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 at Southern Baptist Convention Crowds Give Standing Ovation and "Amens" to Famed Bigot Advertisers Avoiding Ex-Green Bay Packer's Endorsements |
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By Jack Nichols
Atlanta, Georgia—Reggie White, former Green Bay Packer and a persistent promoter
of "religious" anti-gay hate messages, got a standing ovation here last week while
addressing the Southern Baptist Convention.
Under the Georgia Dome, White was given a welcome reserved for heroes by a "Christian" denomination that once heartily sanctioned slavery and based its support for slavery on Biblical texts. "We love you Reggie," shouted Baptists of both sexes, while the burly one-time footballer-turned –ordained-Baptist-minister responded, oddly, by addressing only members of his own sex: "I love you guys too."
Kunst added, "If Reggie White needs tips on how to walk, talk, and look just like Anita, I'd be glad to be his dramatics coach. And I know just the store where he can dispose of those ugly football booties of his to slip into a nice pair of lavender high heels." Kunst joked that White had once been notorious as a Green Bay 'Fudge' Packer. White's appearance at the Baptist Convention was part of a campaign to convert African Americans to the Southern cult. The denomination's history as a foremost oppressor of blacks, however, has resulted in widespread skepticism among those who are unwilling to forgive its 19th century crusades against them. Walter Bell, a gay representative appearing June 15 on CNN's Talk Back Live, commented on a Convention delegate's anti-gay tirades. "I think it's funny," he said, "that this is the same group that, many years ago would have been speaking up against blacks going into white churches. You know, they have been wrong before, and they're wrong again now." Addressing the Convention delegates, Reggie White reported that he and the Rev. Jerry Falwell had been quoted in USA Today as critical of gay "lifestyles." White exclaimed, "I've never been critical of gay lifestyles. I've only proclaimed what God has said about it." The Southern Baptist crowd applauded wildly. Reading a passage from the book of Leviticus, an often-quoted passage reputed to condemn same-sex lovemaking, White repeated: " `Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman' and "Let me repeat that again for some here with the media. God said it, not Reggie White." White also criticized the media for failing to take seriously bogus religious therapy "cures" for homosexuality promoted by "Ex-Gay" groups that are run by Southern Baptists and other religious fundamentalists. "Three weeks ago, a young man came to me and said God had brought him out of this sinful [gay] lifestyle," he claimed. Such therapy "cures" have been denounced and dangerous and fraudulent by the American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychological Association and the American Psychoanalytic Association. |
