What Mariners Church Teaches About Homosexuality Vs. What Jesus Teaches

In doing my cover story last week about the schism between Mariners Church pastor Kenton Beshore and his former right-hand man, Bob Gunn, over Gunn's homosexuality, I visited the Irvine congregation's bookstore. Books and books and books about Christianity, along with CDs, Bibles, and a cafe that was closed on the evening I went. I was interested to see what Beshore allowed in his bookstore in regards to homosexuality, but found only one piece of literature that specifically addressed the issue: a pamphlet called Straight Talk: Homosexuality, Science and the Bible.

You can Google the above pamphlet and find out its author; I'm not going to give the quack any more publicity than I'm already doing. All one needs to know is that Straight Talk maintains that "disagreement" with a "pro-gay agenda...is not bigotry," that if a boy between the ages of three and 12 "has feminine mannerisms or interests," you should "give privileges for being a boy," "affirm maleness as good," and "at bedtime, let the father read the Bible, pray and put your son to bed," all in the time of making sure your son doesn't turn homo. The pamphlet also offers therapy to cure people of homosexuality. Oh yeah, and homosexuality is bad because it's "a violation of God's created order and there is no biblical support for it." Ol' Yahweh didn't talk about cars either, but I don't see Beshore and his flock traveling with asses other than their fellow congregants.

While I was at Mariners bookstore, I also came across a book detailing everything Jesus Christ said in the Bible about any number of topics. Christ said nothing about homosexuality. Nothing.