{"id":12573,"date":"2014-07-24T10:24:23","date_gmt":"2014-07-24T14:24:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theamericanjesus.net\/?p=12573"},"modified":"2014-07-24T10:24:23","modified_gmt":"2014-07-24T14:24:23","slug":"pastor-homosexuals-are-possessed-by-putrid-smelling-demons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/2014\/07\/pastor-homosexuals-are-possessed-by-putrid-smelling-demons\/","title":{"rendered":"Pastor: Homosexuals Are Possessed By Putrid-Smelling Demons"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

In the seemingly never ending battle over homosexuality in the church, a common chorus I often here repeated from those opposed to marriage equality is that their opposition, no matter how intense, is in fact an act of love.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, that \u201clove\u201d often looks a whole lot like hate.<\/p>\n

For example, I\u2019m not sure how telling gay folks that they are demon possessed and so foul smelling that even pigs don\u2019t want to be around them is in any way loving.<\/p>\n

I mean, if someone at church said something like that to a person struggling with obesity would you really consider that an act of love?<\/p>\n

Now, lest you think this a crazy extreme example of hate disguised as love, let me introduce you to Bert Farias, evangelist and writer of the curiously titled Charisma<\/em><\/a> column, The Flaming Herald.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"farias\"<\/a>(H\/T<\/a>)<\/p>\n

In a post<\/a> that gives new meaning to the word \u201cbizarre,\u201d Farias takes the typical \u201cplease do not get upset with me. I am for you and not against you\u201d approach before doing literally everything he can to make his prospective audience not only upset with him, but left with the distinct impression that he is, in fact, very much against them.<\/p>\n

In typical fundamentalist fashion he combines a handful of proof texts from the Bible with utterly unsubstantiated theological claims to present what he calls the \u201craw, naked truth.\u201d<\/p>\n

So, what is this raw, naked truth?<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the raw, naked truth: Homosexuality is actually a demon spirit. It is such a putrid-smelling demon that other demons don\u2019t even like to hang around it\u2026.Yes, you heard me right: Being gay is demonic.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Here\u2019s some more raw, naked truth for Mr. Farias \u2013 no where in the Bible is homosexuality described as demonic or a form of demon possession.<\/em><\/p>\n

So, if the Bible never actually supports his claim anywhere in any one of its 66 books, how can Farias know that homosexuality is a putrid-smelling demon?<\/p>\n

The answer?<\/p>\n

Theological sleight of hand.<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a wonderful magic trick \u201clovingly\u201d employed by fundamentalists that uses convicting sounding clich\u00e9s to get readers to focus on the \u201ctruth\u201d of their claim in hopes that they won\u2019t investigate further and realize those claims don\u2019t actually hold much water. (To say nothing of their typical utter lack of biblical grounding.) But they sound vaguely biblical and often very convicting to the right audience, so receptive audiences will gladly drink the kool-aid without asking questions.<\/p>\n

For example, Farias says \u201cAll human beings know deep in their hearts that God exists.\u201d Sounds super biblical, but while we as Christians might want to believe that is the case, in fact, the opposite may be true<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But Farias is only beginning with his rhetorical magic tricks.<\/p>\n

He continues, \u201cBut people\u2019s unrighteousness leads them to suppress the truth and believe false views of God and the Bible, \u00a0and they twist the scriptures to their own destruction, because they know that the truth would require them to repent.\u201d Sounds scary, but the simple translation is: if you disagree with my interpretation, you\u2019re a heretic who hates God.<\/em><\/p>\n

Oh, and I almost forgot this gem: \u201cHomosexuality is not new. It\u2019s been around for thousands of years. It\u2019s as old as the devil himself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Assuming he believes the devil is only a few thousand years old, you know cause creationism and what not, if the homosexuality is as old as the devil and the devil presumedly fell from heaven before the fall of man, then does that mean some of the angels were\/are gay? And if they are gay and they preceded the existence of the natural world being heavenly creatures, wouldn\u2019t that make homosexuality a deeper reality (or truth) than the natural world since it comes from heaven in Farias\u2019 accounting of its origins?<\/p>\n

Alas, Farias leaves us to speculate on our own at this point.<\/p>\n

Farias also makes the typical claim that \u201cany gay person who claims to be a professing Christian can stop being gay\u201d which, again leaves me the reader wondering if Farias thinks I as a heterosexual should stop being heterosexual and embrace celibacy since Paul was pretty clear that that\u2019s the way to go.<\/p>\n

But the worn out \u201cbeing gay is a choice\u201d argument and a few sleight of hand tricks not withstanding, we still haven\u2019t fully answered the question of how Farias knows that homosexuals are putrid-smelling demons.<\/p>\n

In other words, we haven\u2019t seen the magician really work his best magic, magic so good if you don\u2019t know where to look, you\u2019ll probably miss the trick.<\/p>\n

Now, he\u2019s got the seemingly connected but not really Bible verse.<\/p>\n

And the convicting sounding, but ultimately hollow claims about the \u201craw, naked truth about homosexuality.\u201d<\/p>\n

But to really pull off the grand theological magic trick of \u201craw, naked truth,\u201d\u00a0he\u2019s gotta pull out the big guns.<\/p>\n

So, where do you turn when you don\u2019t actually have biblical support for what you\u2019re claiming is biblical true?<\/p>\n

Anonymous modern-day prophets.<\/em><\/p>\n

Seriously.<\/p>\n

As Farias himself claims in that \u201c\u2026.\u201d space in the earlier \u201craw, naked\u201d quote that I left out for dramatic emphasis, \u201cA genuine prophet of God told me that the Lord allowed him to smell this demon spirit, and he got sick to his stomach.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s right folks.<\/p>\n

Farias felt the need to take to the internet to denounce gay folks as putrid-smelling demoniacs in the name of God because some random dude told they smell bad.<\/p>\n

But don\u2019t worry.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s cool.<\/p>\n

Because telling people they\u2019re putrid-smelling demoniacs who make you want to vomit is totally loving.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the seemingly never ending battle over homosexuality in the church, a common chorus I often here repeated from those opposed to marriage equality is that their opposition, no matter how intense, is in fact an act of love. Unfortunately, that \u201clove\u201d often looks a whole lot like hate. For example, I\u2019m not sure how […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3437,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nPastor: Homosexuals Are Possessed By Putrid-Smelling Demons<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In the seemingly never ending battle over homosexuality in the church, a common chorus I often here repeated from those opposed to marriage equality is\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/2014\/07\/pastor-homosexuals-are-possessed-by-putrid-smelling-demons\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pastor: Homosexuals Are Possessed By Putrid-Smelling Demons\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In the seemingly never ending battle over homosexuality in the church, a common chorus I often here repeated from those opposed to marriage equality is\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/2014\/07\/pastor-homosexuals-are-possessed-by-putrid-smelling-demons\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Semi-Official Blog of Zack Hunt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-07-24T14:24:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/files\/2014\/07\/farias.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Zack Hunt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Zack Hunt\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/2014\/07\/pastor-homosexuals-are-possessed-by-putrid-smelling-demons\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/2014\/07\/pastor-homosexuals-are-possessed-by-putrid-smelling-demons\/\",\"name\":\"Pastor: Homosexuals Are Possessed By Putrid-Smelling Demons\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-07-24T14:24:23+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-07-24T14:24:23+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/#\/schema\/person\/92d888feb798c511bc3c9cb2fc4a4226\"},\"description\":\"In the seemingly never ending battle over homosexuality in the church, a common chorus I often here repeated from those opposed to marriage equality is\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/2014\/07\/pastor-homosexuals-are-possessed-by-putrid-smelling-demons\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/2014\/07\/pastor-homosexuals-are-possessed-by-putrid-smelling-demons\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/2014\/07\/pastor-homosexuals-are-possessed-by-putrid-smelling-demons\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Pastor: Homosexuals Are Possessed By Putrid-Smelling Demons\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/\",\"name\":\"The Semi-Official Blog of Zack Hunt\",\"description\":\"Zack writes about the intersection of faith and politics\u2026and sometimes BBQ.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/#\/schema\/person\/92d888feb798c511bc3c9cb2fc4a4226\",\"name\":\"Zack Hunt\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d7a3db085a35a483a38418a4937abcd6?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d7a3db085a35a483a38418a4937abcd6?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Zack Hunt\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/author\/zhunt\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Pastor: Homosexuals Are Possessed By Putrid-Smelling Demons","description":"In the seemingly never ending battle over homosexuality in the church, a common chorus I often here repeated from those opposed to marriage equality is","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/2014\/07\/pastor-homosexuals-are-possessed-by-putrid-smelling-demons\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Pastor: Homosexuals Are Possessed By Putrid-Smelling Demons","og_description":"In the seemingly never ending battle over homosexuality in the church, a common chorus I often here repeated from those opposed to marriage equality is","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/2014\/07\/pastor-homosexuals-are-possessed-by-putrid-smelling-demons\/","og_site_name":"The Semi-Official Blog of Zack Hunt","article_published_time":"2014-07-24T14:24:23+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/files\/2014\/07\/farias.png"}],"author":"Zack Hunt","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Zack Hunt","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/2014\/07\/pastor-homosexuals-are-possessed-by-putrid-smelling-demons\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/2014\/07\/pastor-homosexuals-are-possessed-by-putrid-smelling-demons\/","name":"Pastor: Homosexuals Are Possessed By Putrid-Smelling Demons","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-07-24T14:24:23+00:00","dateModified":"2014-07-24T14:24:23+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/#\/schema\/person\/92d888feb798c511bc3c9cb2fc4a4226"},"description":"In the seemingly never ending battle over homosexuality in the church, a common chorus I often here repeated from those opposed to marriage equality is","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/2014\/07\/pastor-homosexuals-are-possessed-by-putrid-smelling-demons\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/2014\/07\/pastor-homosexuals-are-possessed-by-putrid-smelling-demons\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/2014\/07\/pastor-homosexuals-are-possessed-by-putrid-smelling-demons\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Pastor: Homosexuals Are Possessed By Putrid-Smelling Demons"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/","name":"The Semi-Official Blog of Zack Hunt","description":"Zack writes about the intersection of faith and politics\u2026and sometimes BBQ.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/#\/schema\/person\/92d888feb798c511bc3c9cb2fc4a4226","name":"Zack Hunt","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d7a3db085a35a483a38418a4937abcd6?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d7a3db085a35a483a38418a4937abcd6?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"Zack Hunt"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/author\/zhunt\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3437"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12573\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/zackhunt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}