‘Gaystapo’ Editor: ‘I Penned A Theologically Based Article Stating My Sincerely Held Religious Beliefs’

The editor fired for calling gay people “the enemy,” “the deceivers,” the “Gaystapo,” and “the LGBTQXYZ crowd” issues a statement.

As The New Civil Rights Movement has been reporting, fired editor Bob Eschliman has now filed a federal complaint after he lost his job at a small Iowa newspaper for penning a personal blog post that attacked the LGBT community. 

“I’d like to talk a little bit about deceivers among us, most notably the LGBTQXYZ crowd and the Gaystapo effort to reword the Bible to make their sinful nature ‘right with God,'” Eschliman wrote, in a post titled, “The deceivers are hard at work.” 

That post, in fact, his entire blog, has been taken down, and there is no Google or Archive.org cache of the post, but journalism blogger Jim Romenesko had excerpted a portion.

A few weeks ago, I came across the website for the Queen James Bible (because King James was a flaming homo, don’t you know). The editors are very keen to let folks know they didn’t remove passages from the Bible, but instead reworded them to “make it more relevant.”

Eschliman went on to write, “If you ask me, it sounds like the Gaystapo is well on its way. We must fight back against the enemy.”

The folks at Gawker have obtained what appears to be Eschliman’s official federal complaint to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).

“On April 28, 2014, I penned a theologically based article stating my sincerely held religious beliefs about efforts by some to criticize and remold my faith through what I believe is false teaching,” the complaint states. “In my article, I quoted at length from a variety of sources, most prominently, from the Holy Bible.”

That blog post described my sincerely held religious beliefs regarding Holy Scripture and the definition of marriage. My comments on my blog were personal in nature and reflective of my sincerely held religious beliefs. Furthermore, I felt compelled by my sincerely held religious beliefs to share my Biblical view with the few folks who read my blog. 

The post was an attack on LGBT people and something Eschliman found, called the The Queen James Bible, apparently a reworking of the King James Bible that is more LGBT-friendly. The description at Amazon reads:

“The Queen James Bible seeks to resolve interpretive ambiguity in the Bible as it pertains to homosexuality: We edited those eight verses in a way that makes homophobic interpretations impossible.”

Eschliman’s complaint adds, 

“There is no question that I was fired for holding and talking about my sincerely held religious beliefs on my personal blog during my off-duty time from the comfort of my own home. There is no dispute that it was my personal blog and not connected to the newspaper. I would like to have obtained a religious accommodation for my sincerely held religious belief to share my Biblical view with the few family members and friends who read my blog. Shaw Media directly discriminated against me because of my religious beliefs and my identity as an evangelical Christian who believes in Holy Scripture and the Biblical view of marriage.”

Regardless of which version of the Christian Bible you prefer, the words “Gaystapo,” and, “the LGBTQXYZ crowd” are not in it.

 

Image by Guillaume Paumier via Flickr