FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Anti-Gay Leaders Refer To NALT Contributors As Apostates Who Have Renounced Their Faith
Burlington, Vt. — The co-founders of the NALT Christians Project today rebuked remarks made by religious right spokespersons Matt Barber and Peter LaBarbera that supporters of the NALT project have committed “apostasy” and “renounced their faith.” During his interview with LaBarbera, president of the Christian anti-LGBT organization Americans for Truth About Homosexuality, Barber said, “To have vile, anti-Christian bigots, who are pushing a radical, dangerous sexual anarchist agenda, presuming to lecture Christians, and have people — self-identified Christians, liberal so-called Christians — upload videos about how they support something that God calls an abomination — there’s no other word for it — it’s apostasy when you have self-described Christians do it.”
“People like Matt Barber and Peter LaBarbera make a fortune vilifying LGBT people and the Christians who affirm them,” said NALT Christians Project co-founder John Shore. “But when’s the last time you heard either of them mention Jesus’ teaching that ‘it’s easier for a camel to get through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get into heaven?'”
NALT Christians Project co-founder Evan Hurst added, “When such Religious Right figures can no longer rely on demonizing LGBT people to fill their coffers, one can only wonder which segment of the population is next on their hit list.”
The purpose of The NALT Christians Project is to give all LGBT-affirming Christians a means of proclaiming to the world their belief and conviction that there is nothing anti-biblical or inherently sinful about being gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender. The enthusiastic response of the Christian community to the project is evidenced by the videos uploaded to the NALT website, such as that from evangelicals Rob and Linda Robertson in Seattle (Linda wrote the viral, deeply moving Just Because He Breathes), who speak of the radical inclusion taught by Jesus, and declare that the kingdom of God is incomplete when all are not invited to the table.
Matt Barber has a long history of making incendiary and vicious comments about LGBT people and families. Among other things, he has claimed that pro-equality activists are akin to Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church; he has compared homosexuality to murder; and he has claimed that gay teens commit suicide because they know they’re “unnatural, wrong, [and] immoral.”
“The hate-mongering teachings of men like Matt Barber and Peter LaBarbera are a primary reason why not only LGBT people, but indeed much of the millennial generation, are leaving the church in droves,” said NALT Christians Project co-founder Wayne Besen. “The wonderful, diverse group of Christians supporting The NALT Christians Project stands as the negation of the vile hatred spewed by hate group leaders in the name of their faith, and those leaders know it. This is why The NALT Christians Project is so vital.”
The NALT Christians Project is a joint venture between John Shore and Truth Wins Out, a nonprofit organization that fights anti-LGBT extremism. TWO specializes in turning information into action by organizing, advocating and fighting for LGBT equality.
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