Posted by:
blindguy
(
)
Date: October 18, 2023 01:21PM
This may, or may not, become a small series for me, but I was taken by both the stupidity and arrogance of pastor Greg Locke in the article linked to below.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/10/17/2200004/-MAGA-pastor-whines-about-accessible-parking-at-church-says-the-wheelchair-bound-should-just-walk?detail=emaildkre&pm_source=DKRE&pm_medium=emailBefore I get into what the good(?) pastor said, I was *very* impressed by the intelligence of the first paragraph by the writer of this piece; to wit:
"Many American atheists are ex-Christians. They moved on from belief and religion because they found no evidence for God’s existence — and being told to
have faith without proof was unsatisfactory. In some cases, the embrace of reason resulted from the sadism of the pastor. They found it hard to square
Jesus’ fundamental message of compassion for all, with the flint-hearted dismissal of LGBTQ, foreigners, other religions, women with careers, and Democrats."
The first sentence of the above paragraph is an absolutely logical reason to have become an atheist, but many of the religious either completely miss the point or ignore it altogether. Anyway, here is pastor Locke's latest buffoonery, courtesy of yesterday's sermon:
block quote
"Churches in the American culture — you know one of the largest expenses we have in buildings? The amount of handicap parking and handicap accessibility
that we have in our churches. Now I'm gonna make you mad for a minute and I don't really care. Why is it you pull up to a church that says they operate
in faith, and you have fifty handicapped parking spots?"
block quote end
And there's more.
block quote
“Anybody lay hands on them handicapped folks yet? I don't care what Twitter says. You can get mad all you want to. Fold your arms. Stick your lips out.
Poot [sic] your mouth. I don't care. I’m so unafraid of what anybody in this tent thinks about me, right now in my life, I could care less.*
block quote end
Would an intelligent disabled Christian wish to hear anymore? But Mr. Locke goes on:
block quote
“We just expect that people are going to leave church the same way they came to church. We ought to have some signs out there, that don't have like handicap
accessibility … people in a wheelchair. We want to have signs of a wheelchair laying down and someone just walking up.” [The audience cheers].
[Locke then pretends to be a heckler] “Well pastor, you are just being insensitive.”
[Locke then replies to the imaginary heckler] “I think you just don't have any faith is what I think!"
block quote end
I very much agree with the writer's comments below pastor Locke's remarks--having faith does not cure permanent physical disabilities. Need proof? Just ask wheelchair-bound (and very fundamentalist Christian) Joni Earickson Tada.
The writer goes on to list some of the other moronic stuff this pastor has done (I won't list it here) and it is all certainly cringeworthy.