The Maryland Marriage Alliance, the group leading the effort against the referendum that grants equal rights to same-sex marriages in that state, has been careful to try and not appear to be religious hatemongers, arguing that they do not oppose gays or gay rights in general, but that their goal is limited to only objecting to extending marriage to cover their unions.

Unfortunately for them, their executive director Derek McCoy, who is a pastor in a church, was on a panel with other people who oppose the referendum, when a preacher sharing the dais with him let loose that allowing same-sex marriage will lead to prostitution, incest, bestiality, and polygamy. He then quotes the Bible and, to general approval from the others on the panel, says that those who vote ‘yes’ on the referendum are approving things that are “worthy of death”. You can see the video of the remarks.

That pretty much put to rest the sham of “love the sinner, hate the sin ” that some religious people trot out to soften their image. They really, rally hate the sinner and the sinner’s allies and want to see them all put to death and end up in hell.

Looking at this photo, McCoy is the second person from the right, who during the rant is enthusiastically agreeing with the speaker. When asked later what he thought of those comments, McCoy was disingenuous.

McCoy responded Wednesday afternoon, issuing a statement that began: “Any attempt to imply that Dr. Anderson’s reading of scripture was a call to harm gays and lesbians is false and serves as a distraction from the real issues of this campaign.”

Really? It takes some nerve to say that saying that gays and lesbians and their supporters are approving of actions that are ‘worthy of death’ is not a call to harm them.