I've got nothing to do with it

Comment that the church is partly responsible for violence against gays and you will get a sharp and indignant denial. But… Take a look at the recent murder of Lawrence King, a 15 year old shot by a fellow classmate for gender deviancy. There was an outpouring of support from King's hometown of Oxnard, California where a rally in memory of King drew more than a thousand people, many times more than the organizers anticipated. They wanted to know how to stop the violence. However, there was one voice missing: the churches in Oxnard -- and around the country -- were silent. There was no outcry against violence to gays. There were loud voices that continued to insist homosexuality was wrong, but none that continued with the second half of the claims one gets with those indignant denials, the part that says, "We hate the sin and love the sinner." (I've got issues with that claim, but I'll rant another day.) That loving the sinner part wasn't said in all the articles about King and his death. Who to blame for the one-sided message from the church, but the church? A couple commenters pick up on the church's dilemma. Here they are claiming that being gay is an affront to God, the most disgusting act possible, and will bring down marriage and Western Civilization. If they simply report, "Student murdered because he was gay," they are accused of supporting the homosexual agenda. They can't compensate by attacking anti-bullying laws without seeming to be insensitive or even exploit the boy's death. Better to be silent.

The above article appeared alongside another about the hyper-homophobia and anti-gay violence in Jamaica (which has been particularly brutal). Some members of the Metropolitan Community Church's Sunshine Cathedral in Ford Lauderdale met with the Jamaican Consulate General to strongly suggest the Jamaican media start a campaign to say violence against gays is wrong. The Consulate General caught a firestorm of criticism in Jamaica. The media and the church will have nothing to do with it. They openly endorse homophobia and refuse to condemn murdering gay men.