Homosexuality is wrong.....Yea I said it! And what?

I may get an email criticizing me for making such a "bigoted" and "unrefined" statement but that's about all the fire I may get for my "statement." For some, the reactions have been much more vindictive.

Jack Hakimian, Pastor of Impact Miami Church in North Miami, Florida, has found himself embroiled in a scandal that began as a hands-on effort to enforce a ban on alcohol at a local strip club in hopes that the strip club would lose business. What does this have to do with homosexuality? Exaaaactly. But City Councilman Scott Galvin believed the two topics were related.

It all began in June when Impact Miami teamed up with WPBT Channel 2 PBS, a public television station, to inform viewers on the strip clubs' attempt to lift the ban on alcohol sales. The two non-profit organizations demonstrated and rallied against the lifting of the ban.

Scott decided to investigate the pastor of this 100-member church that rents space for Sunday services from the North Miami High School auditorium.

After hearing a couple of Pastor Jack's sermons, Councilman Scott decided his messages were hateful and Channel 2 had no business associating itself with a bigot. Councilman Scott went as far as to demand an apology for WPBT's partnership with Pastor Jack. 

He provided links to YouTube videos of Pastor Jack's "hate message." It is almost laughable that Scott, who is openly gay, would consider them prejudice and hateful. 

Pastor Jack, a Southern Baptist, says that he never had the sense that "a homosexual is any more evil" than he is. He also claims that the fundamental difference between Christians and liberals is that liberals preach on embracing all kinds of people, while Christians embrace all kinds of people,but still call people to repentance.

Scott likes to point out that Pastor Jack is equating pedophilia, drug abuse and witchcraft with homosexuality (which he does not) but he omits the that the Pastor also speaks out against fornication (a sin of heterosexuality).

From the outside looking in, who cares if Pastor Jack says that homosexuality is a sin? What does that have to do with the issue at hand?

The main problem is that a full-functioning strip club is eroding the surrounding community.

Who wouldn't want to clean up communities from alcoholism and skin-slappin' shenanigans in the champagne room? Is this not a noble cause to fight for? Councilman Galvin doesn't think so.

He voted to lift the ban based on "purely a business decision."

Yeah, business for the club owner that is making thousands off of the sexual immorality of patrons and dancers. Never mind that the strip club is near schools on a street, ironically called, Sesame street. Never mind that many rappers and athletes throw hundreds of thousands of dollars on the dance floor of a club in the middle of a crime-ridden city, making a club owner filthy rich. Said owner will no doubt return to the plush suburbs where his children will attend private schools far away from the strip clubs. All that is unimportant to Galvin. What is important is that Pastor Jack is saying homosexuality is a sin. 

Let me tell you something. If I were a firefighter running into a burning building and one of my fellow rescuers was the Grand Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, do you think I'd give a rip about his prejudices in the heat of the moment while we attempt to rescue children from the smoldering rubble? I don't care if one guy is a Neo-Nazi, the other is a drag queen and the third guy is an Al Qaeda Terrorist. If we're all in agreement that people need to be rescued for a brief moment, we're going to be best pals for the next hour because we have one common goal and that is valuing human life.

Scott Galvin didn't see it that way and now he's gotten other officials together, including Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, who is looking to evict the church from the rental space at the high school. 

Miami's local Channel 10 jumped in on the act and has smeared Pastor Jack in their coverage. They "accidentally" ran a separate story of a pedophile priest with Pastor Jack's image on the screen for seven seconds opening a new can of legality worms. The Superintendent allegedly has ties to some of the staff at the local channel.

Regardless of their apology, the pastor is currently receiving legal counsel regarding the technical mistake of the newscast.

Pastor Jack alleges that Carvalho basically said, "Despite the school policy... he will do whatever he needs to to prevent the church from having equal access to taxpayers subsidized facilities."

"I am making this decision not on the basis of policy or politics but as a rejection of prejudice and intolerance," said Carvalho.

Aaaah, the popular word, "intolerance." It's funny how a group of people are expecting tolerance from other people but become intolerant themselves the moment you disagree with them. They call that dictatorship in other countries. In America, they've labeled it "bullying" or "harassment."

Among the people Scott Galvin has complained to, the one I find most interesting is Rabbi Dr. Jory Lang. Why do I find it interesting? Because unbelieving Jews do not acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah nor as the fulfillment of the prophesied new covenant (Jeremiah 31:31). Therefore, under the Mosaic law, homosexuals are to be stoned to death (Leviticus 20:13). So if anybody is to be scolded for promoting violence toward the gay community, it technically would be the teachers of the Judaic Law but NOOOOOO, Christianity remains the punching bag of America. Just saying...where was the call to the Superintendent and his band of Merry Men for the vote against the sales of alcohol at the strip joint? Where was this call for unity then? Seems that Scott Galvin is willing to put aside the differences of the people he called so he can fight a Pastor who said homosexuality is wrong. But where was the fervor when voting was taking place to keep the streets clean?

Look. It's not like Pastor Jack is teaching anything foreign here. He is teaching the very same scripture that instructs Christians to live peaceably with all men (Romans 12:18) but that doesn't mean we condone the sin.

We are not to participate in a sin, we are to avoid it. And we're not to be violent toward other men for practicing such sins either because we are under the Spirit of Grace now.

Scott Galvin should know this as he claims to be a... Methodist. Nuff said.

I don't know how he can disregard scriptures that explicitly list the sins we're to repent of.

I'd rather you just say "Billy, I just don't want to follow your God" than to insult my intelligence by trying to justify your lifestyle scripturally with the "Judge not, lest ye be judged" argument. It just doesn't hold weight when you consider the context of that Bible verse.

So, since that's where the discourse has moved to: why do Christians point out the errors of a homosexuality lifestyle? We consider sex to be a sacred gift of God that is to be enjoyed within the confines of marriage. The architect of sex, Almighty God, created it to be a biological fit between a man and a woman in marriage, according to scripture. When you abuse this gift outside of the heterosexual marriage bed, it becomes a sin. If I, a married man, lacked self-control and committed adultery, I would also be lumped into that sin category. Why would we consider fornication and homosexuality any less of a wrongdoing? If you disagree with that, that's your prerogative. I can't force you to believe in the God of the Bible.

Pastor Jack called out fornication in his message. If I had bumped into his message years ago, I wouldn't have called for a protest because I was a fornicator and somehow found his message to be hateful toward fornicators. The man was simply echoing what the Holy Bible has been saying for oooh 3,000+ years? When does the double standard stop?

I have news for you. It's not going to stop. Society is being prepared for a new world order with a media campaign bent on sexual overload. A society where truth is subject to one's own interpretation. A world where the hated Church will be further accused of bigotry and intolerance by an intolerant world.

Just look around you. There's a show coming to NBC called The New Normal about two gay dads and a baby mama. Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar make anti-Christian remarks at every opportunity on their show The View but that's not considered hate speech, bullying or harassment. There are gay TV advertisements now. Obama is now a proponent for gay marriage. (I still wonder why anybody would want to get married if you don't believe in the Creator of marriage and His prerequisites for it?)

Bullying used to be characterized as the big kid in school physically and verbally abusing the little kids in school. Now it's been twisted to mean whenever someone disagrees with your sexual preferences, painting the church as a harassing bully. Not physically or verbally abusing, mind you, just merely saying it's wrong is enough to get your church evicted from a public rental facility and labeled a tyrant. The hyper sensitivity has distorted not only the truth, but has caused public servants to tell boldface lies about Pastor Jack and others who have decided that enough is enough.

"Jesus said He came to bring justice. He called us to be men and women of justice. Jesus' last day teachings is actually an inspiration to be faithful, active and occupied until He comes," said Pastor Jack.

I admire his cry for justice. I admire that 3 years ago he decided to be proactive in caring for the community he preaches in.

We are the light of the world. Christians should be at the forefront of the battle against injustices and other tragedies in the world. He's also fighting a spiritual battle involving the politicians that threaten Impact Miami Church. And, again, for NO GOOD REASON.

What do I think of the peripheral issue that has now become the core one? I know and have relationships (no pun intended) with homosexuals. I think it's stupid to commit hate crimes toward them and only feeds the media machine. I think they have every right to a job, healthcare and any other amoral privilege regardless of their sexual preferences. But, I cannot - knowing the scripture - agree with their lifestyle.

We should not discriminate against a homosexual in the aforementioned ways but I do discriminate against the act. It grieves me that they're so devoted to insisting you in acknowledge their "rights." It irks me when they ironically shun you because you're "intolerant" and when they equate homophobia with racism. To me, it doesn't even come close to the pain caused by racism. God loves homosexuals but abhors homosexuality and I'm sorry that the Superintendent and School spokesman find it "disturbing and appalling" that we happen to agree with scripture. But we should not look on the sin of homosexuality any less than we would for fornication, adultery, polygamy and other sexual perversions.

To learn more details on this matter, you can visit Impact Miami's website.

The self-proclaimed Zig Ziglar of rap, Billy Delgado, is a Music Producer/Artist and Writer by day and sleeping pillow-drooler by night. He is currently producing the debut album for his band The 288's, a God-inspired Hip Hop/R&B group that combines soul-baring lyricism with an electric innovative sound, breaking from the norm and reaching all cultures & ages (save senior citizens). He still can't believe he's a family man with a beautiful wife Mari & three boys Chris, Nelson and Joshua, so he continues to pinch himself silly to this day.