NORTH CAROLINA
Huffington Post
Michelangelo Signorile
The North Carolina pastor whose violent anti-gay rant blew up across the blogosphere, said in an interview that his message to parents in a sermon — to “punch” a boy who is effeminate and “crack that wrist” if he is limp-wristed — were taken out of the “context of a ministry,” and that he meant them “figuratively,” claiming that Jesus, too, in the Bible, “conjures up violent images.”
Pastor Sean Harris of the Barean Baptist Church in Fayetteville, N.C. retracted the statements of violence but continued to defend his comments about the “importance of gender distinctions that God created,” as well his condemnation of homosexuality, citing the Bible. But he was not able to explain other passages in the Bible, such as those condoning slavery, saying he didn’t realize the interview would “slant and redirect the conversation.”
“I had no idea that the video would be chopped and posted in the blogosphere in a such a manner in which the entirety isn’t understood,” Harris said in an interview on my radio program on SiriusXM OutQ yesterday. “Those were not the best choice of words. If I had to do it over again again I would not choose those words. I was using hyperbole in an effort to communicate the importance of the gender distinctions that God created. I would offer an apology to anyone I have offended. I don’t make an apology for those gender distinctions that are the word of God.”
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