Take That Dead Gay Sailor Somewhere Else
Relatives of a gay Navy veteran who died say they are upset that a megachurch led by Joel Osteen’s brother-in-law canceled his memorial service 24 hours before it was to start.
Officials at the nondenominational High Point Church knew that Cecil Howard Sinclair was gay when they offered to host his service but no one hinted of problems while planning it, said his sister, Kathleen Wright.
“But when the obituary came out in the paper and listed his life partner as one of the survivors, I truly believe the big-pocket parishioners called the church and said, ‘Why are you having a funeral for a gay person?’” Wright said Friday. “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.’”
I understand it’s the church’s right. I really do. But my parents go to a church like this, and I’m not even a veteran. I hope I get better treatment.
Once again, it’s always nice to be reminded exactly where you belong.
Bury him kneeling and mourners will have a place to park their bikes….
hairybeast
August 11, 2007 at 8:08 pm
Huh?
Sorry, THB, I usually get your humor but that one went right over my head. Care to explain?
Andre the Defiant
August 11, 2007 at 8:12 pm
No just had a benny hill flashback. Carry on…
hairybeast
August 11, 2007 at 8:14 pm
Sorry, THB, but to me, this is not a joke. It’s my life. Just when I think I am use to the dead friends, the baseball bat wielding thugs, and the AFA claiming that I am somehow a child molestor, Destiny throws a change-up, and I get called out looking.
Andre the Defiant
August 11, 2007 at 8:19 pm
well its saturday night. Serious stuff is for monday. And Neil Gaiman is sooo…pseudo Harlan Ellison/Jung/Tim Powers at the Archetypal Flea Market.
hairybeast
August 11, 2007 at 8:23 pm
Pppppppbbbbbbttthhhhhhh……
Gaiman Rocks! Got his autograph on my Doll’s House book at Comic-Con!
Wait, we’ve done this before. (And suddenly I feel a bit better… good work, OLD MAN)
Andre the Defiant
August 11, 2007 at 8:26 pm
Gaiman’s a hack but if he makes you feel better – thats cool.
Personal slurs are wasted on the Beast – he is the Deconstructed Man.
(chuckle)
hairybeast
August 11, 2007 at 8:30 pm
I must admit that I bought it, but haven’t read it yet. (And it wasn’t easy to find)
Andre the Defiant
August 11, 2007 at 8:32 pm
The Beast is doing “The Hyperion Series” series right now. Good stuff. Waiting for Neal Stephenson to put out his next 3000 page novel too.
hairybeast
August 11, 2007 at 8:34 pm
Via that comment, somehow I am now picturing one of my favorite movies… Wonder Boys.
Gonna go watch it now. Night all.
BTW, Speaking of long novels, just don’t bring up that HACK Robert Jordan… FUCK I HATE HIM. My ex made me read book after book after book (”you’ll get it soon”)… Isn’t he dead yet?
Andre the Defiant
August 11, 2007 at 8:39 pm
Hell, that was quite a tangent for a link I almost didn’t include.
Andre the Defiant
August 11, 2007 at 8:41 pm
“[The church Pastor, Gary] Simons said the church believes homosexuality is a sin, but it would have appeared to endorse that lifestyle if the service had been held there.”
I’d like for some others to enlighten me on this. So gay people aren’t supposed to have funerals when they die? Or they can have them, but only in an alley or a strip-mall parking lot if they can find one? This is just the latest in a long list of absolutely indefensible lunancy on the part of the evangelical Christian movement.
And yes, I mean the movement as a whole. Evangelical Christianity is rotting from the inside. I’m tired of always being told how unfair it is that I tar the whole belief system based on the actions of a small few. Of the scores of examples I have posted and addressed, I’ll admit many of them have been limited to only a portion of the larger body (like some of Robertson’s or Falwell’s excesses, or the occasional parent trying to get the school play shut down). But if the larger voices in Evangelical Christianity would take a clear stand against these things, they wouldn’t be tarred with that brush. The fact is that much of the conservative Christian world is composed of two types of people: 1) those who are unhinged lunatics and who are more judging and hating than the average non-Christian, and 2)those who are either secretly rooting for the lunatics or are too gutless to say they oppose them.
But on the issue of Andre’s post above, my charge sticks even easier. Because as far as I know, almost all conservative Christian churches have this barbaric policy of denying the familes of gays the right to mourn – to mourn! – in their precious fricking building.
Can’t the zealots on this site see that your larger church is something close to nuts, and nowhere at all close to the spirit Jesus exhibit in his life? Because if you think that Jesus of Nazareth would have repsonded to a request to perform a funeral by first asking if the deceased was pure enough to warrant his services, then your reading comprehension is worse than David Rees’s. I’ve got news for Rev. Simons, and for that matter, any of the smug, smiling preachers heading up the tapestry of Evangelical churches: Any simpleton who has read the Gospels could tell you that Jesus would never have been so crass, though I am quite certain that he would have rebuked anyone fool enough to suggest such a notion.
Finally, let me say that as an American I am upset by the fact that this church has turned its back on a veteran of the United States Armed Forces. We are a nation at war, and when this war suits their interests (most of these churches are rah-rah about the military), they gladly play it up. But apparently in the Evangelical church today, hatred for homosexuality trumps love of country.
Indeed, to paraphrase the Defiant One, it’s good to know where things stand.
DFV the Scribe
August 11, 2007 at 10:33 pm
My aunt and uncle were missionaries. They taught indigenous people who had no electricity how they could cook without filling their home with smoke, and how to create wells for fresh water. My cousin is also a missionary and in seminary. I have nothing but respect for them. They devote their lives to helping oppressed people around the world who have nothing. When I visited my cousin, I noticed that the people there are constantly focused on service. They have deep beliefs in helping people of all kinds around the world, even those who disagree with them. But when it comes to their own country, it seems almost like they are unable to see the same way, many see only hate and persecution. They want to eliminate or marginalize all those in this country that disagree with them.
Hate was never a Christian virtue, and love was never meant to be conditional.
Wes
August 12, 2007 at 12:37 am
As usual the Scribe derides evangelicals for painting with a broad brush. His reaction is always to grab that same broad brush and do some painting of his own. I would love to see statistics on how many dead gay guys have been denied a funeral by those terrible and mean Christians. One guy in one church makes a bad decision and the whole faith is “rotting from the inside?”
Much of what the Scribe is saying is correct but his need to continually get on a high horse and preach about how terrible evangelicals are to the poor and helpless gay community is old.
And then I almost vomited when I read the close of his comment:
“Indeed, to paraphrase the Defiant One, it’s good to know where things stand.”
Spare me the self-important, gay community advocate bullshit.
E the Wise
August 12, 2007 at 8:11 am
The whole church has been so focused on sexual issues, though. Seems like that’s been a primary focus as long as I can remember. Homosexuality, abortion, the media, all of these issues have a great deal to do with sex, which is one of the smallest issues in there. If someone gets married to another man, they are banned and outcasts. If someone gets remarried, they’re welcome back with open arms. Hell, they can even get remarried in a church! Both are sins, both are expressly considered as such but only one will be consistently and thoroughly shunned.
Wes
August 12, 2007 at 10:05 am
E, do you know what your church’s policy is on funerals for gays?
DFV the Scribe
August 12, 2007 at 12:11 pm
No, I have no clue. You?
E the Wise
August 12, 2007 at 3:52 pm
DFV can also “spare me the self-important, gay community advocate bullshit” as well. The Scribes private war on those who actually seek to follow the teachings of Christ and the apostles is questionable and strange at the same time. The Bible strongly comdemns homosexuality in both the old and the new testament and refers to heterosexuality as the normal and proper course for people to engage in both intimacy and sexual activity. You don’t have to like it and you don’t have to follow or practice it. But to act like evangelicals are just making crap up is ridiculous. Bible believing Christians attempt to follow what they believe to be the word of God. And make no mistake, the Bible is very very clear on homosexuality, adultery, and a host of other detrimental and sinful lifestyle mindsets, choices and indulgences. I believe many churches would not allow a funeral that praised homosexuality any more than if one was planned to praise a man who was a serial adulterer. There are minimum standards of social and moral behavior and when a society and culture abandons them we end up with a manufactured ‘outrage of the week’ like this one.
Dave the Infidel Sage
August 12, 2007 at 10:22 pm
“Bible believing Christians attempt to follow what they believe to be the word of God.
I humbly submit that this is complete bullshit, and nothing more than a mere social construction. I also stand by my assertion that Jesus never would have been anywhere near as legalistic and dogmatic as you if he were asked to perform a funeral today. But then, Jesus never had the benefit of being indoctrinated into the corrosive world of the politicized and self-righteous land of contemporary American Evangelical Christianity. Maybe if he had been, he’d have had your back. Or maybe he’d have turned over your tables by now. We can debate that point. Or am I eliminated from the conversation because I don’t belong to a church?
DFV the Scribe
August 12, 2007 at 11:37 pm
[...] In Arlington, Texas, a megachurch called HighPoint was to conduct a funeral for a fallen veteran named Cecil Howard Sinclair. [...]
You Were Gay? No Christian Funeral For You. » Ronalfy.com
August 15, 2007 at 4:07 am