Below The Beltway

This, quite frankly, is one of the reasons that I have a problem with religion in general:

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — 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.

Wright said High Point offered to hold the service for Sinclair because their brother is a janitor there. Sinclair, who served in the first Gulf War, died Monday at age 46 from an infection after surgery to prepare him for a heart transplant.

The church’s pastor, the Rev. Gary Simons, said no one knew Sinclair, who was not a church member, was gay until the day before the Thursday service, when staff members putting together his video tribute saw pictures of men “engaging in clear affection, kissing and embracing.”

Simons said the church believes homosexuality is a sin, and it would have appeared to endorse that lifestyle if the service had been held there.

(…)

“Even though we could not condone that lifestyle, we went above and beyond for the family through many acts of love and kindness,” Simons said.

Wright called the church’s claim about the pictures “a bold-faced lie.” She said she provided numerous family pictures of Sinclair, including some with his partner, but said none showed men kissing or hugging.

First, I admit that the church does have the right to do this if they so desire, and I don’t think that the government should be able to step in and force them to do something that, allegedly, violates, their beliefs.

That said, however, I think that what they did was completely, totally wrong and completely against the version of Christianity that I was taught growing up. If we take Pastor Simons at his word, then we must assume, as Dale Carpenter points out, that the church would also refuse funeral services to anyone who violates any of God’s laws —- including adulterers, liars thieves, blasphemers, and people who take the name of the Lord in vain or don’t honor their mother and father.

The likelihood that this is the case seems slim at best.

No, I think they were just afraid that something like this might happen:

[T]he more I think about it, the more I suspect the real objection to his service was not that he was gay or that he might be in some sense “unrepentant.” The real fear was probably that somebody — perhaps his partner — would get up and speak postively about their love during the service.

And just why would that be so bad ?