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Pastor Kevin Swanson and his Christian radio co-host Dave Buehner spent a few minutes just days before the Rose Bowl parade pondering what might happen if there were a public stoning of a gay person during the annual parade.
The Tournament of Roses Parade is televised around the world to millions of people in well-over 100 countries. This year, to the outrage of religious conservatives and right-wing pundits, the parade featured a same-sex wedding on a float sponsored by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation.
Pastor Swanson chattily told his co-host that “a pair of homosexual hairstylists will marry along the parade route while riding a wedding cake-shaped float sponsored by the AIDS group.”
“This is an AIDS group?,” Buehner, of Generations Radio, asked. “This is a group that’s against AIDS? They’re not trying to spread AIDS right? I mean, if you are trying to spread AIDS you would have pro-homosexual propaganda but if you’re trying to stop it.”
Clearly, Buehner associates HIV/AIDS with gay people. And clearly, disgustingly, AIDS is a joke to Pastor Swanson.
“They may be serving lemonade too as part of the event, I hope not but maybe,” Swanson joked. (Get it? “AIDS” – “lemonade”? Disgusting.)
But that pales in comparison to what their juvenile banter brought next:
Buehner: I wonder what the Rose Bowl parade would do if we had the stoning of a homosexual along the parade just as an expression of free speech and all that.
Swanson: I think that would be rejected by the Rose Bowl parade committee.
Buehner: Well what if the stones were just made like of flowers and flower pedals?
Swanson: I don’t know if they’d allow that or not. Anyway ladies and gentlemen, this is another instance in which the degradation of our society is going mainstream.
Yes, same-sex couples entering into loving, committed, legal, civil marriages — not joking about AIDS or the stoning of gay people — is the “mainstream degradation of our society.”
Right…
Remember how conservatives were so angered over MSNBC host Martin Basher’s comments they succeeded in getting him off the air? Why is this not subject to their wrath? When will they denouncing this type of hate speech?
Let’s take a moment to remember that Pastor Swanson claims to be a man of God. Should Pat Robertson stand up and denounce this rhetoric?
Whose God would think this ugly hate speech is OK?
https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/128216776&color=ff6600
Sadly, this kind of anti-gay hate speech masked as righteousness and biblical correctness is standard for the religious right — and especially for Swanson and Buehner.
As The New Civil Rights Movement reported last January, Swanson warned that if Colorado allowed civil unions for same-sex couples, gays would end up burning Christians at the stake, and homeschooled children would be given over to pedophiles, like the North American Man/Boy Love Association (NAMBLA).
In October, Swanson called for a boycott of Girl Scout cookies because, he claimed, they support lesbianism, feminism, abortion, and communism.
And in November, Swanson claimed that putting convicted pedophiles in charge of daycare is “the goal” of ENDA.
Again, whose God would think this commentary is OK?
Transcript and audio via Right Wing Watch