John Shore

Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, has written a letter to Lois G. Lerner, director of the IRS's Exempt Organizations Division, in which he requests that Ms. Lerner consider that in this sermon Pastor...

You almost feel sorry for Pastor Worley. At the moment I published NC pastor: "Let's put all the queers and lesbians behind electric fences and let them die," the video of Worley preaching that all gay people should be sequestered behind electrical fences and left to die had been...

If you imagine American Christianity as a 1950s city in the Midwest, Biola University would be its Central High. Gigantic (145 academic programs; 95 acres; more than 1 million square feet of building space in 40 major buildings) and long-established (founded in...

Meet Pastor Charles Worley, of Providence Road Baptist Church ("The Home of old time Religion") in Maiden, N.C. In this video excerpt from one of his recent Sunday morning sermons, Pastor Worley offers his thoughtful suggestion for resolving THE debate over gay rights.

The good pastor's idea for "gettin' rid of all the lesbians and queers" is to build "a great big large fence" around all the gay people, electrify it, and then allow the people penned in by the fence to die.

Pffft. And people thought the gay issue would be difficult to solve.

Of course, Pastor Worley, being a man of the cloth, is hardly inured from compassion. He makes this very clear with his suggestion that we "fly over and drop some food" to the masses of imprisoned gay people. So it's not like he wants them to just starve to death. That would be cruel. This is, after all, a Christian leader bound by the love of Jesus, not a morally repugnant, astoundingly ignorant, semi-literate, hate-filled meathead who wouldn't know Jesus Christ from Cujo.

Pastor Worley just wants all gay people to live behind an electric fence until they grow old and die. And who doesn't want to be fed for free until they die of old age? It's like social security -- but with electricity. And less travel. And food falling on your head.

Pastor Worley also wants to separate all the gay men from all the gay women: He wants to keep two separate electrified pens. Because (one assumes) otherwise some of the gay men might sleep with some of the gay women. And we all know what that would mean: gay babies. And then where would it all end? We only have so much money to spend on fences, airplane fuel and food that bounces. So, in this one instance, separate but equal would have to work.

If you have any thoughts or suggestions about his extremely novel social experiment, please do not hesitate to share them with Pastor Worley, at pastor@prbcnc.com. I'm sure he'd be glad to hear from each and every one of you.

After all, if you can't count on Christian pastors to be open to new thoughts and ideas, what good are...

One December day, when I was 7 years old, and alone in our house, I snuck into my parents' bedroom, hauled open their closet door, and found, fresh from the department store, just about every toy I had asked Santa to bring me that upcoming Christmas.

Aghast and transfixed, I...

Anyone remember the Manhattan Declaration, that "call of Christian conscience" released in late 2009 by a coalition of leading conservative Christians? It asked Christians everywhere to "take a principled stand on the three critical moral issues of our time: the sanctity of human life, the dignity of traditional...

As you may already know, there is much controversy swirling around this video of Dan Savage the creator of the It Gets Better Project).

Such headlines as Gay Conservatives Demand Dan Savage Apologize for Anti-Christian Tirade, Christian students walk out as Dan Savage attacks the Bible, Anti-Bully Advocate Dan Savage Bullies High School Kids With Profane Bible Rant, and Rabbi compares Dan Savage's anti-Christian bigotry to Westboro Baptist Church tell the tale.

The controversy is due to Mr. Savage calling bull**** those parts of the Bible that throughout history been used by "Christians" unworthy of the name to justify the Holocaust, condone slavery, oppress women, and victimize gay people.

He was speaking on April 12 to attendees of the National High School Journalism Conference, sponsored by the Journalism Education Association and the National Scholastic Press Association. The four-day conference, featuring over 200 sessions, two keynote speakers (Dan and Jennifer Sizemore), more than a dozen featured speakers, and more events and activities than you can shake a pen at, was titled Journalism on the Edge.

The conference's promo material begins with:

You are already on the Edge. Journalists have always lived on the edge. Deadlines, and the edge of time. Facts, and the edge of truth. Authority, and the edge of free expression. We balance on the edge of legitimate public interest and the interests of those who would rather we not publish.

Just who does this podium-pounding pontificator peddling in people's perplexingly perverse predilections think he is, anyway?

I, for one, have no idea what the world has come to, when a person who has made his career out of speaking, in the most unadorned language possible, directly to great numbers of young people about some of the most important issues in their lives, dares to speak in unadorned language directly to a great number of young people about one of the most important issues in American life today.

Besides the fact that he was raised in a devoutly Catholic home and is the country's leading gay activist, who is Dan Savage to say anything at all about the ages-old Christian condemnation of gay people? So what if his claim is manifestly valid that nothing contributes more to the destruction of the lives of gay people than do Christians falsely and hypocritically using the Bible as an instrument of brutality? So what if he believes that among the most egregious of all Christian sins is daring to proclaim that God's love ends where their own fear and hatred begin? So what if every day, for decades on end, Dan Savage has dealt with young lives obliterated through violence informed and buttressed by the bedrock "Christian" view that gay people are less than human?

So what if any reasonably compassionate person should be expected to vigorously assert that it's time for all Christians to reject using the Bible as a means of justifying the persecution of an entire population whose only "crime" is to prefer to spend their lives with same-sex partners?

Why should any of that matter? What matters is that Dan Savage cursed. He said bull**** not once, but three times.

Three! That's one more than two! Which is two too many!

You know, it's almost like the people who put on this conference, as well as a small but now (thanks, media machine!) significant number of individuals who attended it, don't even know what the word "journalism" means.

Well, thank you, young people who walked out of Dan's speech the moment he began talking about the parts of the Bible to which he takes exception, for reminding us of what beats so passionately in the heart and soul of every true journalist. Speaking as a person who for twelve years made his living as a journalist, I admire your dedication to the journalist's creed: When you personally disagree with something someone is saying, get up and leave.

If that's not what Jesus meant by, "The truth shall set you free," I can't imagine what he did mean.

P.S. What immediately become a meme amongst Dan's critics is that those who walked out of his talk felt bullied by him. But that's impossible. People get bullied because of who they are: how they look and act, what they say and do. Perceived as being in some critical way weak or lacking, victims of bullies are selected for persecution; they are pulled from the pack before being pointedly and repeatedly victimized. The people who walked out during Dan's talk were not separated from their peers by anyone. They were content to do that themselves. They were not frightened or cowed. They were offended. They felt that by disparaging what amounts to their God, Dan had transgressed beyond their capacity for toleration. And they were pleased to show their intolerance of Dan's words by protesting against them in the manner they did. Theirs was not an act born of suffering. It was a proud show of...

Got this in last night:

Dear John,

I'm having a spiritual problem right now that I hope you can advise me on.

Through a community services agency, our family does respite care for Tim, a boy with special needs. Respite care means that we take care of Tim so...

In the April 4 New York Times I found the article "Gay Rights Bill Appears to Fail in Anchorage." I also found waiting for me an email from one of my blog's followers in Anchorage, asking me to pen a word...

God does not ask us to choose between compassion and faith in the Bible.

Christians are increasingly divided over the issue of the acceptance and inclusion of gay persons into the church. The debate itself is usually framed as essentially pitting the Bible, on one hand, against compassion and social...

So here's a letter I got in:

I'm a 61-year-old gay man who is still pretty much in the closet. I've very selectively come out to a few friends over the years, and, of course, to my gay friends. But I just can't seem to build up momentum to come...

Yesterday evening I received this email:

Hey John. We talked on Facebook chat a few weeks ago. I'm the queer polyamorous American girl living in Ireland for the time being. I just had a question for you. How/why do you still hold onto your faith in Jesus? I'm dating three...

All movies---and especially children's movies---have a primary message: good is rewarded; be true to who you are; follow your heart; wishes are good; visit Disneyland ... whatever. But it's always there, and it's always obvious.

The primary, overt, not-even-slightly-subtle message of the deplorable movie Hop, out on DVD March 23, is that the very idea of Hispanics succeeding is a joke.

The star of Hop is a rambunctious young drummer bunny named E.B.---short for Easter Bunny. E.B.'s elderly father, Mr. Bunny, Sr., is the Easter Bunny. He oversees a vast candy factory (that, judging from the mountains of Kisses it produces, is heavily subsidized by the Hershey Company). On Easter every year, Mr. Bunny delivers the factory's Kisses and colored eggs to children all over the world. (Although, he pointedly notes, "We haven't cracked China yet." Because nothing says children's movie like the theme of economic and cultural imperialism.)

Mr. Bunny's factory is run by Carlos, whose name and heavy accent leave no doubt that he is Hispanic. Like Carlos, the legions of workers at the factory are yellow chicks. Carlos, however, is a good deal less cute than the chicks he oversees. He is twice as tall as they. And while they are fluffy balls of adorableness, Carlos is simply out-of-shape fat. But the main difference between Carlos and his workers is that they are all wide-eyed, childlike simpletons, while Carlos is conniving, evil, and violent.

When young E.B. goes missing (he runs away to Hollywood in a failed attempt to find a decent plot to this movie), Carlos, back at the plant, decides to finally reveal to Mr. Bunny, Sr. his passionate, long held desire to be---or at least perform the functions of---the Easter Bunny. Donning rabbit ears to help Mr. Bunny envision him in the role, he makes an ironclad case for why should be the proxy Easter Bunny: he's been Mr. Bunny's dependable right-hand man for years on end; and he knows the business inside-out (as opposed to E.B., who has never shown any interest whatsoever in the job he was born to inherit).

Carlos is clearly the man for the job. And Mr. Bunny does, after all, need someone to step in and deliver the candy. He's grown too old to do it himself; this is the year that E.B. was supposed to take over. But E.B. had disappeared.

"Why not me?" asks Carlos. "I can do it! I'm ready!"

The idea of Carlos filling in as the Easter Bunny strikes the father as so outlandish that it makes him laugh in Carlos' face. As, still chuckling, he walks away, a foreboding shadow fall across Carlos' face. Now, for the first time, evil Carlos emerges.

"Yeah, see you later," he murmurs angrily. "Enjoy your life of privilege."

And suddenly this children's movie, in no uncertain terms, is about racism and class warfare. We are given virtually no reason for Carlos being summarily refused the job for which he is clearly qualified: it can only be because he's Hispanic. We know it's not because he's not a rabbit: when out of nowhere the young white man in the movie decides that he wants to be the Easter Bunny, Mr. Bunny, Sr.---knowing full well the guy knows absolutely nothing about the job---bestows upon him the title and function of co-Easter Bunny.

Dedicated, hard-working, fully knowledgeable, vastly experienced Hispanic? Absolutely not.

White guy with no knowledge or experience? Yes, yes, yes.

That's the message of his shameful movie: if you're born privileged, or white, you can easily go straight to the top. But if you are unfortunate enough to be born Hispanic, then you can do the work, and you can supervise lots of others of your type---but, for you, that's where it stops. If you kowtow and keep your place you might make it to second place. But first place will always be denied you---and you will never be told exactly why.

When it first came out, my wife and I saw Hop at the movies. A Mexican couple and their little girl were sitting directly behind us. Before the movie began, the three of them were happily chatting, excited and eager to see the show.

When the movie ended, and the lights came up, not one of the three uttered a single word as they gathered their stuff to leave. Heads down, they rose and slowly filed out of their seats like they were leaving a funeral.

What had that little girl just learned?

Mark Cassello, assistant professor of English at Calumet College of St. Joseph, has written a great piece about this movie. He has also launched a Facebook events page, ¡Stop Hop! Protect Children from the Racism of Hop!, which I urge you to join. Please share that page across your social media, and encourage others to also join it. (Twitter hashtag #StopHop.) This movie is just too toxic to allow for business as...

As you may have heard, Marcel Guarnizo, the priest who denied Barbara Johnson communion at her mother's funeral, has been barred from ministry.

Yay! Justice is served! Whoo-hoo!

The announcement letter from the Washington archdiocese said that Guarnizo was placed on leave...

Meet (awesomely named) Dawn Hawkins. She is executive director of Morality in Media, which (according to its website) is "the leading national organization opposing pornography and indecency through public education and the application of the law."

As Dawn recounts in the...

We humans are driven by the imperative to procreate. As spiritual, philosophical, intellectual, and creative as we are, in the end we must, and will, have sex. In the end. See?! Right there! It's like it's all we can think about. Stupid pulsating gonads. Anyway, eight seconds spent people watching...

By now you've likely heard the story of how this past Saturday morning, at Saint John Neumann Catholic Church in Maryland, Barbara Johnson was denied holy communion by the priest officiating at the funeral of her beloved mother.

At the crucial, deeply personal moment in the Mass when Barbara,...

In the comments on a recent piece of mine, "If no one's being hurt, God's okay with your sexuality," a woman wrote to share that she is polyamorous -- specifically meaning, in her case, that she is (as I learned) living with, in love with, deeply committed to, and...

Our friends at Believe Out Loud want you to know of the virtual thank-you card for which they're currently collecting signatures. Titled "Thank Starbucks for Welcoming LGBT Marriages," the card sends thanks to Starbucks for its recent decision to join more...

As you may know, this past summer the Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) decided to allow the ordination of gay clergy.

Yesterday, a new Presbyterian denomination was born: the Evangelical Covenant Order of Presbyterians -- or, for short, ECO.

ECO was formed by pastors...