About 20 protesters gathered on Sunday outside the Apostolic Truth Tabernacle here to voice opposition to a viral online video that was taped in the church and shows a young child singing song with lyrics that offer a harsh message for homosexuals.
The video, which surfaced on YouTube last week, shows a child in front of the congregation, singing “I know that God is right, and somebody’s wrong… ain’t no homo going to make it to heaven.”
The congregation erupts in applause at those lines, which the unidentified boy repeats as the pastor looks on.
At another point in the video a voice is heard shouting,”That’s my boy.”
In the first Sunday service since the video surfaced, congregants arrived to the church as protesters jeered them over the video….
….The Apostolic Truth Tabernacle posted a statement on its website that says in part: “The Pastor and members of Apostolic Truth Tabernacle do not condone, teach, or practice hate of any person for any reason.”
Seems to be a lot of this going on these days. Churches and pastors say hateful things, encourage violence against people, and generally denigrate those who live in ways they disagree with, and when their words are exposed, they apologize and suggest their words were misunderstood, taken out of context, blah, blah, blah. This kind of talk has been going on my entire life. Did a bit of it myself when I was a pastor.
But now……thanks to cell phones, video recorders, and the internet…..EVERYONE knows what only those at the service knew. Evidently there are a lot of Churches and pastors who haven’t been schooled in the rules of discourse in the internet age. Rule #1…..don’t say anything you don’t want made public on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, or a blog. There is no such thing as privacy…..
So the Apostolic Truth Tabernacle got caught with its hate pants down. They are embarrassed……not over what was said by the little boy….oh no….they are embarrassed their laundry has been aired for all to see.
What the little boy said reflects what is taught in the church by the pastor and his parents at home. They are teaching this little boy to hate homosexuals. There is no other explanation needed…..
The good Christian folks at Apostolic Truth Tabernacle just need to own their words and shut up. Their apology is worthless, no different than a criminal who confesses his guilt, not because he is remorseful, but because he got caught.
Here is the full non-apology found on their church website:
The Pastor and members of Apostolic Truth Tabernacle do not condone, teach, or practice hate of any person for any reason. We believe and hope that every person can find true Bible salvation and the mercy and grace of God in their lives. We are a strong advocate of the family unit according to the teachings and precepts found in the Holy Bible. We believe the Holy Bible is the Divinely-inspired Word of God and we will continue to uphold and preach that which is found in scripture.
For those of us schooled in Christian-speak we know this is anything BUT an apology. The fine folks at Apostolic Truth Tabernacle want everyone to know that they believe and teach what the Bible says and that homosexuals are in need of salvation. Too bad they didn’t say that the little boy was simply stating in simple, direct words what the church teaches.
If you watched the video clip, did you notice where the pastor was? Sure seems like he is in full support of the little boy’s homophobic screed. And the parents? I suspect they are the ones that said, that’s my boy. In fact it sure sounds like the WHOLE church was in support of the little boy’s homo song.
The church needs to follow the Bible and do works that show they have repented. Their words mean nothing.