Pastor Who Assaulted Son in TN Is Also A Thief

Posted on October 7, 2011 by Jacob Flores

A few days ago, I posted about the Pastor, Jeremy Pittman, Sr., from Grace Fellowship Church in Tennessee, who assaulted his son and his boyfriend for trying to attend church. Click here to read the full post.

New information, first discovered on Queerty, has surfaced regarding additional charges being brought against the holier-than-thou pastor. According to WBBJ, the local ABC affiliate, the pastor’s criminal activity extends to “charges of stealing from a local business.” The business in question is owned by the elder Pittman’s estranged wife, where he is accused of stealing more than $1,000 in materials which were later sold by Pittman, Sr., for scrap.

It seems the pastor has a penchant for pilfering as well physical and psychological battery.

But wait…there’s more!

Closer inspection of Pastor Pilferer’s criminal record reveals that “This actually is not the first time Pittman has been arrested. Police said he was arrested back in 2006 for a simple assault charge” involving his daughter’s boyfriend.

Apparently, the pastor has a hate-on for anyone in or associated with his family. This is exactly the type of man who should be pastor of a church!

Honestly, I used to fear what the conservative Christians who preach hate and intolerance might do if they ever gained true power in this country. But as shown by Pittman, Sr. and many others in the news, they will ultimately self-destruct. Anyone who hates others so vehemently struggles with dangerous inner demons that will eventually see the light of day. All we need to do is wait and watch!

House Speaker Boehner Triples Budget in Defense of DOMA

Posted on October 4, 2011 by Jacob Flores

In what can only be called a frivolous waste of tax payers’ money, House Speaker John Boehner has approved to triple the amount paid to their legal team to battle DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act) in legal proceedings. This move is supported by other House Republican leaders.

What I find interesting, and a little maddening, is that Republicans constantly blast Democrats for their “frivolous” spending on the poor, Medicare, food stamps, and Social Security, to name a few, (all programs to help Americans, by the way), while Republican leaders apparently have no problem spending 1.5 millions dollars to defend a law that restricts civil rights.

Apparently, defending marriage and restricting it to only one man and one woman means more than providing food and health care for the down trodden. Is that really what this country, whose deficit is approximately 14 trillion dollars, needs to be spending money on? Is ensuring that two men or two women, who love each other, are not allowed to marry that important?

For Republican leaders, the answer would apparently be a resounding yes!

When asked about the tripled budget to defend DOMA, Drew Hammill, a spokesman for Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, said, “At a time when Americans are hurting and job creation should be the top priority, it just shows how out of touch House Republicans have become that they would spend up to $1.5 million dollars to defend discrimination in our country.”

And that is exactly what Republican leaders are doing.

As I’ve said before, marriage is not only a religious sacrament, it is also a civil right. Not every straight couple is married in a church. And homosexuals aren’t asking to be married in a church. We are simply asking for the same rights heterosexual couples enjoy (and take for granted), which they receive from the government–the right of inheritance, the right of hospital visits, the right to make medical decisions, and the right to file joint income tax returns. The list goes on and on.

But spending 1.5 million dollars to prevent that from happening means more to Republican leaders than any social program that helps others. This is government-sponsored discrimination at its best!

With the way things are going in politics these days, the America of 2050 I envisioned in my novel Moral Authority really isn’t that far-fetched, is it?

Student Assaulted by TN HS Principal Over a GSA Shirt

Posted on October 4, 2011 by Jacob Flores

It hasn’t been a good couple of days for gays or Tennessee. You may remember yesterday I posted about two gay men assaulted for attempting to attend services at a church in Tennessee. Click here to read that post.

Sequoyah High School, where children aren't safe

Today, I came across another assault in Tennessee (courtesy of Towleroad). In Madisonville, TN, high school principal Maurice Moser assaulted 17 year old Chris Sigler over his decision to wear a homemade shirt in support of Sequoyah High School starting a Gay-Straight Alliance. The shirt contained the school’s abbreviation–SQHS–on the front. The back of the shirt read “Gay Straight Alliance: We’ve Got Your Back.”

The day before the assault, Moser warned Sigler not to wear the shirt again; however, brave Sigler, refusing to allow anyone to squelch his First Amendment Right, wore the shirt the following day. Moser allegedly interrupted Sigler’s class and ordered everyone out of the room. Sigler’s sister, however, refused to leave. The ACLU of Tennessee, who has taken Sigler’s case, says that “Moser then grabbed Sigler’s arm, shoved him, and chest-bumped him repeatedly while asking ‘Who’s the big man now?’ Sigler’s mother reported that when she arrived at the school, she saw her son seated in a desk with Moser leaning over him and shouting in Sigler’s face.”

Based on the ACLU letter sent to the school district, “Mr. Moser stopped his attack after a school resource officer and Chris’ mother intervened, and that Mr. Moser eventually agreed not to suspend Chris only on the condition that he leave the school grounds with his mother and not return for the rest of the school day.”

Maurice Moser, Principal, not a pal to SQHS students

When asked about the attack and why he wore the shirt, Sigler said, “All I want is to have a GSA at my school to help stop the bullying against gays and lesbians and their friends who support them. The shirt was a way to use my voice and show my support for the club. The way I was treated shows even more why we need a GSA here.”

Sigler couldn’t be more right. The courageous young man did nothing wrong. He is a level-headed young man, who is straight but who is also tired of seeing his friends, who happen to be homosexual, bullied at school. He was simply expressing his opinion and showing his support for something he believed in. He certainly didn’t deserve to be attacked by his principal, a man whose job it is to not only oversee the education of the children at his school, but who is also supposed to protect the children entrusted in his care from any threat on the school grounds.

As an educator, I find Moser’s actions reprehensible, and it makes me wonder about the safety of all children at schools across the country. Do we as parents now have to worry about educators and students bullying our children for being different? Are the people who we trust to protect our children not going to be there for them when they are needed the most, simply because our child might look different of believe differently from school officials?

If anyone thinks this might not happen to you or your child, it just might. You see, I have personal experience with this.

While I won’t name the school, my daughter attended a private elementary school in the town where we live. When she started Kindergarten, my ex-wife and I informed her teachers of our unique situation (at least unique for our part of the world), that I was gay and that we are both active parents in her life. My ex-wife and I agonized over this issue, but we felt it was the right thing to do in case our child started to talk about it among her classmates. We wanted the teachers to be there for her and for the other students, who may have asked them questions.

Unfortunately, in our efforts to protect her, we opened her up to the criticisms and attacks of those teachers and all her future teachers at that school. She was allowed to flail academically and received no extra help though other students in her class received special attention. For three years, we thought our child suffered from a learning disability until we learned that she was being singled out (or denied assistance) because of who her father was.

Naturally, we withdrew her from that school and she now thrives in an new school environment where my private life in no way affects her life at school. The entire school knows I’m gay. In fact, my husband serves on the Board for this school, and no one cares about our private life. Their only focus is educating every single child.

Isn’t that how all schools are supposed to operate? Unfortunately for Sigler and for my daughter, it’s not always the case.

In Tennessee: Two Gay Men Assaulted For Trying to Attend Church Services

Posted on October 3, 2011 by Jacob Flores

If you’re like me, you were raised to believe that God is good, and that His church, His places of worship, (no matter what religious denomination it might be) are where all are welcome—the believers and the sinners, the members of society and those castaway from it, the rich and the poor, and the healthy and the sick.

Churches are safe havens. It’s where we as members of a flock can find solace and unconditional love in times of great distress. After all, God loves every single one of us, and those of us who are Christians believe He sent His only son to us as a gift—to show us what true love really means. That love, that acceptance begins at God’s house—his church.

Apparently, that might no longer be true.

Pittman, Jr and Lee after assault

Last Wednesday, in an appalling scene at Grace Fellowship Church in Fruitland, Tennessee, two gay men were attacked for simply trying to enter a church to worship.

Jeremy Pittman, Jr. and his boyfriend, Dustin Lee, were barred entry from the church by church leaders. Pittman and Lee were then verbally and physically assaulted by the pastor and deacons. To make matters worse, two of the offenders were Pittman’s father, Jeremy Pittman, Sr. (pastor of Grace Fellowship Church) and Pittman’s uncle, who was one of the deacons. The attack took place in front of the church, where several church goers witnessed the attack and did nothing to help Pittman, Jr. or Lee.

According to WBBJ, the local CBS affiliate, Pittman, Jr. told reporters: “My uncle and two other deacons came over to the car per my dad’s request. My uncle smash me in the door as the other deacon knocked my boyfriend back so he couldn’t help me, punching him in his face and his chest. The other deacon came and hit me through my car window in my back,” said Pittman. He also stated the deacon yelled derogatory homosexual slurs, even after officers arrived, and the officers never attempted to stop the deacons’ verbal assaults.

Even though, the responding deputy reportedly did not allow Pittman, Jr. or Lee to press charges or file a complaint at the time of the assault, all parties are scheduled to appear in court tomorrow.

This story boggles my mind!

How could church leaders—a pastor and three deacons—think in any way that God would have wanted them to not only prevent individuals from worshipping but to assault them? And to do so in His name? How could these men think God would have wanted them to physically assault a member of their own family?

What infuriates me the most is that these are the same Christian extremists who claim homosexuality destroys the family and causes irreparable damage to God’s children!

Are they really talking about homosexuals or themselves?

The pastor and the deacons at Grace Fellowship Church, and others like them in the nation and the world, are the ones behind these types of attacks, not the homosexuals!

I have yet to hear one story of a group of homosexuals converging on an unsuspecting Christian and beating him or preventing him from entering a Neiman Marcus. I have yet to hear a story of a straight teen committing suicide because a horde of homosexuals taunted him by calling him a breeder. I have yet to hear of a congregation at a Metropolitan Community Church (a church run by and for spiritual homosexuals) banning straight people from attending services or beating them on church grounds.

Homosexuals aren’t the ones creating the violence. We aren’t even responding to violence with violence. In fact, we keep turning the other cheek, we try to show love even when met with violence, and we follow the laws of the land to incite change. We don’t attack others, and we don’t turn our backs on family, even if they turn their backs on us.

This only makes me wonder: just who is following God’s laws again?

Story originally found via Towleroad

Top 5 Reasons People Choose to be Gay by FCKH8.com

Posted on September 27, 2011 by Jacob Flores

I ran across this video from an activist organization aptly named FCKH8. (Visit their website by clicking here.)

The video’s message is strongly worded and if you are easily offended by vulgarity, then you shouldn’t watch it, and, well, if you are, you probably won’t be reading this post anyway, so my warning is probably moot.

What I find promising about this video is what it tells me about our future. The video stars many younger people (and by that I mean younger than someone of my almost forty years). These youth are angry, and they are taking a stand against the people who continue to spread hate and intolerance in our country. By taking this campaign under their wings, they have assembled merchandise to be sold in support of FCKingH8 and raised awareness about how hateful many conservative politicians and religious sects are being, in other words the individuals and organizations that have grown stagnant and resistant to change.

And their audience isn’t me or you or those in charge. They are speaking to the youth of the nation, the twenty something and younger crowd. They are speaking to the future leaders, and they use language and images that appeal to the younger generation’s mindset.

Their voices are crude, and their demeanor is flippant, but their message is clear. For them, the time for hate is long over, and since they will be taking over the country and the world when the ultra conservatives retire and/or die off, they are letting the nation know that when it’s there turn to be in power, our nation will be what our forefathers wanted it to be–a place where the downtrodden and the outcast are welcome and embraced with arms wide open.

If you like this video on Facebook and tweet it on Twitter, their campaign will donate up to $10,000 for organizations that help GLBT youth, a worthwhile endeavor indeed. So view the video, like it, tweet it, and share it.

Before you click, be advised one more time: many F-bombs ahead!

NY Archbishop’s Veiled Threat: Gay Marriage Equals Church-State Conflict

Posted on September 25, 2011 by Jacob Flores

New York Catholic Archbishop Timothy Dolan, in a letter sent to the Obama Administration on Friday, threatens that if Obama continues to withhold support for DOMA or a federal ban on gay marriage that it could “precipitate a national conflict between church and state of enormous proportions.”

The Archbishop’s veiled threat intrigues me.

The Swiss Guard, wielding their pikes, are ready for war

Is there some underground movement in the works, stockpiling ammunition and awaiting word from the Archbishop or his General, Pope Benedict? At this moment, are priests and nuns engaged in pike-wielding combat training, supervised by the brightly colored Swiss Guard? Are altar boys and girls being used to courier messages from the pulpit to the budding revolutionaries sitting in the pews every Sunday morning? Are Roman Catholics, and those who have thrown support behind their crusade, merely waiting for the opportune moment to usher in a new holy war?

Archbishop Dolan’s strongly worded letter to Obama definitely indicates that plans are being set in motion to deal with Obama and his future Administration decisions. Most likely, the Catholic Church will simply throw its considerable weight and perhaps even resources behind a Republican presidential nominee who is more amenable to conservative Catholic views.

But what if that’s not the case? What if the Archbishop spilled beans not yet meant to be spilt? What if his slip of the tongue revealed a hidden Catholic agenda? What if right now the nation stands at a precipice of war?

It’s not like the Catholic Church hasn’t declared war before or done some pretty vile things to guarantee the spread of the one true religion. Remember the Crusades? The Spanish Inquisition? (“what a thrill!”)

Whose to say Pope Benedict isn’t sitting on his golden throne, kicking back in his Prada shoes, and plotting the demise of American liberalism? Popes (and those who serve them) have done worse things throughout history, such as commit murder, desecrate the graves of former popes, and engage in acts of simony, licentiousness, and violence.

Nuns with guns and ready to kick @$$

Still, the image of nuns advancing down streets in their wimples and habits carrying weapons or squads of gun-toting priests and bishops battling the scourge of the “gay agenda” is far too comical to believe. It’s just as ridiculous to imagine as the prospect of gay marriage, which is all about allowing two consenting adults to live in love together, as being the single event that sparked a “conflict between church and state of enormous proportions,” according to Dolan.

Religious people who claim marriage is a religious sacrament only fail to understand that marriage is also a civil right.

Our nation, any nation, has the right, through laws passed by the consent of the majority, to define what the word is, just as they have defined criminal activity, discrimination, and slavery. No one is asking the Catholic Church or any church to change what they believe marriage or anything else to be. Their rituals are theirs alone! We are simply asking that their religious definitions not be applied to those who don’t support them. There is a separation of Church and State for a reason. (Just dig through the history books and look at our humble beginnings if you need to remember why.)

I would like to ask Archbishop Dolan to be just as respectful of what I believe as he wants me, and others, to be respectful of his. Threats, veiled or otherwise, seem counterproductive and a bit childish.

Instead of clinging to anger and hate, I prefer to embrace what Jesus asked me to embrace–faith, hope, and love. I have faith that God’s message will one day be made clear to all of us by God himself. I have hope that a better future will be fashioned by our children, who prove to be far more tolerant and accepting than the generations that preceded them, and I’m confident that in the end, love will be all that matters.

DADT Repealed 9/20/2011

Posted on September 19, 2011 by Jacob Flores

Finally, after too many years of hiding and living in secret, Don’t Ask Don’t Tell is over. A letter distributed to troops today made the repeal official to soldiers on American soil and abroad. (click here to read the letter as reported in The Washington Post).

The letter, signed by Raymond T. Odiemo, General of the United States Army; Raymond F. Chandler III, Sergeant Major of the Army; and Jeff M. McHugh, Secretary of the Army, states that “The law is repealed” and “from this day forward, gay and lesbian Soldiers may serve in our Army with the dignity and respect they deserve.”

It’s about time! Dignity and respect have long been denied to our gay brothers and sisters in the military. They have proudly served their country, fulfilling integral, and sometimes dangerous, roles that have kept our country safe from those who would do us harm. And at the end of the day, when their bodies were tired, bruised, and/or battered, they were denied a basic comfort most everyone else, including me, takes for granted.

They couldn’t really go home. Not to the home that we think about, where our spouse waits to make the horrors of the day better with a kind word or a soothing touch. Their homes were a charade they created to keep their military careers safe, so they could return to the front lines and bleed for us again while we slept safely next to our significant other.

That will no longer be the case.

Now, they can truly go home after an awful day and receive the love and support we all take for granted because their homes will no longer be shrouded in secrecy or fear.

That will, no doubt, be one of the greatest gifts they ever received.

Sally Kern: Gays Still A Bigger Threat than Terrorists

Posted on September 12, 2011 by Jacob Flores

Yesterday, I posted about how we as a country need to move past traditions of hate and violence. Today, I read a post from Queerty, which exemplifies the type of vitriol we as a country and as members of the human race need to steer clear of.

Sally Kern, the Oklahoma State Senator who is infamous for stating that “[homosexuality is] the biggest threat our nation has, even more so than terrorism or Islam,” attempted (rather miserably) to clarify her statement that garnered her much criticism. In an interview with Peter LaBarbera, president of an anti-LGBT organization called the Americans for Truth About Homosexuality (obviously a fun and lively group), Kern continued to spew inflammatory statements that did nothing to support her claim that her words were “taken out of context” or “distorted.”

Here are Kern’s words “proving” she was the victim of misrepresentation:

“You know if you just look at it in practical terms, which has destroyed and ended the life of more people? Terrorism attack here in America or HIV/AIDS? In the last twenty years, fifteen to twenty years, we’ve had maybe three terrorist attacks on our soil with a little over 5,000 people regrettably losing their lives. In the same time frame, there have been hundreds of thousands who have died because of having AIDS. So which one’s the biggest threat? And you know, every day our young people, adults too, but especially our young people, are bombarded at school, in movies, in music, on TV, in the mall, in magazines, they’re bombarded with ‘homosexuality is normal and natural.’ It’s something they have to deal with every day. Fortunately we don’t have to deal with a terrorist attack every day, and that’s what I mean.

. . .

[Homosexuality is] more dangerous, . . . because it will tear down the moral fiber of this nation. We were founded as a nation upon the principles of religion and morality, if we take those out from under our society we will lose what has made us a great nation, we will no longer be a virtuous people, which we see happening already. And without virtue this nation will not survive.”

Obviously, Senator Kern was misquoted but only if she lived in Bizarro World, where everything is backward. But she doesn’t live on Bizarro World, and neither do we. If she lived on Bizarro World, then her hate speech would be filled with love and acceptance and her snarling face wouldn’t frighten young children either. On this world, her words are filled with venom and her face, well, I’ll be polite and let you draw your own conclusion.

What Senator Kern fails to see is that there are other factors in the world far deadlier than HIV/AIDS or even terrorists. Alcohol is responsible for more than 75,000 deaths a year. Should we return to Prohibition and eliminate this threat because it is far deadlier than either homosexuals and terrorists according to Kern’s reasoning? Additionally, an average of 195,000 people die each year from in hospital deaths that could have been prevented. Should hospitals and health care professionals who spend their lives helping people be treated as criminals worse than terrorists? If we follow Kern’s thoughts, then yes!

Obviously, the only reason Kern speaks such poison about homosexuals is simply because she hates them. Not because they are more dangerous than terrorism. She isn’t really concerned about keeping Americans safe if the only group she regularly attacks is a group of already prejudiced people, who are not solely responsible for spreading HIV/AIDS.

Additionally, Kern also doesn’t understand the driving force behind the founding fathers of this nation. They were not Christians as we know them today. They were religious men (for the most part), but they were Deists. Deism was the belief that God existed but that God didn’t involve himself with the day-to-day lives of humans. The Deists moved away from organized religion and lived according to principles of morality that included acceptance of others, even those that were different from them. Washington accepted the Freemasons while others did not. Adams declared the accomplishments of Jewish people as far surpassing those who persecuted them. Thomas Jefferson thought very little of clergy and organized religion because he felt abuse of power was common among those of faith who wielded absolute control over their flock.

These men, these Founding Fathers, created this country not to exclude but to accept all. After all, the country was made of immigrants who were considered distasteful in the countries they fled.

So to those like Kern who ask us to follow the nation those Founding Fathers envisioned when they drafted the Constitution and created the laws that governed this nation, they were looking to creating a haven for everyone, not a select few.

One day, I hope Sally Kern finally gets it right.

Book Trailer for MORAL AUTHORITY

Posted on September 6, 2011 by Jacob Flores

I’ve created a book trailer for my novel Moral Authority, thanks to the wonderful program that is called iMovie. What have I done without iMovie before this?!?! I’m beyond addicted. Likely, my addiction will be the subject of a future blog as friends and family members alike turn against me and run!

Anyway, here is the video. I hope you enjoy it!