We’ve all seen the same news stories, right?  A pastor in North Carolina (Charles Worley) suggests we put all the “gays” inside an electric fence, provide food and water, and wait for them to die out.  Another pastor in Kansas sites Old Testament scripture that homosexuals should be stoned to death.  And then there’s the kid with the questionable song lyrics, but let’s leave him to his parents.  In the first place he is a minor; secondly, and more importantly, he is probably a reflection of his parents’ world view and has not yet developed his own.

The internet can give a national or even global voice to writers, preachers, etc. that are in otherwise obscure places (such as myself).  What I think we’re really dealing with in the North Carolina story is culture shock.  Fundamentalist preachers in the Carolina’s, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky and so forth probably say a hundred things every week that would shock people, including Christians, from other backgrounds.  I can only imagine what would happen if journalists in New York started listening to every fundamentalist, Pentecostal, charismatic or even Southern Baptist sermon from below the Mason-Dixon line each week. Continue reading →