Monday, September 23, Montpelier, Ohio native Cory Calvin will be giving a presentation at the Defiance Public Library about his “coming out journey” and success as an entrepreneur. Calvin remained a closeted gay man during his formative years in rural northwest Ohio. After graduation from high school, Calvin moved away, ultimately landing in New York City. It was there that Calvin “first had the opportunity to begin outwardly discovering my sexuality and learning who I truly was.” His goal in life is to help others be their “authentic self.”
Calvin describes himself as a “global trekker, family guy, infamous uncle, best friend, meditator, aspiring yogi, hopeful romantic.” And, he’s gay. And it is the gay part of his story that has local Christian Fundamentalists readying a pyre for Calvin when he shows his wicked LGBTQ face at the local library. One such homo-hater is Pastor Perry Porter. Now, Porter will vehemently object to being called a hater, but his words leave no doubt as to what he thinks and feels about Calvin and his ilk.
Porter posted the following on the North West Ohio Christians for God Facebook page — 1,200 followers:
(Porter is the administrator of the page, as is Wendell Blackburn, pastor of True Believers Fellowship in Holgate. I was unable to find a church listing for Pastor Porter.)
According to Porter’s “loving” post, Calvin disgusts him. Porter, in other comments, presents himself as an I-love-LGBTQ-people-enough-to-tell-them-the-truth kind of Christian:
I hope you guys think I hate gay people cause I don’t. I pray for gay people. God said it’s unnatural for a man to lay [sic] with man and woman with woman. God is love. But he’s also a God if [sic] Wrath.
Countless such “lovers” have frequented this website over the years. As their comments have shown, their “love” is anything but. Bigots and haters, the lot of them, scurry around the Internet looking for people who live in ways that “offend” them or who believe things they disagree with. So it is with Porter. He doesn’t know Cory Calvin, but that doesn’t matter. He’s G-A-Y, end of discussion. For Porter, LGBTQ people are disgusting.
Evidently, Porter sent Calvin some sort of message informing him that he is headed for HELL unless he stops his evil gay ways. Porter’s words from the Evangelical God were ignored. Should Porter be surprised that his attack was disregarded? Of course not. He knew beforehand that he would be told to shove his “loving” words where the sun doesn’t shine. This is all about Porter taking a stand for his peculiar version of Jesus, not about “reaching” Calvin. Calvin seems happy and satisfied presently, so why would he ever want to embrace the oppressive, anti-human beliefs and practices of Pastor Porter?
Porter believes Calvin and his supporters are “uneducated.” Uneducated about what, exactly? Porter isn’t preaching anything that LGBTQ people haven’t heard countless times before. Fear and ignorance are what Porter is trying to sell, and fortunately, some local Christians ain’t buying. Several people challenged Porter, and here’s how he responded:
I don’t know if you know this, but I am a pastor. And I’ve been called names, Ridiculed because of my beliefs. the Bible says to hate the sin not the sinner and nowhere in this place have I said I hate anybody. I’m just trying to put out the word that God hates gay lifestyle. he says it’s an abomination to him I’m teaching the word obviously. maybe I love those people more than their so-called friends because their friends seem to think well go ahead it’s OK do your own thing. you might as well tell them to go to hell. I judge no one. Every time people hear something from a Christian we are judging. God judged Sodom and Gomorrah when there were people where men wanted to be with men and the women wanted to be with women. and as the story goes when the two angels came to Lot’s house the men were trying to beat down the door and said send out those men so we can know them will know them means the same thing as when Joseph had not known Mary in an intimate way until after Jesus was born.
Porter’s bigotry and hatred are nothing new in rural northwest Ohio. Right-wing religious beliefs and politics rule the roost. For many local Evangelicals and conservative Catholics, Making America Great Again means pushing LGBTQ people back into their respective closets where they belong. “How dare these queers/faggots/homos/sodmites show their faces in public, expect to be treated with respect, and have the same civil rights as white heterosexual Christians!” many locals believe. Oh, most of them will never utter such words publicly, but in the privacy of their homes, clubs, and houses of worship, their anti-LGBTQ views are on display for all to see. Pastor Porter, zealot that he is, just said out loud what many local followers of the heterosexual Jesus believe.
As I read the various comments, I noticed something: it was primarily older people who were anti-LGBTQ. Younger to middle-aged adults were far more likely to support Cory Calvin and other LGBTQ people. The hope for a better, kinder tomorrow lies in the natural death of Porter and his ilk. While it is possible for Baby Boomers and the Great Generation to change their minds about human sexuality — I know I did — most of them will go to their graves holding on to anti-human beliefs taught to them by their parents. Once these generations are slowly culled from the human herd, younger, more inclusive people will have greater opportunities to truly Make America Great Again. My six children and twelve, soon to be thirteen, grandchildren have a golden opportunity to bring fundamental changes to our culture; changes that will lead to acceptance of people for who and what they are — no strings attached. That is, if they survive the Hell of global warming that’s being unleashed upon them due to the ignorance and inaction of older generations. That’s a subject best left for another day.
About Bruce Gerencser
Bruce Gerencser, 62, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 41 years. He and his wife have six grown children and twelve grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist. For more information about Bruce, please read the About page.
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Hate is really love, and no LGBTQ+ person has ever cracked open a Bible. Right.
I have a nice chunk of ocean-cliff property here in California. Fantastic view. It only has this one little crack running through it…um, and the sale really needs to be completed before the winter storms come.
/snark
I am attempting a couple of fairly difficult changes in my life right now, and a friend who is a self-appointed life coach really wants to help me. Problem is, the changes are my responsibility, and I get extremely annoyed at being pestered. Have NONE of these preachers EVER been in such a situation? Have they never reacted negatively to a family member or friend nagging at them? Can’t they ever figure out how much MORE annoying it is to have somebody you’ve never met pester you about it, and how the natural reaction is to tell the person to take a flying [expletive] ?
Bruce, were you that insensitive in your early and middle preaching years?
My preaching in the early days was quite pointed. I mellowed with time. But, outside of church, I treated people decently and with respect. Porter is 61 years old. ? Too bad he “knows” so much, but has learned so little. But, that what Bible literalism will do to you. It forces you to defend all sorts things that normal people are indifferent towards.
I’m not the greatest bible scholar in the world, but is the Lot story that guy referred to the same Lot who told the gathering crowd to take his virgin daughters and do whatever they wanted, just leave him alone?
If that’s the same story, I’m not sure I’d use that as an example.
And that fucking ‘hate the sin but not the sinner’ thing is so goddamned condescending and patronizing and such a steaming pile of bullshit that I’d like to get in my car, drive all the way there and slap that asshole Porter in the head.
Shitty person. Deserves to be slapped.
Yeah, he selectively used the Bible to prove his point. Shocker, right?
I contend you can’t separate the skunk from his smell. You judge a person’s behavior, you are judging the person. Imagine me saying, I hate pedophilia but love the pedophile. Absurd. Even God agrees. Speaking of God, David — the man after God’s own heart— said:
The foolish shall not stand in thy [God’s] sight: thou [God] hatest all workers of iniquity. Thou shalt destroy them that speak leasing: the Lord will abhor the bloody and deceitful man. Psalm 5:5,6
The fact of the matter is this: Evangelical dogma turns people into haters. This is especially true when Christians think their thoughts are the same as God’s. Hard to see the error of your way when you believe you and God are one in thought, word, and deed.
With “love” like his, who needs hate? His kind will “love” us until it kills us.
This kind of “love” is what kills people.
You’re right in your observations about the younger generations. They seem more compassionate and understanding about LGBTQI+ all being human beings the same as everyone else. Sexual orientation and gender expression are simply part of a person, not THE BIG SIN that must be vanquished. It will be a great day when our generation dies out, as with us dies those goddamn bigots!
Bruce, I thi k you’re right about the natural culling out of the anti-LBGTQ crowd. While there will still be some younger people who hold to the anti-LBGTQ hatred taught to them by the older fundamentalists, even now we see that a greater number of Gen Xand younger people, even those raised in evangelical churches, who accept LBGTQ people for who they are. As more LBGTQ,people have come out into the light of day, and more of us have befriended them and realize, hey, they have hopes and dreams and lives and fears just like me, it’s really taken away the fear and ignorance surrounding who they are. I don’t know what it’s like for other parts of the country, but my kids are friends with gay and bisexual people, and it really just becomes “who are you planning to ask to prom?” That’s literally what they would ask any friend. My kids really don’t get why religious people like that awful pastor hate gay people.
As a reluctant member of the older generation, as their views and beliefs embarrass me, I hold them responsible for this ridiculous hatred of LGBTQ, denial of climate change, fear of immigrants and other minorities and the election of trump.
I just hope they haven’t poisoned too many of their offspring. It may take several generations and we may not have that time left.
Some other religious person is saying the world will end tomorrow. I’ll be having my last glass of wine tonight?
Sigh. Does Pastor Porter actually know any gay or lesbian people? It’s not like they have horns, or anything–they’re just people, trying to get through life the way the rest of us are. They have jobs and houses and spouses and pets and families. It’s just that their spouses and dates and partners are of the same sex that they are, and that sends Pastor Porter and others like him around the bend.
It’s not as though they have a choice in the people they love. I suppose they could try to remain celibate, but that’s likely to be about as successful as heterosexual efforts to do the same. If you want to bring God into the picture, why would God create people just so he could watch them try and fail and be guilty and miserable (unless Calvin was right and most of humankind is damned, anyway). Oh, some of them have engaged in heterosexual marriages–many, if not most, unhappily–trying to deny, or conceal who they were. I’m glad that’s no longer necessary in this country, despite people like Pastor Porter.
I’ll bet he hates Drag Queen Story Hour, too–despite the fact that most kids love dress-up and make-believe. Why are so many Christians of a certain stripe known almost exclusively for what they hate, not what they love? It seems like such a waste of effort that could be used for doing good.
Also, if marriage is between a man and a woman with the purpose of procreation (legitimizing sexual relations, for the jesus-y among us) then WHY DIDN’T GOD MARRY HIS BABY MAMA? Preferably before knocking her up. 😀
Pastor Perry is my father, my brother, my sister and my mother too. He is my aunt and my uncle; my cousins. He has the virus, the same virus that runs strongly through my blood family. The evangelical voice is genuinely human but a generic product, a hymn to Denial, a ‘safe’ place to go rather than face facts. Can one tell the truth without facing facts? Can utterly certain feelings without factual, scientifically proven facts be my truth? Yes, mine but not by any means the real truth.
I so disagree with the Christianite love that is hatred and I so hate the constructed Gawd they use as a Bible hammer.
I just listened to a new interview with Edward Snowden in which he says that we must try to set aside our feelings sometimes and rest in facts, suffer with them, respect reality. (I’m paraphrasing here.)
So it makes me wonder again why I when I was a Christian, submerged myself so deeply in my feelings of being right about God and so callously denied the facts given freely. God’s love is supposedly free. Salvation is free. All that is required is that a biped give up on themselves, state their utter worthlessness and say goodbye to respect for reason, for factual proofs.
As an old gay curmudgeon, I might give the guy a hard time for being an “aspiring yogi”. About as silly as being a gay Christian, in my opinion. But I tried that silliness too, so I’m not one to judge.
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I think and believe as a baby boomer..live and let live..In the end us alone will stand before the lord to be judged..and how is he gonna love me if all i ever showd was hatred for another of his children..Some people believe that one sin is worse than another but its not true in his eyes..And lie is just as bad as murder..LIVE AND LET LIVE…if you dont like someone’s life then dont look into it but pray for each and everyone to see with their hearts open to the fact we are all sinners saved by the GRACE OF GOD…
Cool story, Tami. Needs more dragons.
And please don’t go into law enforcement if you think that lying is just as bad as murder.
Hi there, I’m here to say with a heavy heart that Perry Porter is my stepfather. And he’s actually much worse in person. I’ve heard him say horrible things about gay people and minorities, and if he was a “true” Christian, he wouldn’t be the way he is. He’s simply a horrible man. And to top it all off, I am a queer non-binary person, so imagine growing up and listening to him.
Renn, please accept this big virtual (((hug))). I hope life is good for you, and that you have supportive, accepting people around you now.
Renn, being a queer non binary person with a preacher as a father is very difficult, more that most people can understand. The negative impact can last a very long time. There’s are a lot of us out here.