open hearts,” someone had scribbled, “No gays.”

“It’s certainly an attempt at intimidation,” Pastor Beck said. “But it’s not going to work. We’re not going to shrink away from being who we are in the community, as a congregation.”

The incident has been reported to the Billings Police Department and the FBI.

WTF? - Alabama Senate Committee OKs Christian Church Police Force

WTF? – Alabama Senate Committee OKs Christian Church Police Force

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WTF? - Alabama Senate Committee OKs Christian Church Police Force

The Associated Press reports:

The Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday approved a bill that would authorize Briarwood Presbyterian Church to employ its own police force. The bill now moves to the Alabama Senate.

A House committee has approved a similar bill, but the proposal has not yet gotten a floor vote.

The Birmingham-area congregation of 4,000 wants to create a police department to protect its church and school.

Church administrator Matt Moore told the committee that the Sandy Hook school shooting “changed everything” in terms of concerns about security.

Experts say a church with its own police department would be unprecedented in the U.S.

Critics worry embarrassing crimes like the sexual abuse of children and illegal drug use would be covered up by a police force loyal to the church rather than the law.

Richard E. Levy, a constitutional law professor at Kansas University, said:

It’s making the church take the role of the government. I would expect that if the law is enacted it would not be very long before it is challenged.

Indeed, it seems certain that a church-only police force raises constitutional questions that would and should be subject to immediate legal challenge.

Writing for the The Anniston Star, Tim Lockette reports:

Similar bills have failed in earlier years. Critics said those bill would have violated church-state separation, while creating a police force that isn’t answerable to elected officials. Senators on Wednesday didn’t bring up the church-state issue explicitly, but did question the accountability of the police force.

Expressing some concern, Sen. Rodger Smitherman, D-Birmingham, said:

I don’t want this to be a little secret group that, when something happens, it gets covered up.

Nobody expects the Alabama Inquisition!

Source: Patheos.com

 

Church Nativity Scene With Hand Holding Gay Figures Vandalized In California

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Claremont United Methodist Church of Claremont, California is a loving church that both welcomes and accepts gay and lesbian congregation members.  So in light of this the Church’s Nativity scene for Christmas display’s three panels featuring silhouettes of three hand-holding couples — two men, two women and a heterosexual pair.

On late Saturday or Sunday morning vandal knocked over and caused over $3000 worth of damage  the depictions of the gay and lesbian couples but left the straight couple alone.

The display created by artist church member John Zachary includes the phrase “Christ is born” and a Star of Bethlehem but no traditional manger figures. For the past six years, Zachary has designed and built a scene on the church’s front lawn. The scene has had “controversial” themes before, but this was the first about gay couples.

“We have members of our church who are gay and lesbian who it sends a very personal message to,” said the Church’s pastor Reverend Dan Lewis, who learned of the vandalism on Christmas Day. “I tried to say in worship on Sunday morning that we will not let it trouble us.”

The vandalism is being investigated as a hate crime.

“It’s a hate crime based on it being church property as well as the wooden box knocked over that depicted two males holding hands,” police Sgt. Jason Walters

Liverpool, England “Church” Practices Harmful Ex-Gay Reparative Therapy

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According to the Guardian newspaper in the United Kingdom, a Pentecostal church called Frontline is participating in the dangerous practice of ex-gay reparative therapy.

Frontline runs a ministry called Life, a group connected to a larger, US-based organisation “called and ordained to set people free from homosexuality through the truth and power of God and His Son, Jesus Christ”.

This supposedly open and accepting ‘Christian’ group is ostracizing and demeaning members of the LGBT community to fit into some batshit insane idea of their religious intolerance.

…a young lesbian who attended Frontline, although she never took part in Life. When she told fellow Christians at the church about her sexuality, they “treated it like a disease and wanted to pray over me to get rid of the illness,” she confided. “It just felt like those people in church would have preferred if I had stayed as the person in intense physical and mental pain rather than being happy and in love. It felt so twisted.”

The troubling practices of Frontline stem from a belief that homosexuality is caused by demonic possession.

Demonic influence can play a part in homosexuality, but not always, and Frontline discourages members and leaders from identifying themselves as “gay”, preferring the descriptor “Christian who struggles with homosexual feelings”.

You can watch The Guardian’s John Harris’ video report on Frontline church below: