8.11.2007

Support our troops as long as they're straight. I wonder what Jesus would do!?!

ARLINGTON, Texas - A megachurch canceled a memorial service for a Navy veteran 24 hours before it was to start because the deceased was gay.

Officials at the nondenominational High Point Church knew that Cecil Howard Sinclair was gay when they offered to host his service, said his sister, Kathleen Wright. But after his obituary listed his life partner as one of his survivors, she said, it was called off.

“It’s a slap in the face. It’s like, ’Oh, we’re sorry he died, but he’s gay so we can’t help you,”’ she said Friday.

Wright said High Point offered to hold the service for Sinclair because their brother is a janitor there. Sinclair, who served in the first Gulf War, died Monday at age 46 from an infection after surgery to prepare him for a heart transplant.

The church’s pastor, the Rev. Gary Simons, said no one knew Sinclair, who was not a church member, was gay until the day before the Thursday service, when staff members putting together his video tribute saw pictures of men “engaging in clear affection, kissing and embracing.”

‘It’s not that we didn’t love the family’
Simons said the church believes homosexuality is a sin, and it would have appeared to endorse that lifestyle if the service had been held there.

“We did decline to host the service — not based on hatred, not based on discrimination, but based on principle,” Simons told The Associated Press. “Had we known it on the day they first spoke about it — yes, we would have declined then. It’s not that we didn’t love the family.”

Simons said the decision had nothing to do with the obituary. He said the church offered to pay for another site for the service, made the video and provided food for more than 100 relatives and friends.
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5 comments:

Jack K. said...

“We did decline to host the service — not based on hatred, not based on discrimination, but based on principle,” Simons told The Associated Press.

I may be a bit narrow-minded when I ask this question, "Aren't hatred and discrimination principles?"

No matter how you try to disguise it, the act was hateful discrimination. Not being a member of that church or their "faith", I am not sure whether they also believe that God will be the final judge of our earthly behaviors.

Wouldn't it be ironic for those true believers to get to the pearly gates only to learn that their "principled" acts were God's test of them?

Just some thoughts.

Diane said...

well said, jack k.

Diane said...

By the way, do they only hold memorial services for those who have lived blameless/sinless lives? Do they decline to hold services for adulterers? Or is homosexuality the only "sin" they don't want to "endorse"?

Freakin' hypocrites

Polly said...

More proof that religion in all guises is evil in and of itself.
Fools....

How UnAmerican can you get!!!

Shephard said...

Disgracefully consistent, aren't they?
~S