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Subscribe to RSSWAUKEE, IA –- Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann yesterday attended a church here in Iowa, where the pastor called homosexuality "immoral" and "unnatural," and later showed a testimonial video from a man who claimed to have been gay before having a conversation with God.
Before the sermon at Point of Grace Church -- a non-denominational congregation near Des Moines -- Bachmann stood with her husband, Marcus Bachmann, before a crowd of about 100 people, clutching her personal copy of the Bible.
“This is a time that we need to be encouraged this week, not discouraged,” she said, referencing Friday night’s credit downgrade and Saturday’s news about the Navy SEALs killed in Afghanistan.
“Whatever is pure, whatever is lovely,” Bachmann said, reading from the book of Philippians, “think well on these things.”
The reading drew cheers. Pastor Jeff Mullen, standing next to Bachmann, took her Bible his hand. “There are some candidates who start running, and have this come-to-Jesus moment,” he said. "What I love about this Bible,” he said, “is how well it's used.”
Mullen offered a prayer honoring democracy. “We have a nation where people can still rise up and speak their voice, and say, ‘This is what I believe.’”
When Bachmann and her husband returned to their seats, Mullen began a half-hour presentation on his church's beliefs. Reading verses from the Bible to support his case, Mullen said, "We inherently know that homosexual behavior is immoral and unnatural."
“God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness,” Mullen said, reading from the book of Romans.
Mullen’s sermon concluded with video testimonial from a man named Adam Hood, who claims to have been gay before experiencing a conversation with God. "I am so happy God has given me natural affection for a woman," Hood said in the video, adding that his wife is nine months pregnant.
"We need to have compassion for people that are bound by that sin," Hood added. "And it is a sin. Call a spade a spade."
The Bachmanns remained in the church for the duration of the service, and afterward posed for a picture with Pastor Mullen and his family.
In an interview with NBC News, Mullen called his sermon on homosexuality “a bedrock, just a Biblical truth we’ve taught over the years.”
“It just so happens they were here today,” Mullen said of the Bachmanns. “And we were teaching on both marriage and homosexuality.”
The Bachmann campaign released this statement on Mullen's sermon: "Michele was an invited guest, she always welcomes the opportunity to meet with parishioners."
The Point of Grace Church service was the second church event Michele Bachmann attended on Sunday. Earlier, they visited the Des Moines First Church of the Nazarene, where the presidential candidate discussed the origins of her faith and political life.
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#GOP #teaparty #WhyAreYou so hateful? U don't have to like us, but u can not deny US our rights. #LGBT #gay #noh8 #USA4M #ItGetsBetter ♡
Nothing whips up the fear of God like a good dose of scpriture from Romans.
The Christian desire to see the world as ugly and bad has made the world ugly and bad.
"Did MSNBC ever do an article on Rev Wrights sermans that Obama sat through for years?" Did you read the comments, this has already been discussed. Obama walked away from Wright's spewing. Michelle is spewing her own SPEW.
I agree with you completely, Amy, but do I HAVE TO pray for Gov LePage? Yikes! haha...Just kidding.
Yes, I live in ME, too.
Raymond
Gay Agenda? You know Raymond; discrimination of any kind should not be allowed to stand in America. Resistance to intolerance protects all of us from a small group of individuals from hurting other American citizens. That's right Raymond gays are citizens too.
BigAl, Gay sexual activities is a behavior. Race and gender are permanent innate characteristics which are fixed at birth. No moral judgement can be made of race and gender because no one chooses their race or gender.
In contrast, a homosexual orientation seems to emerge in developmental stages. Individual choices and social environment profoundly influences the trajectory of development. Sexual perversions must be learned through experimentation and instruction. Such practices are subject to moral judgements.
Raymond, I disagree of course, but I still don't see how it is relevant. Individual freedoms and equal rights do not just apply to things that are genetically determined. Otherwise there would be no freedom of religion.
Raymond, you need to mind your own business, and stop talking about matters in which you have ignorant, preconceived, absolutist notions.
What people do in bed outside of your own home is simply none of your business.
People like you will be DEFEATED.
The "frisson of doubt" inserted through emotional conditioning is especially effective on men in the clergy. They view themselves as men of conscience and compassion — and like to be seen by others as such. Thus, when the pastor speaks in accord with the scriptures and calls gay sexual practices a sin, he may feel an almost unconscious shiver of doubt and shame. It is not the shame of violating a universal moral law or upholding the truth of the Bible. It is the shame of violating a social taboo and the fear of being seen by men that he is lacking in compassion and sensitivity. It plays to the ultimate fear of many pastors, the fear of public disgrace.
Raymond, sexual activity is an act as you correctly point out, but sexual desire is not. Gays choose to have sex, yes, but they do NOT choose who they are attracted to, none of us do. I have a friend who is attracted to overweight women. I, like most other males am attracted to slender women. Should my friend date slender women because that is what most other men are attracted to? Should gays date women becasue most other men are straight?
RedDude read, Thought Reform and the Psychology of Homosexual Advocacy by Charles W. Socarides, M.D., President of the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) and a clinical professor of psychiatry at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He is the Author of the book,Homosexuality: A Freedom too Far .
Gays are running from manhood. Liberals are running from morals. Only a moron like reddud or leroybrown believe words instead of actions.
Raymond, perhaps the pastor should listen to what others say about compassion and sensitivity, and listen to his own heart, rather than blindly obeying an old book. Religion is supposed to be for the comfort of people NOW.
Raymond, Socarides is dead, but his quite openly and successfully politically active gay son (Richard) is not.
She has to be the biggest idiot in the world. How does she EVER think she is going to win by attending one of these things? I mean she doesnt have a chance, but she thinks she does. Its over for her. She is an embarassment to Mn.
Doesn't seem like a smart move on Bachmann's part.
Didn't she hear that New York just legalized gay marriage?
The Church has always Condemned Homosexuality behaviour, just as they have condemned Adultery, it is truly delusional of people today, to think GOD should and the Church should teach that homosexuality is now permissable...GOD does not change his mind..EVER.
GOD is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow...Hebrews 13:8
Just because people change over the centuries, does not mean GOD does..Homosexuality is a SIN in the Bible and you cannot wish it away, if a Church does not teach Homosexual relations are sinful then they are nothing but an *Apostate Church* which today we have many.., you can read about this in the Letter to the 7 Churches in the Book of Revelation.....
Yes, fortunately, rigid literalists such as yourself are constantly declining.
Live and let live.
do you even know how the bible and the fairy tales in it was written? go read about it...man made stories that have been handed down via scribes
The church condemns any behavior that does not increase their fold. They make the money off of the masses so the thought of a homosexual or adulterous relationship that would not create more suckers does not bide well. Money has become their god and not the statue on their altars.
We need say no more about the fictitious words of the bible. If one does not know by now it's words were written for man by man without "divine" guidance, they have their heads buried in the sand. A superman comic book has more credibility than most of the biblical passages!
Tarap
Bla bla bla bla, the same old bible mumbo jumbo. You are not going anywhere I am not in the after life. You nut jobs are something else.
Christians are not anti-gay persons, that would mean we are not obedient to the Lord's command to Love our Neighbor above ourselves. Christians should be obedient and loving, hating only sin, however it presents itself.
So will this pastor be condemning the abomination of all of those people that eat shellfish? It gets as much time in the old testament as homosexuality.
I can hear it now, "All lobster eaters should repent their sins. This too can be prayed away!"
Christians are not under the law of Moses.
We don't need the Law of Moses to condemn immorality. Jesus and the apostles all proclaimed that sexual immorality will condemn you to hell.
And contrary to liberal lies, Jesus DID CONDEMN HOMOSEXUAL ACTS.
As God and the one who gave the Jews their Laws and all of the Hebrew Bible, Jesus stated that He made marriage was instituted as an agreement between a man and a woman before God and that all sex outside of that marriage makes a person defiled before God.
Matthew 15 and 19
whereas the silly attempt with shellfish has no application because Christians are not under the Law of Moses to have right standing with God. However, Jesus said that anyone who rejects Him will be judged by the Law of Moses.
Not to mention tying knots on a Sunday. Very bad...
I think Larry may have some homosexual tendencies....
@G Washington-
No- I'm a pastor and happily married for nearly 40 years (with a terrific sex life as most Christians have) with 5 sons and 7 grandchildren who believes that obeying Jesus is better than trying to live according to a world that is dead and dying of sin.
Chapter(s) and verse(s), please.
@RedDude
Jesus affirmed in Matthew 19 that when He created Adam and Eve, He established marriage as consisting of a man and a woman. He addressed specifically that sexual sins including homosexuality defiles you in Matthew 15:18-20
“But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man.”
Fornication as defined by the law of Mose that Jesus gave to him was sexual relations outside of the marriage of a man and a woman. Orthodox Judaism restricts sexual activity to a legally permissible marriage between a Jewish man and a Jewish woman. A man and women are even prohibited from being in a closed room alone together if they are not married, a law called yichud, nor are they allowed to have physical contact (a law referred to as negiah).
From every reading of Talmud, this was clearly the understanding at the time Jesus taught.
Larry - such creativity in mind control, glad I don't subscribe to such mumbo jumbo ... what a waste of space and resources, the world is dead and dying of people especially those who think it is best to be fruitful and multiply........ 5 kids
Sorry, still no specific mention of homosexuality. (I don't believe in Jesus as divine, anyway)
This is a person that wants to run the country, you will so get more of the same old, same old. Wake up people.
Bigotry has, and always will be, a separate entity from racism more-over, people don't fall for that trap of being a "racist" as that was a chosen word with the gay community in an attempt as to somehow persuade the majority of people that all of a sudden you're right and they're wrong. If you believe that homo-sexuality will one day cross the line and jump from im-moral to moral, then you're in a state of suspended dis-belief reguardless of religion. Putting it bluntly, gay people have, and always will be, a freak show.
Since an increasing number of people disagree with you, don't be so sure that your hate will withstand the test of time.
I don't hate a skunk, I simply detest it's odor.
Maybe she can pray our way out of economic doldrums. She's not getting my vote. Start making coherent sense.
"Conservatives are not necessarily stupid, but most stupid people are conservatives."
- John Stuart Mill
i need me one of em farm subsidies. Does anyone know how I get one? Isn't funny how the Repubs are either poor hillbillies that don't pay taxes or real rich hillbillies that don't pay taxes. Meanwhile, us middle claims dems pay 30%. I see a fancy accountant in my future.
What is so SINFUL about loving another person in a monogamous, committed for 28 years as I have done....raising two beautiful children, working hard, being successful, and living each normal day like any other normal person? As a lesbian, I am SOOOOO tired of being called every name in the book for doing what I have felt normal for since I was seven....something that harms nobody!!!!! When are people going to get it that it is not soley about physical attraction, but emotional, spiritual, and intellectual compatability and connection as well....JUST LIKE HETEROSEXUALS. If LOVE is going to get me into hell ahead of all the murders, adulterers, liars, bigots and thiefs, then let it be so.
Bill...face reality.. The bible is a fictitious book and nothing more. Let it be the source of comfort to those who need a crutch, but take it away from those like you who would use it's passages for their own agenda and beliefs.
There is one thing these people are really good at. DENIAL.
wow - 100 people , huh? Christian hate at it's finest!
Big deal. For years Obama attended a church where the Pastor repeatedly cursed America and white people.
No he didn't.
Perry, Bachman, Palin, etc. good religious folks ... a vote for them is a vote for ignorance, the more they believe the less they know.
Are we still having this conversation?? All those that think being gay is a choise kindly retract your head from your rear. This is about her suitability to lead our nation and if her husband got federal funds for laying on hands and praying the gay away. Thats my question.
Selling hate, sheesh you just gotta love the Tea Tards and that Lady belongs in serious mental treatment, there is just something really wrong about her.
we need to bring back christianity to our land and remove this black sheep curse.......we got since 1990.
lets just swallow our pride and admit nothing is working. Reily said it best def of insanity. is doing things over and over.......same result. lets abandon this road. of gays third worlders anything goes and globalisim. and lets get back to strong domestic values.....we had prior to 1962.def prior to 1990. one religion one border one language. one identity.
face facts the last 20 years have been a disaster.
We have lost a city. two wars a space program. the gulf. 1000's of soilders. economic system. banking system. language identity culture....everything...our borders....jobs.. credit rating...but my fellow countrymen
want to continue with this rebellion agaisnt the old ways.
dam the torpedos position.
we keep going like this? we wont have a ship left.....?..
ramon
Yep - lets go back to the future and make our world what it was rather than what it should be. Christianity and religion has been and continues to be the root of all evil.
So while you are bringing back Christianity don't forget to bring back slavery, genocide, a male dominated society, lets take our differences out in the street with the use of a six shooter.
The past is no worse than the present, what we lack is not religion but compassion, honesty, ethical behavior, altruism, empathy, reality and a whole let less people going forward.
Bachmann proves daily just what an idiot she is. She's not just our worst enemy, she's her own worst enemy!