The Gay-Atheist: Texas Church Group Launches Pro-Gay Billboard Campaign, Angering Some Anti-Gays

Texas Church Group Launches Pro-Gay Billboard Campaign, Angering Some Anti-Gays

Thursday, September 10, 2009 , Posted by Alex at 2:34 PM

Christine Lutz was traveling down Interstate-30, just east of Fort Worth, when she came face to face with a billboard containing a pro-gay message. "I cringed. I was disgusted at the same time," she said.
The billboard angered Lutz so much, that she fired off a stern e-mail. "I said how dare you take the scriptures and twist it to fit your needs," she recalled.
There are four billboards with similar pro-gay messages along I-30 that have started a debate among Christians in North Texas.
Rev. Jon Haack, with Promise Metropolitan Community Church, said, "If we go back to the gospel readings, we don't find anything within those texts that discriminate or exclude against gay and lesbian people. Gay and lesbian, bi-sexual and transgender people are part of God's creation too."
Rev. Haack is with one of five local churches sponsoring the billboards that advocate gay acceptance by all Christians.
One billboard reads, "The early church welcomed a gay man." Another one reads, "Jesus affirmed a gay couple."
The billboards were put up a week ago along I-30 between Grand Prairie and Fort Worth and the negative e-mails are already coming in. "There are people who have told us to reread our Bible which is the very question we're asking others to do," explained Rev. Colleen Darruagh, with Metropolitan Community Church of Greater Dallas. "We've had people say, 'How dare you take the name of God in vain' and that God hates homosexuals."
Pastor Sam Dennis, of Parkway Hills Baptist Church in Plano, says Christians shouldn't hate gays. He disagrees however with the billboards' use of scripture to back a pro-gay message. "I'm hard pressed to find that scripture advocates that it's alright to live in a gay lifestyle. Just like I'm hard pressed to find that scripture advocates that's it's alright to live in an adulterous relationship or as a wife abuser or as a murderer."
The five local churches sponsoring the billboards are part of the Worldwide Metropolitan Community Church which has a predominantly gay congregation.