Holy Haters in Georgia, once so comfortable bullying people with their anti-gay marriage opposition, are about to lose. So now they are playing victim, complaining that everyone is bullying them.
It's a role reversal that almost makes you feel sorry for the likes of Alveda King and Rev. Bryant Wright. Until you recall that King compares gay marriage to genocide and Wright likens LGBT people to alcoholics and bullies gay Boy Scouts.
Nevertheless, the pair and some other Holy Haters whined to the AJC this week – on the eve of an expected Supreme Court ruling legalizing gay marriage – that people actually respond to their anti-gay bile by calling them bigots, haters and intolerant.
Meet the new victims of 2015: Anti-gay religious leaders who have battered LGBT folks for decades. It's a stunning turn that takes a brass set of balls.
The Rev. Bryant Wright (photo) of Johnson Ferry Baptist Church in East Cobb noted during the recent Southern Baptist Convention meeting in Ohio, where gay marriage was at the top of the agenda, that when his church put a sign outside announcing they would discuss the topic of homosexuality, the young people in the church received a lot of criticism.
“Our students became concerned,” he said. “The statements were so mocking them, so bullying them, so criticizing them. “People said to them ‘You’re so hateful. Why do you go to that church?’”
He criticized gay and lesbian advocates for their aggressive approach in responding to the church’s belief that gay marriage is wrong.
“It’s a bullying, intimidating approach.”
This from the same pastor who likened gay marriage to “erotic liberty,” denounced gays, compared them to alcoholics and was so disgusted with the Boy Scouts allowing gay troops that he kicked them out of his Marietta church.
Then there's King, the embarrassing niece of MLK. She's offended that critics (like us) point out that she's not the best person to tell LGBTs about marriage. She's been hitched three times.
“When I speak of adulterers, they don’t write or call me a hypocrite and threaten to kill me,” said King, who has often mentioned her divorces. “The fornicators laugh at me and tell me to get a life. When I speak out against gay marriage, the supporters of that movement threaten to kill me.”
This from the person who said gay marriage will lead to genocide, compared marriage equality to polygamy and embraced Atlanta Fire Chief Kelvin Cochran after he was canned over his book of anti-gay, misogynistic and anti-Semitic ramblings. She's also equated gay marriage to adultery and pornography.
So please, be nice to the hate mongers. They are a sensitive bunch.