Remember a few weeks ago when I made fun of Pastor Ken Hutcherson for trying to “reclaim” the rainbow? Now he wants to reclaim the word “gay,” claiming that he is the gayest person he knows. I always had my suspicions, but it’s not polite to judge:

Dr. Ken Hutcherson, the pastor of Antioch Baptist Church in Redmond, Wash., posted an announcement earlier this week that many close to him – including his wife – have known for years. Hutcherson revealed that he is the “gayest man I know.”

“Coming out of the closet is a difficult decision to make, especially when close, personal relationships are at stake,” Hutcherson wrote in his column, Hutch Speaks Out, that was published on WorldNetDaily.

Bwahaha, this is going to backfire on him.

“Will my family abandon me? Will my friends still look at me the same? Will this announcement be worth the risk? These are indeed valid concerns that can make a person live like a double agent for years. And even though this decision is acutely personal, it does help to stand alongside someone else who is ready to announce the very same thing,” he continued.

The announcement of the burly NFL-linebacker-turned-evangelical-minister-and-author sent some initial shockwaves through the Christian community. He and James Hansen, one of his ministry leaders who is married with three children, are challenging others, especially evangelicals, to come forward and also admit that they are gay.

Haha, okay, Peter LaBarbera, you and Bam Bam do it next.

But the thing is Hutcherson is not a homosexual, nor does the happily married man have a same-sex attraction of any kind. He is, however, on a mission to take back words, phrases and symbols he believes groups, such as homosexual activists and other liberal organizations, have “hijacked” from the American lexicon.

Okay, next I would like Ken to publicly take back loving Madonna and the freedom for two dudes to make out in public. Because we gays have just cold hijacked those things. Go ahead, Ken.

“Seriously, I am the gayest guy I know,” Hutcherson reiterated in an interview with The Christian Post.

God, you don’t have to broadcast it.

“My frustration is that some groups have taken words and symbols away from the Church and from society in general. When I say I’m ‘gay,’ what I mean is that I am happy, that I am joyful and that I love people. That is precisely what a Christian ought to be so in my opinion we just need to be as gay as we can.”

It’s great to be joyful and love people. Tony Perkins, Ken Hutcherson is asking you to be as gay as you can. Do you have what it takes?

“Dan Savage (a pro-gay activist) says he is gay. He’s not gay, not anywhere close. Yeah, he may be a homosexual but he certainly doesn’t appear to be happy or joyful when he stands up in front of a classroom and uses profane language. Nope, nothing gay about that.”

To be serious for just a moment: why do wingnuts think Dan Savage is unhappy? He has a great husband, a great kid and a great life. The fact that he makes fun of wingnuts doesn’t mean he’s unhappy. It means he’s quick on his feet and knows how to laugh at people, like Ken, who would seek to destroy his family unit.

Anyway, wingnuts, you have your marching orders from Hutch. Come out of the closet and be super-gay, like he is! Here is Ken’s full column, if you want to subject yourself to that.

One of the most unintentionally funny wingnuts in America is Pastor Ken “Hutch” Hutcherson. The last time we visited him, he was asking us if we’d all like the opportunity to be a “big black man” who hangs out with Rush Limbaugh and James Dobson. When everybody was like “um, well, hadn’t really thought of it before,” he rescinded his offer. He mostly stays up in the Pacific Northwest making noises toward Microsoft and the like, for being nice to gays. Microsoft, as of this writing, has never really noticed. Also he used to play football, which supposedly makes him “tough” and “cool,” two things that wingnuts never are.

He has a column, though, at the WingNutDaily, where he’s just really so mad at all the gays, because we stole his rainbows:

Mocking Ken is way too easy, but let’s do it anyway. For one thing, the rainbow is, yes, in the Bible, but so are many things, like polygamy. You don’t see Ken running around screaming about taking the polygamy back from the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints.

Rainbows used to mean something very different than they do today. It used to be understood as the sign God put in the sky to remind us that even when He’s angry about sin, He’d never again destroy the earth with a global flood. But of course, that’s not what most people associate a rainbow with today.

Rainbows are a meteorological phenomenon. Here are some other instances of rainbows being used as religious symbols:

In Greco-Roman mythology, the rainbow was considered to be a path made by a messenger (Iris) between Earth and Heaven.

In Chinese mythology, the rainbow was a slit in the sky sealed by goddess Nüwa using stones of five different colours.

In Hindu religion, the rainbow is called Indradhanush, meaning “the bow (Sanskrit and Hindi: dhanush is bow) of Indra, the god of lightning, thunder and rain”. Another Indian mythology says the rainbow is the bow of Rama, the incarnation of Vishnu. It is called Rangdhonu in Bengali, dhonu (dhanush) meaning bow. Likewise, in mythology of Arabian Peninsula, the rainbow, called Qaus Quzaħ in Arabic, is the war bow of the god Quzaħ.

In Armenian mythology the rainbow is a belt of Tir, a Sun god.

In Norse Mythology, a rainbow called the Bifröst Bridge connects the realms of Ásgard and Midgard, homes of the gods and humans, respectively.

The Irish leprechaun’s secret hiding place for his pot of gold is usually said to be at the end of the rainbow. This place is impossible to reach, because the rainbow is an optical effect which depends on the location of the viewer. When walking towards the end of a rainbow, it will appear to “move” further away (two people who simultaneously observe a rainbow at different locations will disagree about where a rainbow is).

So please, Ken, let’s not pretend that gays using the rainbow as a symbol is somehow an attack on your gross distortion of Christianity.

The guy who puts a rainbow sticker on the back of his Prius is sending a slightly different message: He’s got a co-pilot, and it isn’t God.

Nope, it’s Blake. Or maybe Chad.

If you really want the conversation to get going, try putting one of those stickers on your minivan right next to the Jesus fish logo. Talk about mixed messages. Is that guy straight? Is he gay? Do you think he’s a liberal Presbyterian?

If you’re an idiot, that might get the conversation going. “Maybe it’s a gay Christian” is something a person who didn’t fail out of kindergarten might say. But this is directed at WorldNetDaily readers, so we’re on a grading curve, obviously.

How did we get here? Just when was this symbol liquidated of its meaning? When was the sign pointing to God’s promise intentionally co-opted to point to a certain lifestyle choice? Let’s just say that the homosexual movement has been busy over the last couple of decades and that many of these changes have taken place without so much as a peep from the larger Christian community. Rome’s burning; Nero’s fiddling; and Christians are taking a well-deserved nap.

Worse, they were asleep when the leprechauns took it, also.

I’m not suggesting that believers don’t appreciate the theological importance of this colorful little symbol, but I think that too many Christians may have adopted the wrong kind of rainbow. They’re yellow with fear, green with envy, blue with depression and red from embarrassment.

Orange from spray tan, indigo from a false sense of uniqueness, violet from a false sense of royal entitlement…

So, why are believers so off-color these days? Maybe they’re tired of fighting the good fight. Maybe they haven’t seen as much progress as they’d like. Or maybe they think someone else will carry the proverbial water. Sadly, as believers, we’ve gone from echoing Luther’s, “Here I stand, I can do no other” to “Here I sit, I want my mother.” After all, why not put off today what someone else will postpone tomorrow?

How many words can Ken type to avoid confronting the actual reality of the situation, namely, that the majority of Christians just aren’t ignorant bigots like him? More denial, please?

It’s this rigorous apathy that’s got me so riled. I’m bothered that Christians can breathe noxious fumes coming from a decaying cultural carcass and think they won’t be affected. I’m bothered that Christians are too afraid to work together because someone might be overshadowed. I’m bothered that Christians wave a white flag of surrender when they should be taking ground. I’m bothered that Christians are more concerned about offending people than they are that people are offending God. And what’s more, I’m bothered that a number of other pastors aren’t bothered.

Yep, that’s the denial I was talking about. There is a particular delusion common to wingnuts of all stripes: they think that everybody else is really like them, when in reality, they’re a dwindling minority of the population, increasingly the subjects of mockery and derision by people smarter than they.

It’s been said that if you lead the orchestra, you’ll have to turn your back on the crowd. Well, the crowd is getting increasingly hostile. From the rainbow to Tebow, the Christian message is under assault.

His metaphors are getting really mixed, but I think he’s upset that people make fun of Timmy Tebow. Another wingnut delusion is that “Thou shalt not ever hurt the fee fees of or laugh at Fundamentalist Christians, for any reason” is one of the enumerated Bill of Rights.

So what is it going to take to wake up this sleeping beauty known as the Bride of Christ?

Smelling salts?

Don’t we understand that if our symbols can be hijacked, so too can everything else we hold dear? The rainbow is only one example of many where the church has passively sat by and allowed others to redraw lines on the playing field.

We’ve already established that Christianity never owned the rainbow. You’d think he was talking about the cross…

Linguistic redistricting is a pet peeve of mine, so don’t even get me started about terms like “tolerance,” “justice” and “love.” Those fish will be fried at a later date. But for now, I have a simple proposition:Let’s take the rainbow back.

Yes, let’s take back the rainbow for God.

Okay, you do that, Ken. We’ll wait and watch.

Let the homosexual community find a different religious symbol to commandeer. If they were feeling congenial, perhaps the Muslims would let them borrow their crescent moon. In these desperate economic times, maybe the Wiccans would rent the pentagram to them. I don’t really care.

Really, is Ken confused about which symbol is most iconic to Christianity?

What I want is for the Christian community to wake up, wipe the sleep from their eyes, and realize that they are in a spiritual battle that isn’t going away and has no demilitarized zones. The rainbow is a symbol, but it’s meaning points to the very character of God.

I know WND editor Joseph Farah is really busy trying to prove that Obama is a Muslim, but nobody caught that its/it’s mistake?

So Christians …use this God-given symbol for His glory. Using it won’t make you a homosexual.

What if it does?

It won’t make you a New Ager. It won’t make leprechauns real.

What if it does? What if it makes you a gay new age leprechaun? It might. You don’t know.

But it might allow you to get into conversations with people who need to meet the very One Who gave us His promise in the first place.

Go ahead wingnuts. Stick one on the back of your car and head to P-Town!

Is it time for another Telemachus, the monk who tried to stop the gladiator fights taking place in Rome? In the process, Telemachus was stoned to death on Jan. 1, A.D. 404. However, from that day on, there was never another gladiator fight in Rome.

Was there a rainbow that day, or does this reference seem to make absolutely no sense in the context of the rest of the piece? Along the same lines…

Martin Luther King stood up to make the issue black and white.

Martin Luther King did not march in order to take rainbows back from gays and give them to wingnuts. I do not care what David Barton version of the historical record you are using, Ken.

We as Christians have watered down the truth and are trying to make it purple and pink.

And those are GAY COLORS.

Is it time for us to change history? Let’s take back the rainbow!

All righty then. Until Ken manages to get it, here:

Um, Laurel at Pam’s joint  has pointed out that Ken Hutcherson, the extremely sad and pathetic pastor in Washington State who is mostly known for embarrassing himself in front of the Microsoft Corporation [just check his Wikipedia page for a quick chronicle of his lifetime of failing], has a new-ish website. As Ken is one of those Fundamentalists who prides himself on his super duper manhood, even while the rest of the world looks at him and thinks, “wow, what is he trying to compensate for?,” I figure it should be fun to look for the obvious hilarity on his new little internet venture. Shall we? We need go no further than his hilarious introduction:

Welcome to the Hutchpost!

How would you like to be a big black man

Strange way to lead off, but intriguing. GO ON:

who is conservative, friends with the likes of Dr. James Dobson and Rush Limbaugh

Oh hell. One abuses dachschunds, the other is Rush Limbaugh. Great company you keep, dude.

someone who believes that there are no mistakes in the Bible

Wait, why did he start this thing by saying, “How would you like to be a big black man?” I can’t get past it. Is he offering some sort of change therapy?

doesn’t care what people think of him, thinks the only way to make your enemy a friend is to defeat them or kill them

Awwwwwww, makes him feel like a Big Man to say things like that. BIG MAN.

Pathetic.

thinks it is okay for prisoners to be executed

Just in general. No specificity as to which prisoners. Yet again. BIG MAN.

thinks that the human race is at the top of the food chain, thinks it is okay to drill for oil in our own country, to kick illegals out of that same country, and thinks it’s okay to enjoy life?

I am about infusing the culture with biblical truth, where ever and whenever I can no matter what the cost…

Join me as we explore God’s Biblical Blueprint for an ordered, just and fair society.

Whatever. I hope it makes Hutch feel better to say all kindsa tuff stuff on the internet. The fact that it looks pathetic to the rest of us, well…wingnuts never have been the most self-aware human beings on the planet.

Laurel does point out that Ken is the guy leading the fight against marriage equality in Washington State.

Well, three reasons:

1. When anti-gay hatemonger Ken Hutcherson calls and places an ad with them, they donate the money directly to GLSEN.

2. Then they publish a piece rebutting the moronic piffle that passes for “content” in Hutcherson’s ad.

3. Then, when Hutcherson calls again, Eli Sanders publishes a summary of the conversation online and makes Hutcherson look (more) stupid.

Oh wait, there’s a fourth reason: Have you seen the cover story for their 2010 ‘Queer Issue’?

Wow. Joe Jervis:

Yesterday it was learned that the wedding of Rush Limbaugh was officiated by rabid homophobe Pastor Ken Hutcherson. Among Hutcherson’s many anti-gay activities: Leading a walkout of public schools in opposition to the Day Of Silence, attempting a Microsoft shareholder revolt to overturn the company’s protections of gay employees, fighting the Matthew Shepard Act, supporting the “ex-gay movement, and campaigning against Washington state’s Referendum 71.

Hutcherson is one of the most clearly insane figures on the right, and he’s tied in snugly with Scott Lively, through the SPLC-certified hate group Watchmen on the Walls. When it was reported that Elton John sang and played at the wedding for a million dollar paycheck, I remarked that Elton John has obviously decided that principles are highly overrated, but I wasn’t all that surprised by the news that Rush had hired him. My read on Rush Limbaugh (and figures like him) tends to be that they really only believe about 30% of what they say, but that they’ve found an extremely profitable business model in fanning the flames of rage among the dumbest, most fearful people in American society. I still do largely believe that. But to associate with someone like Ken Hutcherson, who’s essentially persona non grata in all but the most fringe quarters of the Christian church, sinks Rush Limbaugh to a new low.

In the United States on Friday, Exodus featured speaker and megachurch pastor Ken Hutcherson led Snoqualmie, Washington, students in a school walkout and protest against silent opponents of antigay violence. In other words, he led a student protest in defense of antigay violence, which Hutcherson himself favors.

Exodus followed up today with an endorsement for the April 28 “Day of Truth” protest which supports antigay bigotry and refuses to even acknowledge — much less discuss or oppose — antigay violence in schools.

The moral failure of Exodus and other conservative religious organizations to stand in solidarity with antiviolence advocates is fueling new initiatives in the United States and abroad. (Read More)

Focus science coverup: While acknowledging his role in cultural warfare, Glenn Stanton of Focus on the Family declines to acknowledge that his employer covered up numerous false claims in a widely distributed and uncorrected press release about the alleged anthropology of marriage. Instead, he admits that publication of the release was premature, but he offers no retraction. Stanton has agreed to dialogue with an anthropologist on a watchdog blog, safely out of view of Focus’ subscribers and media contacts.

Investor activism: With the help of other religious conservatives, Exodus conference speaker Ken Hutcherson has launched a religious-right investor activist group to steer companies toward policies that discriminate against their workers who happen to be same-sex-attracted, according to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer columnist Robert L. Jamieson Jr. visited Exodus speaker Ken Hutcherson at his Seattle-area megachurch recently and today offered observations about Hutcherson’s betrayal of his own victory over discrimination — and Hutcherson’s exploitation of “ex-gays”. (Read More)

Update: ‘Repent America’ Leader Guilty: Michael Marcavage, whose Philadelphia-area band of followers uses megaphones to shout down public events, was found guilty of disorderly conduct for shouting down a Halloween festival last year in Salem, Mass. Previously, Exodus officially defended Repent America’s megaphone raid against a Philadelphia gay event as a matter of religious expression. (American Family Association) (More: The Salem News)

Focus on the Family Undermines Couples to ‘Save’ Marriage: Focus on the Family says that states must keep traditional families intact. How? By discriminating against all other families. Focus is upset at a same-sex couple that is suing the University of Hawaii after being excluded from married student housing on campus. Focus accuses the couple of “attacking marriage” by seeking respect as a couple and by honoring marital commitment. (Focus) (Update.)

Focus on the Family Thwarts Evangelicals, Defends Global Warming: Rejecting the guidance of the National Association of Evangelicals regarding creation care and environmental stewardship, Focus on the Family cheered a gathering of industry researchers and religious conservatives who blame climate change on ordinary cycles in the Earth’s history. (Focus)

Protest Planned against Ex-Gay Charlene Cothran: Chicago-based Gay Liberation Network will protest on March 13 against “ex-gay” Venus magazine publisher Charlene Cothran, who is developing an inflammatory new project: a speech entitled “How Homosexuality Destroys Families, Not Just Values.” (Queerty)

Hutcherson and the Legacy of MLK: On the Wallbuilders Live radio program, Exodus speaker Ken Hutcherson expands his campaign against his daughter’s school to include attempts to shut down the school’s Gay-Straight Alliance and end the school’s participation in The Day of Silence. Hutcherson warns that the school faculty should be glad he’s not still committing acts of violence against whites, but adds: “If they don’t fire these teachers, I’m going to sue ‘em and I’m going to ask them for their dreams. And then they’re going to mess around and laugh and I’m going to take their tongue out.” So much for Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream of nonviolent social unity and equal opportunity. (Right Wing Watch)

Lighter Side: Who cares what overpaid, over-blowdried anchors think? Anderson Cooper doesn’t — and doesn’t think the public should, either. (Romenesko)

After claiming last week that the ex-gay network had stepped back from public policy, Exodus admitted otherwise this week — but without admitting the apparent deception.

President Alan Chambers acknowledged to Ex-Gay Watch that his organization will continue as an active member of the Arlington Group, a political alliance of most major religious-right organizations that coordinates members’ policy choices and priorities.

Chambers claimed last week, “There isn’t anyone on staff that has policy in their job description and we don’t plan to spend money there.” On its 2006 filing of an IRS 990 form (PDF via Guidestar), Exodus reported a $5,000 donation to the Arlington Group; Exodus donations for 2007 are yet to be disclosed.

Chambers announced last week that Exodus’ withdrawal from public policy began in “August, 2007. 2008, however, marked a complete refocus on ministry.”

But as TWO has noted since then, Exodus board member Phil Burress (pictured), youth activist Mike Ensley, and speaker Ken Hutcherson continue to actively campaign for antigay and partisan political causes.

Just two days ago, Exodus executive vice president Randy Thomas boasted of his ongoing, expenses-paid trips to Washington, D.C., to provide political “friends” with ex-gay rhetoric and support.

And on Friday, board member Burress sued to hold taxpayer-subsidized church services in an Ohio public library. Burress’ self-led Citizens for Community Values (another Arlington Group member) opposes anti-bullying, tolerance, and sex-education programs in schools, and it is largely responsible for a 1993 Cincinnati vote to overturn local antidiscrimination law. A 2004 vote reversed the earlier vote.

In reaction to Exodus’ commitment to the Arlington Group, former ex-gay Peterson Toscano finds Exodus violating Biblical values under Chambers’ leadership.