Thursday, May 2, 2013

Leroy Butler: Leap of Class

When Jason Collins came out the other day, right wingers went apoplectic because of all the positive attention and support he received.


One example of this involves Packer Nation hero Leroy Butler:
Shortly after sending a four-word message on Twitter - "Congrats to Jason Collins" - Butler got a call from a member of a church where he was scheduled to give an anti-bullying presentation this summer, he told the Journal Sentinel on Wednesday. Butler confirmed the church is in Wisconsin, but declined to share its name or approximate location.

He assumed the call was to discuss details of the upcoming event. He said he speaks to several churches every year and that sponsors usually help the church raise money to cover his fee - in this case $8,500 - and in turn, donations are collected during the event to benefit the church. He assumed the call was to discuss event details.

Instead, Butler was told the church would cancel his presentation unless he removed the tweet, apologized and asked for God's forgiveness.

"This is what bothers me the most. They said, 'If you ask for forgiveness and remove the tweet and you say something to the effect that you don't congratulate (Collins), then we'll let you do the engagement and get the speaker's fee, and I said I'm not doing that," Butler said Wednesday. "Every gay and lesbian person will say 'You know, LeRoy doesn't speak up for the weak or the silenced. He doesn't stand for anything as a man and he did it for money.' Why would you ask me to reduce my integrity like that?"
Butler went on to take the bigoted pastor to task and pointed out that the pastor's behavior was out of line:
Butler said he pointed out to the church's pastor that the church's attempt to force him to back down was an example of the kind of treatment he had planned to talk about at the church.

"This is a form of bullying, what you're doing. You're trying to get me to do something I don't want to do," Butler said. "He disagreed, and I said, 'We agree to disagree,' and he said 'No, I'm right and you're wrong.' "
Butler then took his second leap of class.

He said that he would never work with that church again.

My faith in humanity has been restored a little bit by Butler.

4 comments:

  1. A class act. Of course Rush is saying we're the bigots for not being tolerant of the intolerant. These guys make me feel like my brain is being sucked out my anus!

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    1. You should have heard Charlie Sykes. Race baiting and gay baiting at the same time. Nauseating to say the least.

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  2. Who dat pASStor?

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  3. LeRoy has always been a class act. Even in this instance, not outing this bigoted "Pastor".

    Makes you wonder if they ever read the book they are always thumping.

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