fire, brimstone and condoms
page 1 of 3
contents
of issue 75
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The last time I was ever in church, the pastor gave a sermon on sexual
immorality. Fire and brimstone were all present and accounted for. As
a then Born-again Christian, I agreed with much of what he was saying.
Then the pastor - we'll call him Ade - turned on lesbian and gay churches,
assuring us, complete with scriptural references, that they were hotbeds
of sexual outrageousness.
Even then, he still had my support. I'd attended one of these churches
myself, not too long before. I'd been appalled when the pastor in the
pulpit described his ultimate sexual fantasy to his congregation. Not
appropriate behaviour for any man of the cloth, gay, straight or otherwise,
surely?
After Ade had spent quite some time venting his spleen, he looked around
and asked the congregation what they thought was happening, as a result
of all these homosexual goings-on?
"AIDS!" spat someone from the back. The pastor nodded his approval.
I was aghast.
The unfettered homophobia itself didn't shock me. I'd heard it 100 times
before. What was frightening was the sheer irresponsibility of the message.
This was an articulate and well-educated man, a medical doctor no less.
A charismatic leader. Yet here he was, implying that if you weren't homosexual,
you
weren't at risk from HIV.
