On the 13th May, North Carolina Pastor Charles Worley spoke in front of his usual Baptist congregation, only this time he bellowed words crazier than usual. Though a longtime homophobe this particular Sunday Worley surprised the crowd when his rant about homosexuals delved into territories normally reserved for Nazis…
“I figured a way to get rid of all the lesbians and queers. Build a great, big, large fence—150 or 100 mile long—put all the lesbians in there. Do the same thing for the queers and the homosexuals and have that fence electrified so they can’t get out. And you know what? In a few years, they’ll die.”
In other words: concentration camps. Still, Worley is typical of a man who devoted his life to fundamentalist teachings, his views, though extreme, were met with thunderous applause from his congregation. Support for his death filled rhetoric may have something to do with the amount of hate groups which is springing up, or it may have to do with NC recent constitutional ban on Gay marriage; both of these travesties have polarized the social landscape and have made the conservative inhabitants there ravenous in their unadulterated hatred.
When a man such as Worley preaches a doctrine eerily reminiscent of fascist Germany it does not surprise progressive minded people when other right-wing lunatics come out in support of him. Such had happened with Worley when parishioner Geneva Sims defended him by saying…“He had every right to say what he said, about putting them in a pen… The Bible says they’re worthy of death. He only preaches the Word.” Geneva, however, is not the only religious zealot to voice their support of Mr. Worley’s diabolical intentions; for Pastor Dennis Leatherman, of Maryland, not only supported Worley’s words but “one upped” him by musing about the homosexual population and the supposed solution being, “Kill them all. Right? I will be very honest with you. My flesh kind of likes that idea.”
It seems Mr. Worley’s rage knows no bounds; openly advocating for genocide against all GLBT people and yet hardly can such language is unexpected as he has a despicable history of similar tirades. One such gem can be found back in the year 1978 when he lamented, “We’re living in a day when homosexuals can go around, bless God, and get the applause of a lot of people… Forty years ago [gays] would’ve hung, bless God, from a white oak tree!”
Chilling reactionary dribble stolen straight from the playbooks of the radical Right, spewed straight from the mouths of one of the most bigoted individual on the North American continent. Just how reactionary is this man? He is so extreme that even the largest anti-gay organization in the world, Exodus International, came out against Pastor Worley and his agenda saying that it wasn’t in “god’s will” that homosexuals be forced into camps.
All of this hate, of course, soon attracted a great deal of attention to the church to the point where Worley took down the video recording of his infamous sermon from the church’s website. Adding to the pressure several thousand protestors picketed outside the church on May 23rd. The demonstration, however, did not deter the congregation and the service proceeded as scheduled.
What is to be made of this heart-wrenching story? For any young radical it is surely a wakeup call that in those areas most conservative oppressed populations are being targeted in a well-coordinated campaign. Revolutionists must realize and see these ultra-reactionaries for who they are: members of an extremist fringe movement who would welcome, with open arms, the embrace of fascist policies so as long as it benefitted their supernatural delusions.
It is of utmost importance for all progressives to battle against fiends foes like Charles Worley so that when the inevitable proletarian revolution comes, the working class is free of such rancid propaganda. Only when all segments of the working class are united in a common program will a transition to socialism be possible and a youth international ready to carry forth the tasks of the future.
The Queer Gathering 