Church learns vet was gay, cancels memorial

ARLINGTON, Texas - A megachurch canceled a memorial service for a Navy veteran 24 hours before it was to start because the deceased was gay.

Officials at the nondenominational High Point Church knew that Cecil Howard Sinclair was gay when they offered to host his service, said his sister, Kathleen Wright. But after his obituary listed his life partner as one of his survivors, she said, it was called off.

“It’s a slap in the face. It’s like, ’Oh, we’re sorry he died, but he’s gay so we can’t help you,”’ she said Friday.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20221295/?GT1=10252

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Ugh.

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Thats horrible.

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Not surprising. There came a point when my grandmother became too old to make the weekly trip to church. After about a month she received a letter from her "concerned" pastor. He wanted to let her know that he had noticed that her weekly budget envelopes had stopped. Budget envelopes are numbered (apparently so they can track your contributions) envelopes the church sends to parishioners to use for their weekly contribution in the collection plate. He told her that she had to be careful to maintain her status as an active member of the parish or she would not be able to be buried out of that church. I about had a fart attack when I read the letter. church=love.

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What a crappy church.

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Certainly not surprising - and that is the sickest and saddest part of all.

I have to admit, when I read the title I fully expected it to be a Catholic church.

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Jesus would be PISSED. "Christian" my ass.

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I have to admit, when I read the title I fully expected it to be a Catholic church.

Is there a difference?

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Utterly disgusting.

The best part of the articles was a quote from the church's pastor:
“Even though we could not condone that lifestyle, we went above and beyond for the family through many acts of love and kindness,”

I have to admit, when I read the title I fully expected it to be a Catholic church.

Is there a difference?

Alright, I'm going to do this for the one millionth time- because it really bothers me when people say this sort of thing. I have grown up an active member of the Catholic Church and for every part of my education have attended catholic schools- and I have NEVER been taught something like this. The message I have always received in my encounters with Catholicism was that even if you don't agree with the way a person lived his or her life (and yes, since some people don't "agree" with homosexuality, that falls under this example) it isn't your place to judge or discriminate against them. The message put across by Jesus was to love everyone. If you pay attention the Bible that people so often love to quote and use, Jesus gave the most love and attention to those who were oppressed- in this day it would include homosexuals.

You would never, ever see this happen, the canceling, at my parish, or any Catholic Church in my area. I'm tired of people lumping the entirety of Catholicism in with this sort of situation. When I saw the title of this article, I thought "well its probably not a Catholic Church." Catholics are forever getting thought the worst of, when, in any experience I have its been the evangelical or nondenominational churches.

Is the Catholic church perfect? Absolutely not. Is it horrible and always to be considered the center evil? No, because while every Catholic place is handled differently, I have never in my life encountered a Catholic Parish that would react this way. So before you go and dismiss us all, and my entire church, as homosexual hating people, realize that by doing that you're being as narrow minded towards Catholics as you are accusing them of being towards homosexuals.

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I was also raised Catholic, I believe that people learn more from what they see than what they hear and read, and though we were always "taught" not to judge others in words and readings that is not the message that I got growing up about love and acceptance of certain other groups....unfortunatlly!

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Oh, I know everyone doesn't follow it, thats why I was saying it wasn't perfect, but to read something like that and automatically think it would be a Catholic institution is just wrong and insulting to those of us who do know what we were taught. I think the fact that we are even taught the notion that you are meant to accept everyone (and everything I wrote in my post that I don't want to rehash here) separates us from some religions that don't teach that. It wasn't meant as a "Catholics are the Best Ever" post, but to point out that its unfair to blanket statement Catholicism as the most likely source of an evil action.


*edited for spelling

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Updated On: 8/11/07 at 09:47 PM