Mississippi church leaders: Christian gay rights ad is ‘misleading and dangerous’
Church leaders in southern states are pushing back against a new advert which makes a Christian argument for gay rights.
The Human Rights Campaign launched the groundbreaking new TV ad this week in Mississippi – with others planned in Alabama and Arkansas.
The ad, titled All God’s Children, marks a shift in tactics for the rights group, directly addressing Christians and invoking God, instead of focussing on the secular arguments for gay rights.
It features 61-year-old “Bible-believing born-again Christian” Mary Jane Kennedy, who tells the story of one of her sons coming out as gay.
However, it has not gone down well with church leaders in the state – who have savaged the dangerous ad.
Pastor Chas Rowland of Bovina Baptist Church, Vicksburg, told Baptist Press: “There is an inherent rejection of the Gospel when we do not affirm [the] biblical [vision of] human sexuality, especially as it’s portrayed in marriage because marriage is the greatest illustration that God has given us of himself and how he loves the church.”
“There is no doubt where Mississippi Baptists stand. [We] affirm biblical marriage.”
“People’s souls are more important than political correctness. We’ve just got to have some courage and stand up and speak the truth.”
William Perkins of the Mississippi Baptist Convention said: “On [homosexuality], the vast majority of the 2,149 member churches of the Mississippi Baptist Convention would fall within the parameters of The Baptist Faith and Message of the Southern Baptist Convention which states, ‘In the spirit of Christ, Christians should oppose … all forms of sexual immorality’.
“It is difficult to misinterpret those passages to represent that most Mississippi Baptists would be anything but fully opposed to the Human Rights Campaign’s efforts in this state.
“$300,000 is a lot of money to spend on a program that is doomed to fail.”
Watch the ad below:
