Sean Harris Is No Christian

He may be the pastor of a Baptist Church, but he is no Christian.  As usual he is a pastor who picks and chooses what parts of the Bible he wants to take literally and which ones he wants to claim are allegorical.

Sean Harris, senior pastor of Berean Baptist Church in Fayetteville, spoke at length in support of North Carolina's proposed Amendment 1, which would define marriage in the state constitution as between one man and one woman and would outlaw civil unions and domestic partnerships, during an hour-long sermon on Sunday. In this clip, provided by Jeremy Hooper of the blog Good as You, a man identified as Harris is heard urging his congregation to attack their children if they appear to be exhibiting behavior outside of gender norms.

Notes Harris:

"So your little son starts to act a little girlish when he is four years old and instead of squashing that like a cockroach and saying, 'Man up, son, get that dress off you and get outside and dig a ditch, because that is what boys do,' you get out the camera and you start taking pictures of Johnny acting like a female and then you upload it to YouTube and everybody laughs about it and the next thing you know, this dude, this kid is acting out childhood fantasies that should have been squashed.

Dads, the second you see your son dropping the limp wrist, you walk over there and crack that wrist. Man up. Give him a good punch. Ok? You are not going to act like that. You were made by God to be a male and you are going to be a male. And when your daughter starts acting too butch, you reign [sic] her in. And you say, 'Oh, no, sweetheart. You can play sports. Play them to the glory of God. But sometimes you are going to act like a girl and walk like a girl and talk like a girl and smell like a girl and that means you are going to be beautiful. You are going to be attractive. You are going to dress yourself up.'"

The Fayetteville Observer reported that Harris now says he was joking during the sermon. Though he noted he "would never ever advocate" hitting a child, Harris nonetheless defended his belief in the need to reinforce traditional gender roles in children:

"If I had to say it again, I would say it differently, no doubt," Harris is quoted as saying. "Those weren't planned words, but what I do stand by is that the word of God makes it clear that effeminate behavior is ungodly. I'm not going to compromise on that."

Harris retracted the statements of violence but continued to defend his comments about the "importance of gender distinctions that God created," as well his condemnation of homosexuality, citing the Bible. But he was not able to explain other passages in the Bible, such as those condoning slavery, saying he didn't realize the interview would "slant and redirect the conversation."


"I had no idea that the video would be chopped and posted in the blogosphere in a such a manner in which the entirety isn't understood," Harris said in an interview on Michelangelo Signorile's radio program on SiriusXM OutQ. "Those were not the best choice of words. If I had to do it over again again I would not choose those words. I was using hyperbole in an effort to communicate the importance of the gender distinctions that God created. I would offer an apology to anyone I have offended. I don't make an apology for those gender distinctions that are the word of God."

In trying to explain why he used violence to convey his message even though he is now retracting the statements, Harris said: "In the context of the scripture, Mark, chapter 9, Jesus conjures up violent images as well, when he says, 'If your hand is causing you to sin, cut it off.' He's not speaking literally. He's speaking figuratively, using hyperbole to convey the importance of the offense."

Harris said the comments were taken out of context because in the rest of the video of his sermon, "I get ready to tell the church, 'We are not to be homophobic. We are to love the gay person.'"

Nonetheless, Harris defended his condemnation of homosexuality by quoting the New Testament and the Old Testament. When asked about passages in the both the Old Testament and the New Testament condoning slavery, however, he said those passages are taken "out of context."

"I didn't realize this was going to be an interview on slavery," he added, when asked why he selectively used the Bible. "It's unfortunate that [I was not told] you were going to slant and redirect the conversation. It's unfortunate that I accepted this phone call."


North Carolina residents will go to the polls on May 8 to vote on both the same-sex marriage measure and to pick a Republican presidential candidate.

Last week, however, Public Policy Polling reportedly released a new poll showing that support among North Carolinians for the proposed anti-gay amendment has dropped to a record low.