Preaching that homosexuality is a sin is "bullying" and akin to "child molestation" and must be stopped, argued Mitchell Gold of Faith in America on today's "MSNBC Live" hosted by Thomas Roberts.
For his part, openly gay host Roberts failed to question Gold's assertion or to hold out that Gold's view may at best border on anti-religious bigotry (emphasis mine; video courtesy of MRCTV's Bob Parks follows page break):
THOMAS ROBERTS, host, "MSNBC Live": ...[W]hen we talk about how kids bullying other kids need to change their own behaviors, when they see adults bullying other people, whether it be in their own state or around this country nationally, isn't that the message that they're paying attention to? I mean, they learn from us.
MITCHELL GOLD, founder, Faith in America: Oh, I agree with you 100 percent. I mean, the bullying that takes place by adults. I would say this, that clergy people who stand at their pulpit and they speak about gay people as sinners and an abomination, that is bullying a young kid, and that is really, and I know this might sound exaggerated, but that is nothing less than child molestation of a child's mind.
I know from writing this book ["Youth In Crisis"] and all the people that I talk to throughout my state and the country that it is devastating to a 14-year-old kid to hear their rabbi or imam or their priest or clergyperson say that they are a sinner and abomination.
They're at a young, vulnerable age. They believe in the concept of sin and they think they're doing something wrong, when the reality is they are God's creation, and I'm here to tell them they are full and whole and wonderful and they will learn as life goes on that there are many, many people that feel that way.
Roberts described Gold's organization as a "non-profit, civil rights advocacy group," but a cursory review of Faith in America's website shows it's decidedly liberal politically and theologically, castigating the fight for "traditional marriage" as a "sin," for example:
The use of the term “traditional marriage” embeds in our minds and hearts a moral and religious stamp of disapproval on gay and lesbian individuals and that brings immense harm to their lives, their happiness and their well-being.
Faith In America therefore believes the use of the term “traditional marriage” is without question morally unacceptable and equally sinful in the religious context.
