Is this harmless free speech?

[CurtCB]

I found this on rightwing watch:

"You want to know who the biggest hypocrite in the world is? The biggest hypocrite in the world is the person who believes in the death penalty for murderers and not for homosexuals. Hypocrite. The same God who instituted the death penalty for murderers is the same God who instituted the death penalty for rapists and for homosexuals - sodomites, queers! That's what it was instituted for, okay? That's God, he hasn't changed. Oh, God doesn't feel that way in the New Testament ... God never "felt" anything about it, he commanded it and said they should be taken out and killed. You know why God wanted the sodomites in the Old Testament to be killed? You know why every good king of Israel, the Bible says they got rid of the sodomites in the land? You know, the good kings that came after the bad kings who had allowed the sodomites to infest their land, they had infiltrated ... King Asa got the sodomites out of the land, Jehoshaphat exterminated the sodomites that were left from the days of his father, Asa. Why? Because the sodomites are infectious, that's why. Because they're not reproducers, that goes without saying, they're recruiters.
How are they multiplying? Do you not see that they're multiplying? Are you that blind? Have you noticed that there's more than there were last year and the year before, and the year before that? How are they multiplying? They're reproducing right? No, here's a biology lesson: they're not reproducers, they're recruiters! And you know who they're after? Your children. Remember you dropped off your kids last week? That's who they're after. You drop them off as some daycare, you drop them off as some school somewhere, you don't know where they're at. I'll tell you where they're at: they're being recruited by the sodomites. They're being molested by the sodomites. I can tell you so many stories about people that I know being molested and recruited by the sodomites.
They recruit through rape. They recruit through molestation. They recruit through violation. They are infecting our society. They are spreading their disease. It's not a physical disease, it's a sin disease , it's a wicked, filthy sin disease and it's spreading on a rampage. Can't you see that it's spreading on a rampage? I mean, can you not see that? Can you not see that it's just exploding in growth? Why? Because each sodomite recruits far more than one other sodomite because his whole life is about recruiting other sodomites, his whole life is about violating and hurting people and molesting 'em.
So how many sodomites is one sodomite going to produce? A lot, and that's why it's just exploding. The only way to stop it, you say "how do we stop it?" ... You want to know why sodomites are recruiting? Because they have no natural predators."
-Pastor Steven Anderson of the of the Faithful Word Baptist Church.

I couldn't find the number of people who attend his church but it includes a missionary program and is allied with the Independent Baptist Church which has an assembly in every state.


Is this free speech?

[fredv3b]

Some of it is, alas, free speech. However some is slanderous false accusation, and that has clear and direct harm.

[Kiid]

I don't think I'v been recruiting and I haven't been recruited and we do have a predator its called homophobes.

I don't relay care about these statements because so many are made and it won't change us.

[marshlander]

I guess so, but the other side of the coin of free speech is a responsibility to use it wisely. This man is clearly an evil loon who hasn't a shred of evidence. Many would say he doesn't actually know his Bible very well, either.

[fredv3b]

He also does not know the proper meaning of the word hypocrite. A hypocrite says one moral thing and does another. He on the other hand is simply complaining of double standards, treating two evils, as he sees them, differently when they should be treated the same.

[sivvo]

that guy himself is the biggest hypocrite....his god's command is to kill :mad:

[fudger]

just for the fact that this guy believes in a passage written in a book a thousand years ago and translated numerously from language to language then changed into versions that suit the powers that be of that time and all based on a mythical super being that has no proof of ever exsisting shows he is a loon and anyone who follows his word is a bigger fool than him.

[sox-and-the-city]

The only demonination kookier than the Baptists is the Evangelists.

I would say ignore them.

Sadly i've not slept in nearly three days, so don't have the energy to point out the biblical inaccuracies.

And yes, free speech DOES come with the responsibility to weild it without being harmful. Nevertheless the fact that they have a platform is a greta thing, as outlawing this kind of talk would do their arguments much more good. This way there will be people who can demonstrate their powers of reason and counter everything they say, should the need arise.

And those are my abridged thoughts on the matter.

[jayce]

[SIZE="1"]I don't think it matters. No one takes religion seriously anymore because of people like that. Except the extremists, but no one takes them seriously either.

People should be allowed to say what they want, even if other people find it offensive. Nothing happens when you're offended, except that we get something to laugh about later.[/SIZE]

[marshlander]

I don't think it matters. No one takes religion seriously anymore because of people like that. Except the extremists, but no one takes them seriously either ...

No one? Why, then, do believers have more protection in law than ever before to keep on spreading their lies and superstitions? Why have we seen not a reduction in these more secular times, but rather an expansion of schools being controlled by religious interests? It was bad enough when kids had to attend schools that reinforced their parents' religious afflictions when we only had C of E, RC and a few Jewish schools. Nowadays any nutcase religion can start a school. All they need is a tiny proportion of the costs and the good old taxpayer will cough up the rest.

There's a whole generation of kids being told in the homes, in their churches, meeting houses and mosques and now in their schools as well that they are going to burn in hell if they don't obey. That doesn't sound like "no one" to me.