The Many Sins of "Death to the Gays" Rep. Andy Gipson

Ever since President Obama announced his support for marriage equality earlier this month, Mississippi's District 77 Representative Andy Gipson has been hard at work making a name for himself in the land of intolerance and inequality. Gipson, who is also a Southern Baptist minister, took to his Facebook page to opine that "the only opinion that counts is God's: see Romans 1:26-28 and Leviticus 20:13. Anyway [sic] you slice it, it is sin. Not to mention horrific social policy."

Leviticus 20:13, a favorite here in the South, is the one that says of gays, "They are to be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads." Gipson went on in a separate comment to give a three-point sermon outlining why homosexuality is horrific social policy:

He offered that, "in addition to the basic principal [sic] that it is morally wrong," homosexuality is "unnatural behavior which results in disease, not the least of which is its high association with the development and spread of HIV/AIDS." In doing so, he made his forefathers of bigotry proud, who once argued that interracial marriage shouldn't be allowed "because of the physical inferiority and higher incidence of certain diseases among certain races, such as sickle-cell anemia among African Americans."

Mr. Gipson's second brilliant point was that homosexuality led to "confusing behavior which is harmful to children who have a deep need to understand the proper role of men and women in society and the important difference between men and women." In other words, Mr. Gipson feels that his manhood is threatened by the idea of a man who exhibits feminine qualities — or worse — a butchy, dominant woman. At all costs, Mr. Gipson must defend the sacred institution of male domination and female subjugation. After all, Ephesians 5:22 does command women to submit to their husbands.

Gipson's third point is that allowing gay couples to marry "undermines the long standing definition of marriage as between one man and one woman, a definition which has been key to all aspects of social order and prosperity. Anytime [sic] that definition is weakened our culture is also weakened." Personally, if prosperity is the goal, I think we should go back to the kind of traditional marriage arrangement that King Solomon had. That dude was not only the richest man in the world, but he held enormous favor with God and had 700 wives in addition to 300 concubines (1 Kings 11:1-3). Can we just go back to that, please?

Alas, failing to see the brilliance of the good lawmaker's argument, built upon the rock-solid precedents set by those who once stood against interracial marriage, many angry gays and liberals inundated Mr. Gipson with a torrential downpour of emails and Facebook messages, denouncing his message. Undeterred, Mr. Gipson stood strong in the word of the Lord, posting thus on Friday:

"To be clear, I want the world to know that I do not, cannot, and will not apologize for the inspired truth of God's Word™. It is one thing that will never 'change.' Anyone who knows me knows that I also believe that all people are created in God's image, and that all people are loved by God, so much so that He gave us the truth of His Word which convicts us of the reality and guilt of our sin, and He gave us His Son Jesus who paid the full penalty for our sins, by His grace through faith in Him as we repent of our sin. John 3:16. It is this message that I preach every Sunday. I sincerely pray God will reach someone through this message."

While Mr. Gipson's words about the nature of sin and Jesus' sacrifice are biblically sound, a quick glance through Gipson's Facebook seems to reveal that he is not walking in this Word that he so professes. In fact, it seems that God's Word™has failed at convicting him of a number of sins, which he not only commits, but proudly shares on Facebook, posting photographic evidence of his trespasses against God's truth. 2 Timothy 3:5 seems to indicate that Mr. Gipson is, in fact, a false prophet. Consider the following sins and abominations that Mr. Gipson has flaunted on his Facebook and decide for yourself.

This photo, which Mr. Gipson uploaded from his mobile phone on April 14—a Saturday—indicates multiple instances in which Mr. Gipson is guilty of disobeying scripture. Gipson uploaded another photo on the same day showing his son being made to operate a tractor—on a Saturday. These photos depict Gipson's adorable children being made to work on the Sabbath—a crime that Exodus 35:2 tells us must be punished with death. Luckily, Jesus clarified for us that the children are not culpable; in Matthew 18:6, Jesus indicated that instead of punishing the children, the adult guilty of causing the little ones to stumble should simply have a millstone hung around his neck and be cast into the sea. Well, that's nice to know.

But the sinning might not stop there. We must first know what the children are planting and what else is planted in the field where they stand; Leviticus 19:19 expressly forbids the planting of two different seeds in the same field. Speaking of Leviticus 19:19, a quick glance through Mr. Gipson's photos seems to indicate that he and his family constantly violate this verse's prohibition on wearing clothing made of two different types of fabric.

As a minister, Mr. Gipson must approach the altar of the Lord very often. However, Leviticus 21:18-20 tells us that a man who has any number of physical defects, including being crippled, having any eye defect, or having damaged testicles, may not come near the Lord's altar. Yet this picture clearly shows Mr. Gipson wearing a pair of eyeglasses, indicating that he does indeed have some sort of eye defect. That means that even if his balls are in good shape, he still isn't worthy to approach the altar of the Lord. Every time he preaches, he violates the Word of God™ by approaching the altar with a defect in his sight. He should, literally, step down from the pulpit immediately.

Also, the above picture, like all of Mr. Gipson's pictures, serves to confirm that he is operating in disobedience to Leviticus 19:27, which forbids Mr. Gipson from trimming the hair on the sides of his head or trimming his beard. But Mr. Gipson doesn't merely trim his beard—he annihilates it!

Leviticus 19:33-34, one of the kinder portions of one of the most unkind books in the Bible, calls on us to not "turn away" the "stranger" (or "alien") that dwells in our land, but to treat him as "a native among you, and you shall love him like you love yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt—I am the Lord, your God." Well, not quite. Last year, Gipson attempted to create a law that would've forced police to check the immigration status of anyone they arrest. Gipson responded to criticisms that he was anti-immigrant or racist by announcing that he couldn't possibly be racist because he helped create a Hispanic ministry at his church.

Lastly, one of Mr. Gipson's most egregious sins comes in the form of idolatry. This picture depicts Mr. Gipson commencing the war on Christmas by mocking Jesus' birthday with a pagan symbol that some call a "Christmas" tree—displayed prominently in his living room! But if Mr. Gipson had any regard for the Word of God™, he would know that Jeremiah 10:1-11 absolutely condemns the pagan practice of cutting down a tree and adorning it with silver and gold. This angers God so much that "the earth trembles" and "the nations cannot endure his wrath." For this trespass, verse 11 tells us, "These gods [Christmas trees], who did not make the heavens and the earth, will perish from the earth and from under the heavens."

The evidence is incontrovertible: Mr. Gipson is in blatant violation of the commandments of God's Word™. According to the same book he cites as evidence that gays should be put to death, people who violate the sorts of commandments he has violated may be put to death in a myriad of different ways. For example, the town could gather to stone such violators (Leviticus 24:10-16). Sometimes the violator's family may be allowed to simply gather and burn him or her at the stake (Leviticus 20:14).

Personally, I don't like any of these options—not even the millstone/sea option suggested by Jesus himself. Mr. Gipson doesn't deserve death for his disobedience to God's Word™ any more than gay people deserve death for simply being gay.

Mr. Gipson, who opposes the existence of families like this one and considers the love they share to be an abomination unto the Lord, actually has quite a beautiful family himself. In fact, upon looking at his profile, I found it difficult to reconcile this picture of him tenderly kissing his baby daughter with the kind of hateful rhetoric he was spewing against other families that, aside from gender, were not much different from his own. Both his and other families share the same loving smiles with one another. The same affectionate kisses. The same warm embraces between spouse and spouse, parent and child. They each embark on the same group adventures known as "family vacations" where they each create the same kind of sacred treasures known as "memories together."

Yet, because Mr. Gipson cherry picks one passage in Leviticus and a few others in Romans and Corinthians, he has decided that these other families don't deserve the same rights as his, nor do they deserve the same respect. In fact, he has decided that these other families are abominable, unholy, deserving of ridicule, scorn, and contempt. In short, they are evil. So, by the power vested in him, Mr. Gipson has decided to employ his selective theology as a political tool meant to maim the loving bonds that other families share.

Out of all the violations of biblical commandments listed above, this is surely worse than having a Christmas tree, or having a defect in sight, or working on Saturday; it's pure cruelty.

It's hard to imagine that Mr. Gipson would appreciate a legislator using his or her power to attempt to tear his beautiful family apart in the name of a god. In his rush to condemn gay people, Mr. Gipson's only truly meaningful violation of the Bible is his violation of Jesus' words in Matthew 7:12. Mr. Gipson certainly hasn't treated others the way he would like to be treated.