I’ve posted a couple of times already about how Pastor Mark Brewer of Crosspoint Wesleyan Church in Fredericton, New Brunswick kicked 20-year-old Colin Briggs out of the church because he was gay. Despite Briggs being a long-time volunteer, missionary, and camp counselor for the church, Brewer feared that other members of the congregation would not want to leave their children near Briggs if they ever found out about his sexual orientation… so instead of enlightening the congregation, he asked Briggs to stop volunteering with them.

On Facebook, Christians and non-Christians alike blasted Brewer for his decision. Even conservative Christians could argue this was a violation of “Love the sinner, hate the sin.”

This week, Brewer spoke to his congregation about his decision:

Far from being an apology, Brewer didn’t offer any insight whatsoever. He basically implied that Colin had gay cooties and left it there. He explained that there was much discussion and prayer and the decision wasn’t made lightly… and that was it. No clarification at all. He then whined about how no one ever writes about the wonderful things the church does and how members do a lot of volunteer work and how there are good people within the church… but at no point did he deny or even attempt to explain how the stories we’ve heard weren’t true.

Toward the end of the video, Brewer remarked, “Tolerance is supposed to be a two-way street.” As if bigotry and love should be on the same playing field.

Since Brewer couldn’t explain why Briggs could no longer volunteer with them, I’m left with no choice but to quote him directly:

“We felt it would be in the best interest of him and the church if he stopped serving,” said Brewer. This would “avoid any potential uproar that may be caused if families were to find out an openly gay male was working in the children’s ministry.”

The man’s homophobic and bigoted, pure and simple. Anyone who remains in his congregation is endorsing those views and deserve to be criticized the same way. If Brewer has more to add, I’d love to hear it — I’ve reached out to the church for comment and will gladly post his comments if they dare to respond.

In the meantime, you can add this story to your ever-growing list of reasons of how religion makes decent people worse.

(Thanks to Chuck for the link)



