So sad. News has been circulating the past couple days of the suicide of eighth grader Phillip Parker from Gordonsville, Tennessee:
A Gordonsville boy’s parents say bullying caused their son to take his own life. Phillip Parker, 14, died this week. His parents said he was constantly bullied for being gay.
More than 100 people gathered in Gordonsville on Saturday night, grieving the loss of Phillip.
“He was fun, he was energetic, he was happy,” said Gena Parker, Phillip’s mother.
To his many friends, Phillip was known as the boy who told everyone they’re beautiful.
“He kept telling me he had a rock on his chest,” said Ruby Harris, Phillip’s grandmother. “He just wanted to take the rock off where he could breathe.”
Phillip’s family said they reported their concerns over their son’s bullying to Gordonsville High School on multiple occasions, but the bullying by a group of students just got worse.
Like many kids who are bullied, it seems that Phillip did his best to shoulder the burden alone, so his family didn’t really know the extent of what he was going through. This past weekend, representatives from the Tennessee Equality Project met some current and former teachers at Phillip’s school, and what they found was sadly unexpected. The bullying in school was systemic, and on top of that, Phillip heard religious bullying from pastors, and presumably from fellow churchgoers:
While attending Saturday’s conference, H.G. Stovall and I met a former teacher who knew Phillip while he attended Gordonsville Elementary School. Tears flowed as she told us that Philip had endured years of anti-gay bullying at the school and that bullying in general at Gordonsville Elementary School often goes unaddressed by faculty and staff. She knew of several students who had to transfer to other schools to escape the harassment. This educator also knew Phillip had endured anti-gay preaching from the pulpit of his church.
[...]
We were able to speak to one of Phillip’s teachers. Sadly, she confirmed the same stories we had heard the day before about Philip’s experience at school and at church. She recalled learning that his pastor had recently told him to “pray the devil out him, so he could be straight.” His teacher also remembered that beneath his inner turmoil Philip was always smiling and would often tell his peers how beautiful they were.
For a while now, I’ve been making the point, probably at least once a week, that the message of the Religious Right to LGBT people IS bullying, and it’s not just the icing on the cake. Without the messages coming from the pulpit and from other adults who unfortunately command respect, kids in the schoolyard wouldn’t automatically equate “gay” with “bad,” and wouldn’t feel such a license to make another child’s life a living hell over their sexuality. Sure, kids will always be kids, and no anti-bullying program will eliminate all schoolyard taunts. But the sooner we make the solid connection, as a society, that the kind of bullying that causes gay and questioning kids to feel such despair that they end their young lives, comes directly from adult bullies like the pastor who urged Phillip to “pray away the gay” [to think that people think we're being hyperbolic when we use that phrase...], the sooner we’ll reach a time when I won’t have to write articles about kids killing themselves every damned week.
I feel bad for his parents, *but*, they were the ones who were driving this kids to that so called church every week and heard the same hateful ignorant b******t that he did. His parents said, ‘he was constantly being bullied for being gay’; so they didn’t make the connection between what they were hearing in church and what their son was going through in school?! I’m sorry, but if that was the case, they were complicit in his bullying and suicide.
I always “introduce” myself as a straight senior citizen who was gay friendly since I knew what “gay” was. (In my day it was call awful things!)
I tear-up at these stories. Mark Twain said, “Politicians and diapers have to be changed often….and for the same reason.” I think the same goes for school boards! “First God created idots….That was for practice….Then he created school boards!” (Mark Twain)
People, we’ve got stop the HATE! I’m not all that computer savy to make a website. Can someone out there create a site that will give children hope? They need our support BEFORE something like this happens. I would love to “talk” to these kids and give them some hope.
The ChrisTaliban just don’t care about the real Christian message. Their motto is “hate one another as I hate you.”
Thin-lipped, judgmental, hate-filled, hypocritical, dishonest, cruel, vicious, nasty.
But the first commentator was right. Why go on attending that hate-filled church. Find somewhere else which put into practice real Christianity: God is Love.
@Nick and Gary: I understand where you’re coming from, but I think, sadly, that those messages are just so common in churches, and when people who aren’t gay or haven’t dealt with that hear them, they just might not notice how serious it is. I see both sides here, but I know that, though my own parents weren’t particularly overtly homophobic in my upbringing, I heard those messages loud and clear in church.
I am a proud parent of a gay son how was bullied exstensively at Upperman High School in Baxter, Tn. approximately three years ago. This drove him very close to the end, it was troubleson and discusting to try to make school officals understand what he was going through. One day it hit us (both parents) like ton of bricks all this BULLYING begins with the bias opinion that the state has against gays, by haveing Laws that are unconstitutional and bas against this group of people. ie: The Do Not Say Gay BIll. This would have been a step in the right direction if this was not allowed into law. If not allowed it would have forced the state to EDUCATE its people about gays. Education is the best weapon to quell the bullying of the unaknowledged people in this state. It would also educate the ignorant and unwilling of this supposed cleansed religious state of an issue that is not going to go away by ignoring it, so accept defeat and inbrace the education and learn. The religious groups in this state also need to learn to do there Lords work and not judge there Lords work. I blame the state of Tn. on its resistance to educate itself and its people about the gay issue. That really isn’t an issue at all. I would be more concerned of the Beastialitty, Insest and Unethical treatment of woman. Our CONDOLENCES and LOVE.
That jerk Rev. Robert Jeffress of First Baptist Dallas has just published a book called ‘Twilight’s Last Gleaming’ & he is preaching from it every week. He is a bigoted homophobe. He blames the ‘collapse’ of (his) America on three things, 1.) taking prayer out of school, 2.)abortion, and 3.)homosexuality. S’posedly just our existence is ‘ending the world’. He’ll be preaching on that part of the book of Daystar TV in two weeks or so. It is awful. Someone needs to tell these idiots that THEY are causing the suicide deaths of kids, that THEY are the bullies in the name of God.
Romans 12:9 NIV
[Love] Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.
As a Christian I am truly sorry for what this young man went through and what his parents and family are going through now. But with that said we as Christians are suppose to hate evil, homosexuality or any form of sexual immorality, and cling to good. It is best said this way, love the sinner, the person, but hate the sin (what ever goes against God’s word).
We are not the first society that has had to deal with sexual immorality and the effects it has on our society. In 1 Corinthians, Paul, wrote the church dealing with many of the same things. They were forsaking the plan God has for or sexual lives. Paul wrote:
1 Corinthians 6:18 NIV
Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body.
Jesus himself even put sexual immorality with the most serious crimes:
Matthew 15:19-20a
19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. 20 These are what make a man ‘unclean.
As a Christian it isn’t my job to judge, and it is my job to love on all people. But to ignore homosexuality, pornography, abortion, or any other sin we are no longer living for Christ we are living for self.
Finally I will close with this:
1 Corinthians 6:12 NIV
[Sexual Immorality] “Everything is permissible for me”–but not everything is beneficial. “Everything is permissible for me”–but I will not be mastered by anything.
You can justify all sins by saying it is natural or God wouldn’t give me these desires if it wasn’t ok. But, just because you can do it doesn’t mean you should. All sin breaks Gods heart and seperates us from Him and without repentance we will be eternally seperated from him.
Read Luke 16:19-31
19 There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day: 20 And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores, 21 And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. 22 And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; 23 And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. 24 And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame. 25 But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. 26 And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence. 27 Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father’s house: 28 For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. 29 Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. 30 And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. 31 And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.
Again I am truly sorry for what happened to this young man and my prayers are with the family.
I just have to love how you good Christians are always telling us that You love us, that you’re not judging us, you’re just reporting gods word.
Just so we’re clear and queer, YOU ARE JUDGING. Else, why would you be here to tell about our sins?
You don’t give a small goddam about gods word, only the parts that you don’t think apply to you. It’s so easy to tell other people all about there sins if you have no intention of committing them– but especially if you do.
Exactly what part of Jesus– you know, the guy you keep quoting all of the time– commandments not to judge there, not to concern yourself with other peoples sins until you have achieved sinless ness, does not apply to a bible believing Christian such as yourself.
Funny, Jesus said nothing about homosexuality, but was quite clear about divorce. But I suspect you’re not writing to newt Gingrich about his morality issues, are you?
You know what I really love about a certain class of Christian? Your belief that when Jesus said ?scribes. Pharisees, hypocrites”, he wasn’t talking to you.
Cale
“All sin breaks Gods heart” – then why does God allow us to be born as sinners (as I was taught in Southern Baptist Sunday school) if he hates sin so much?
And define sexual immorality. In http://theresurgence.com/books/porn_again_christian/ch5, Mark Driscoll, an evangelical pastor, says that oral sex ( Song of Solomon 2:3; 4:12) between husbands and wives is okay. Yet many other fundamentalists decry this as immoral!
What would be immoral for ME is to have intercourse with women because I am not sexually attracted to them.
And by the way, Cale, the president of Exodus, the leading Christian ex-gay ministry, said recently that he has met MAYBE 1 person out of a thousand who is completely no longer attracted to the same sex. Looks like celibacy – or living a lie, being married to someone you’re not sexually attracted to – are the only two options.
Cale, you are an evil bigot. There, I said it. You may be a ‘good Christian’ but you are EVIL when you tell a gay kid that he is going to Hell and is deceived by Satan. I think the pastor in Tenn. who ‘counseled’ Philip Parker should be held responsible for his death. (Just as John MacArthur was sued for his part in a church member’s suicide). And while we’re at it, Cale, YOU are responsible for this kid’s death too. The people who wrote the Bible said a lotta crap dictated by their own prejudices and you are merely mouthing them along with a number of silly cliches. You are what is evil, Cale, so talk that over with God before you come on this site chastising us over our God-given orientation.
Cale,
I was a victim of bullying and I’ll tell you something, you never fully get over it.
I left school more than thirty years ago, and even now I find it hard to socialise because I’m frightened of speaking up in case I’m mocked, I have flashbacks and sometimes wake up crying and thankful I don’t have to go to school.
It has definitely made me into a misanthrope, seeing bad in every motive till I am shown otherwise.
The worst of the bullying ended by the time I was twelve maybe because my Mum went to the school and threatened the headmistress with a lawsuit if she didn’t stop it. The headmistress couldn’t see what was wrong, she said it was character building for a girl to have her flaws pointed out to her. Such was the mid 1970s treatment of the bullying problem.
I survived, because I was given unconditional love by those who cared for my, my Mum, grandparents, and I had a few friends who didn’t automatically line up behind the bullies, too the risk of allowing me to join their games.
Some kids can’t take it. Being persecuted every day, day in, day out, for being who they are. I was picked on because I am disabled, some kids because they are gay, and it gets so bad that being dead is a better option than facing their tormentors every day.
And what is the kind, caring, loving answer to this problem from you and your kind?
Not, oh, we must do something to end the scourge of bullying, maybe teaching kids to understand and accept difference.
But no, it’s I’m sorry he’s dead, but he was a sinner. I’ll pray for him.
Having read what I’ve written I’m sure you will take this in the spirit it is given;
Take your ‘love’ and ‘prayers’ and stick ‘em up your arse and do the shimmy shake.
From,
A kid who survived.
(Mr Besen et al, if you want to delete this you can, I just had to get it out of my system.)
Crocodile tears Cale? One short line of ‘Gee I’m sorry this happened BUT…’ and then paragraph after paragraph of the same crap that this poor kid must have heard OVER AND OVER AGAIN!
You are a poor example of Christianity. No one here is buying your ‘witness’.
f**k you, Cale.
Prick.
I truly am sorry for what happened to this family and I am not condoning bullying. And I am not saying that I am perfect. I am much like Paul in that I am chief amongst sinners. But to say that a gods word is what caused this boys death isn’t the truth. Yes it was very wrong in the fact that the bullying happened, that is not the love of christ. And yes it is very wrong if the school turned its back on the situation. But yes Jesus does speak against homosexuality and many other sexual perversions when he speaks against sexual immorality. But these are the things he was persecuted against and why he was nailed to the cross because he spoke the truth.
And the truth is, if you area born again believer then you strive not to sin even though we fail, usually on a daily basis, that is to be our heart.
1 John 3:4-11
4 Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law. 5 And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin. 6 Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him.
7 Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous. 8 He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. 9 Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.
10 In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother. 11 For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.
If I didn’t care I would say nothing. The truth is we all have sinned and are deserving of hell. Me especially. But through Christ we are saved.
“Jesus does speak against homosexuality and many other sexual perversions when he speaks against sexual immorality.’
Really?
Honey, that’s just your very uninformed opinion. nothing in the bible says that.
And this: “The truth is we all have sinned and are deserving of hell. Me especially. ”
I would suggest you read my first post. Since you have not achieved a state of sinlessness, what the hell are you doing here, telling OTHER people what they need to do? You dont have the time. you have sins to atone for.
Lots of them. Maybe you should read your bible a little more.
Or, as Gandalf put it so succinctly: “Bring me someone with less lore and more wisdom!”
Cale
What exactly is your purpose here? I’m curious.
Who are you trying to reach, by posting on an article about an LGBT teen suicide? His parents? No. His bullies? No. HIM? No.
If you think your words will somehow enlighten those of us reading this post and mourning and empathizing the loss of another shining life, you are truly mistaken. Your words are falling on deaf ears due, in large part, to your poor choice of timing and venue. You succeed in nothing more than appearing callous and judgmental. Whether your intention or not, the very existence of your comments at this time implies somehow, in some way, in your mind, Philip was at least partially responsible because (in your opinion) he was a “sinner.”
So what’s your purpose?
At the very least do you not find it tasteless to choose this particular article to make your opinion known on the larger subject of your religious views on homosexuality?
There is no genuine sympathy, empathy, or even compassion in your posting and your thoughtless timing, and for that you should be ashamed.
Cale,
If you are truly sorry for what happened in this, and every other case of suicide due to bullying, and do not condone bullying, just answer this;
You say you are the chief of sinners. I don’t know what you class as ‘sin’ in your life but supposed whatever it was which is on your mind, was also visible.
Suppose every time you went to a certain building that ‘sin’ ‘difference’ was picked on, and your peers imitated the way you talked or walked or every time you spoke they scoffed at you.
Or threatened to hit you because of your ‘difference’ or even hit you.
Stole small items from you to laugh at then destroy. Just because of this thing that made you stand out.
Suppose this went on day in day out. Suppose you had had enough and being dead was the only way out.
Now pretend this was the fate of someone you loved the best, and at their funeral someone like you came up to you and said;
“I loved him and I’m sorry he is dead and don’t condone what the bullies who drove him to it did, but what he did was wrong.”
Just think what effect it would have on your family and every right thinking human being.
Cale, why is it that you Christians feel it is your right and duty to only focus on others’ sins and not your f*****g own. Yes, you feel sorry for what happened but it is a f*****g Christian’s duty to hound, harass, demean, degrade, humiliate, shame, and, if possible, drive a vulnerable young man to kill himself. No, your devotion to God is to adhere to his demands for yourself, not drive others to despair. I love how you all claim to want to emulate the life of Jesus, but he had kindness that clowns and cowards like you will never know.
Isn’t there something said by Jesus that you should look into your own eye. I don’t know the exact quote, but I sure understand it’s meaning, unlike people like you. I took note that after your apology, you went on to defend your fellow Christians with your holier-than-thou Christian directives. People like you stink of self-righteousness – stink like a cesspool.
Cale, you are definitely out to lunch. All you are doing is repeating fundamentalist cliches, Paul says this or Paul says that. Paul (or someone) said that homosexuals were like murderers. I got news for you Cale, that is not true. Your book is not inerrant & what with that being the fact, you are merely bullying us with your arrogance & self-righteousness. Only a bully spends his or her time calling others ‘sinners’ and then disingenuously say you are a ‘sinner’. Get off the christianese god talk, drop the holy cliches, and get educated.
Cale, you need a better quality of denomination. You are obviously still a member of one of the inferior forms of Christianity, and still adhere to a discredited form or literalism/fundmentalism.
Find a church where you can get a complete theological education, such as the Episcopal Church, The Lutherans, The Presbyterian Church or the United Church of Christ. Each of these centuries old denominations have the best seminaries in the United States, the best theologians, scholars, and masters of Biblical knowledge, and EACH of their denominations welcomes Gay people as members, and as pastors.
Raise your standards, and know THIS, you have NOTHING to teach us. Period. Understood?
And know this, inferior and failed forms of Christianity like the one you practice are the reason that this young man is dead. No arguments, no discussion, it’s just a fact, plain and simple.
When you are ready to apologize to us, please do so.
Till then, stop embarassing the faith, and humiliating yourself.
Cale, only you and people like you, who are complicit in Phillip’s death, are ‘deserving of hell’; you know, the same one you and your sick, twisted, *unchristlike* version of Christianity had put him (and many of the rest of us) through regularly during our school years. And you’re full of it when you say ‘Jesus spoke against homosexuality’ — NEVER HAPPENED! They didn’t even know that we existed as an orientation, to the ancient Romans and Hebrews it was just something that some people *did*. Of course, you’re probably reading one of those grossly distorted translations of the Bible that the fundamentalists use where they intentionally translated words like pederasty and male rape as homosexuality. Most of the people who read this site are educated, well informed and infinitely more sophisticated than you and those who believe and spout the same poison as you. Your cherry picked, self-serving, fortune cookie phrases culled from the Bible will not change anyone’s mind here.
@ Gene #20 — Great Post! I totally agree. You were more charitable towards him than I was.
@ Jessica #17 — you’re obviously speaking from your own experiences. Consider yourself hugged by me!
23 Gary (NJ)
Ah, thanks Gary!
Yes, I was speaking from experience.
I never forgot Incy, my little woollen spider the bullies took from me and ‘drowned’ and then threw on the roof of the school when I was about seven.
But it’s good people like you, and the posters here, that make up for it.
Idiots like Cale should be forced to suffer bullying then they’ll perhaps have a bit of human compassion.
Ancient Corinth was a city in Greece and Paul wrote these words to them.
1 Corinthians 5:1
Chapter 5
1 It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father’s wife.
The word for fornication is a Greek word, porneia, which means:
illicit sexual intercourse adultery, fornication, homosexuality, lesbianism, intercourse with animals etc. sexual intercourse with close relatives; Lev. 18 sexual intercourse with a divorced man or woman; Mk. 10:11, metaph. the worship of idols of the defilement of idolatry, as incurred by eating the sacrifices offered to idols
So yes they did know about homosexuality in ancient times. It was a common report that it was happening. Check other historical documents besides the bible and it was a common practice of ancient Greece and Rome.
And let me make it clear, I don’t know where this young man is spending eternity. That is between him and God. There is only one unforgivable sin and that is to deny Jesus as God.
But, let me ask all of you a question.
If you knew without a doubt that there is a hell. Would you try to keep people from going there?
I cannot atone for my sins that is why Jesus was and is necessary. He died for our sins. I
Ancient Corinth was a city in Greece and Paul wrote these words to them.
1 Corinthians 5:1
Chapter 5
1 It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father’s wife.
The word for fornication is a Greek word, porneia, which means:
illicit sexual intercourse adultery, fornication, homosexuality, lesbianism, intercourse with animals etc. sexual intercourse with close relatives; Lev. 18 sexual intercourse with a divorced man or woman; Mk. 10:11, metaph. the worship of idols of the defilement of idolatry, as incurred by eating the sacrifices offered to idols
So yes they did know about homosexuality in ancient times. It was a common report that it was happening. Check other historical documents besides the bible and it was a common practice of ancient Greece and Rome.
And let me make it clear, I don’t know where this young man is spending eternity. That is between him and God. There is only one unforgivable sin and that is to deny Jesus as God.
But, let me ask all of you a question.
If you knew without a doubt that there is a hell. Would you try to keep people from going there?
I cannot atone for my sins that is why Jesus was and is necessary. He died for our sins. I
Then let me ask YOU a question.
Why are you here? To try to stop this boy from going to hell? Well, sorry, he’s not here and can not be here. Oopsie, missed that window, didn’t you?
So again, why are you here? To express sympathy for this loss? No, I don’t think so. Your “sypmathy” (fake though it may OBVIOUSLY be) is only a small fraction of your rantings.
So again, why are you here? What’s your purpose? You are as irrelevant and intrusive to this thread as a mistress at the wife’s funeral. Tacky, tasteless, and unnecessary.
Doug,
I responded to everyone bashing a pastor over his beliefs as a Christian. It is to late for the young man. Whatever decisions he made with God are now eternal. But I am here also because it isn’t to late for those reading this.
Revelations says: today is the day unto salvation.
We are not promised tomorrow.
So, I answered your question.
How bout you answer mine.
If there is a hell do you want to know and would you tell others?
“If there is a hell do you want to know and would you tell others?”
Cale, if there is a giant invisible unicorn in your bedroom watching you in your private moments, would you want to know, and would you tell others?
There is precisely the same amount of evidence for both claims.
Cale-
Let’s be clear. Anyone, Christian or otherwise, can believe anything they wish. However, when those beliefs result in another human being’s suicide based on the abuse they received from the followers of said belief, all bets are off.
And as for bashing a pastor, I think you’re referencing Devin’s comment #6. And yes, the pastor’s beliefs are bigoted and homophobic.
As for the existence of hell, and whether or not I would try to dissuade, again that is irrelevant to this discussion. This is not a thread about anything other than a child who was bullied and committed suicide because of it. And, it is referenced in the article that he received at least part of said bullying from the pulpit of his pastor. So laying some of the blame on the church’s doorstep is reasonable.
And frankly, when you started your first post with:
“As a Christian I am truly sorry for what this young man went through and what his parents and family are going through now. But..” That small 3 letter word “But” negated every perception of sincerity and compassion you attempted to create. Period.
Cale. you really can’t help yourself, can you? Take your definiton of the word porneia. You just made it mean what YOU think it means.
http://174.120.72.66/search?q=porneia&site=topical&client=default_frontend&proxystylesheet=custom31&filter=0&num=100&output=xml_no_dtd
Not that it has anything to with your shortcomings as a Christian. Imagine, I informed you that you as a sinner have no time do be concerned with other peoples sins, that Jesus specifically bade you not to do that, and you’re doing it anyway? Because you’ve been forgiven for a sin you won’t repent for? And yet… here you are AGAIN!
Becuase it’s way too much for for you?
Begone! Before someone drops a church on you!
Cale, Jesus said nothing about homosexuality–but he said a lot about hypocrisy which is the great sin of Christians everywhere. You say you do not judge–but that’s exactly what you do. You say that you are upset that these young people kill themselves but you continue to condemn them and say things that are aimed to make them want to kill themselves. You continue to quote scriptures ad naseum–maybe you should stop spouting words from this ancient book and listen occasionally.
Cale, your hell god is worse than Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Idi Amin, Saddam and a whole host of murderous tyrants put together. They tortured and killed their victims, but when the victims were dead, the torturing stopped. Your god would send people to an everlasting place of torture and suffering. Your god is a sadist. Your god is evil and despicable. No mother or father who really loves their child will torture and reject their child. But your god would torture people without end for loving. Your god is a god of hate, not love. If you want to believe in a god whom you had better obey or he will send you to hell for your sexual behaviors, you are entitled to do so. But don’t try to scare people with your own fear of hell, and don’t try to impose such a monster on everyone else.
Cale – I know that I’m a bit late to the conversation here, but seriously, you have some deep-seated psychological issues here. If you believe that you and everyone else deserve Hell just because of our mere existence, then you a very big self-esteem problem. You really need to see a psychiatrist or at the very least, a clergyman/woman from one of the denominations that Gene #20 mentioned. Reading your posts, I’m beginning to think someone needs to talk you down from the ledge.
On a side note, it’s interesting that fundamentalists always quote Paul when referring to homosexuality. The problem with the letters from is that we don’t know to what he is responding. His letters to the Corinthians (and others) were in response to inquiries made to him from those communities. Where are those letters? What did they say? As one theologian described it: it’s like being in a room with someone and listening to their phone conversation and only hearing what they are saying. So before we can quote Paul’s words as absolute authority, we need to know what context they were in and what the full conversation was about.
Cale shut the f**k up you lying bigot. We’re here trying to mourn the loss of one of our own, then you come in with the same hatred that caused it. You put us through the hell you claim is waiting for us, then turn around and tell us it wouldn’t happen if we just did what you want it wouldn’t happen. No doubt you also ask your wife why she made you hit her after you give her a beating. I’m betting you also think female rape victims deserve what happens to them for daring to dress in anything more revealing than a burqa. You know nothing about us, you know nothing about your claimed god, and most of all, you know nothing about this child. Do you know why we do? Because many of us were him once. Too many of us. Do you think the same platitudes you’re spewing out your a*s now kept us going when they came from your fellow bigots? Surely even you can’t be that stupid. It certainly didn’t for me and I guarantee it didn’t for anyone else here. Do you think that if this child would still be alive if you had just spiritually abused him even more? Don’t be ridiculous. You drove this child to take his own life. You’re still doing it to even more children. Their blood is on YOUR hands as surely as if you had taken a gun and shot them. That probably would have been more merciful. And that pile of s**t will never turn into chocolate no matter how much sugar you try to pour over it. You are not helping anybody. You are not saving anybody. You are a prion in the nervous system of civilized society, and everyone will be better off when you and the rest of your fellow bigots finally and inevitably go extinct.
Phillip was a gay boy who told everyone they were “beautiful. Well then obviously he had to be killed. Yes, I consider this boys death a murder.
Cale, take a long walk off a short pier. My God and Goddess are surely more merciful and loving than your vengeful deity and I have no doubt that Phillip is now at peace. But he should never have been driven to suicide. That is the real sin, the real crime, and I lay it at the feet of his tormentors.
We have heard all your hateful crap before. Take your homohatred and your sick view of religion and leave the rest of us to mourn yet another of our kids driven over the edge by crap like what you had the nerve to spew here. So take a hike!
The headline is wrong.
The Religious Right doesn’t “ignore” this kind of thing — they love it. It’s a victory for them: one more dead gay person, and the younger the better.
That’s why stories like these always attract at least a few people who post long lectures including copy-and-paste Bible quotes; being careful, of course, to state at the beginning and the end how very, very sorry they are. Don’t believe it.
They can’t help it. They’re just attracted to accounts about young gay people dying by suicide like flies to apple pie.
Cale,
When you start taking actual responsibility for your own ignorant, bigoted views and stop passing the buck onto some imaginary sky-fairy, then we can talk.
These are YOUR opinions, not ‘God’s’ (he does not exist, so they can’t be his opinions).
You absolve yourself of any responsiblity by saying you get you values from the Bible? A simplistic and inconsistent diatribe penned 2000 years ago by a bunch of Middle-Eastern goat herders?
Strikes me as a bit childish and slightly insane. It is afterall 2012.
And even if what you said had some truth to it, do you not think that it is in incredibly poor taste and just plain bad manners to come onto this site and start ‘witnessing’?
I sort of hope god does exist, so that when you did finally meet him, he could tell you what a dick you have been.
Cale, I can just imagine the xtian cliches that are first in your mind concerning #33 (John Patrick). You’re gonna say ‘God doesn’t send people to Hell, they chose it for themselves because they have rejected a loving Savior’. Right? That’s the typical ‘Hell Cliche’ that you fundies have been taught to recite whenever anyone brings up the sadistic ways of God. Please try to be original and come up with something new, OK? Because so far you are just mouthing words we have all heard too often before.
Cale said “But yes Jesus does speak against homosexuality”.
You come here pretending to be all pious and moral and then you’ve got the balls to lie about what’s in your own bible! Jesus NEVER spoke against gayness you lying scumbag.
Cale said “If you knew without a doubt that there is a hell. Would you try to keep people from going there?”.
No one knows “without a doubt” that there is a hell. There in fact is no evidence whatsoever to support such a conclusion and an objective reading of the christian bible shows it is impossible for the god and hell described there to exist so your question is absurd.
If someone you knew believed wholeheartedly that you and your whole family would be raped and killed if you didn’t make an animal sacrifice to Zeus and proclaim your loyalty to him would you do it? Of course not, you’d dismiss the thought immediately due to its absurdity. Its no different with your beliefs.
Cale,
If you want to be technical about it, Hell does not even exist yet. If you had read more closely you’d have known that what s’posedly exists is Hades. The Great White Throne Judgment has to occur first before there is a Hell. And that Judgment does not occur until the end of the end. So you don’t even have your Bible facts down correctly. BUZZ – sorry, contestant, your answer is wrong, please leave the stage!
I feel sorry for his family i no what he was going through beacause he went to my school which was EM Pease Middle School then he moved to Teenese i hope they do something about bullying it is sad that he died everybody @ school misses you Philip.!!!!! And im in the 6 grade.
WOW…A post about bullying a homosexual turned into a comment frenzy and bullying of a Christian. So, it is not OK to disagree and share your opinion about homosexuals, but it is perfectly fine to say F.U. and slander someone who believes differently. Who are the real hypocrites here?
@DAK
Reality check.
1.) I would not go INTO an evangelical church and speak out against their doctrine even though I disagree with it as strongly as any evangelical disagrees with homosexuality and for surer cause.
2.) If I did go into an evangelical church and speak out against them for some unimaginable reason (it violates every law of courtesy that you can imagine.) I would expect to be excoriated.
3.) That is not bullying.
4.) Schools are public and unlike Truthwinsout AND evangelical churches NOT the property of any group – sectarian, religious, atheist, gay, straight – any group. Therefore you are comparing the reaction of people to an outsider invading their private space and attacking them (more on that later)with someone going into public space, selecting victims and attacking them.
Be honest, the two things could not be much more different. If I enter an evangelical church to cause trouble, I should expect trouble. An evangelical who comes here to cause trouble should expect trouble. I know, you think that everyone who disagrees with you should just lie down and take it – but that’s not reality.
Now, the factual basis of the two reactions also could not be much more different.
Prejudice is prejudice – whether the bigot admits it or not. Religion is NO SHIELD AT ALL. It wasn’t for racism (and I STILL know white evangelicals who use the story of Job’s son to justify the idea that people of color are not human – and for that matter who use the scriptural support for slavery in order to argue, in 2012, that slaves should not have been freed) and it isn’t for homosexuality.
It’s nice that a book you believe in says that gays are wrong. That means that within YOUR CHURCH you have a right to consider them wrong and WITHIN YOUR CHURCH to act accordingly. On the other hand, that gives you NO RIGHTS in the public square to attack and bully people.
Separate the private from the public, otherwise your arguments seem to become dishonest, now don’t they?
Regards,
Reynolds Jones
DAK, you asked, “Who are the real hypocrites here?”
You are! Bigoted bullies and their apologists always seem to cry, “that not fair!,” “you’re hateful!” “you’re not tolerant!” or “you’re a hypocrite” whenever their targets have the audacity to defend themselves.
Multitudes of Christians think it’s fine to persecute others relentlessly, and then whine about how their religious freedom is being infringed when people resist. They really do believe that they are entitled to special rights – and unfortunately, in the USA, they’ve been largely granted.
And lest we forget. Just as “Cale” did, DAK chooses to ignore the fact that much of our outrage on this particular thread was the horrific inappropriateness of coming here and spewing bible verses on a post, NOT about bullying per se, and DAK tries to claim, but SUICIDE. I know mine was.
To take Reyn’s scenario further, what do they expect the result to be if they were to walk into this boy’s funeral and spout this crap?
This was not us pouncing on the “bigot du jour,” no matter how badly they want it to be.
It isn’t slander if it’s true, DAK. The real hypocrites are still you lot, no matter how many times you attempt to deflect or project. You lot incite violence against innocent people (and whether or not it is direct incitement does not matter, the result is the same) because you consider them inhuman, when your actions, exploiting everyone for personal gain, only reveal your own lack of humanity. You scream persecution when you don’t get your way or don’t get the reaction you expect, but go out of your way to make others’ lives miserable simply because they are different (and not just with sexual orientation either, but the other targets of your hate are another subject for another time). I’m sorry, but the duplicity coming from you and others like you DAK, is getting tiresome.
Are DAK and Cale the same person?
DAK, you think Cale got bullied here? This just shows what a privileged existance you have. This is nothing. A guy comes on a gay website where there’s a story about a gay teen commiting suicide and writes hateful speech pretty much blaming gays for this kids death? That’s not a loving thing to do and he deserved what he got and more.