Back in 2012, Bill Ledbetter – a Baptist minister from Durant – led a weekly devotional and invocation as the "Chaplain of the Week" for the Oklahoma House of Representatives.
It was pretty standard southern Baptist fear mongering. He blamed things like the teaching of science in public schools, gay marriage and America's rise as "a secular nation" for making our adorable loving God mad, and forcing Him to create things like 9/11, earthquakes and probably even a couple of sexually transmitted diseases as retribution:
Here's the video:
My favorite part is at the very end when a joyous Sally Kern rushes to congratulate Ledbetter while the rest of the House gives him a standing ovation. That's a nice little throwback.
Anyway, Ledbetter returned to the capitol yesterday after a six year hiatus, and surprise, surprise, he gave another fire and brimstone sermon. Although there's no video of the speech, it was very similar to the one from 2012. This time around he blamed school shootings – not 9/11 – on gay marriage, evolution and abortion.
Here are the details via The Tulsa World:
A pastor’s politicking sermon in the Legislature’s upper chamber on Thursday left some senators hot under the collar.
The sermon was given by Bill Ledbetter, pastor of Fairview Baptist Church in Durant...
“There is no place for intolerance and hate in the Senate Chamber or anywhere else in Oklahoma,” Sparks said. “As senators, we were elected to serve all people in Oklahoma, and we should not condone or encourage divisive rhetoric which targets any Oklahoman.”
Ledbetter said political correctness cloaks its strategy in tolerance while at the same time seeking to overcome the traditional moral values of the nation that support family, patriotism, work, liberty, labor and freedom of conscience.
For what it's worth, Ledbetter – who is also the chaplain for the Durant police department – was invited to give the sermon by the soon-to-be-retiring State Senator Josh Brecheen. According to one of our Southeastern Oklahoma Moles, David Bullard – the guy who will likely replace Brecheen – is a deacon and speaker at Ledbetter's church.
Here's more:
Ledbetter said recent national tragedies, such as the mass shooting at a Florida school and hurricanes in Texas and Puerto Rico, are the wrath of God. He said there is a time when God has to get the nation’s attention.
“Do we really believe we can create immorality in our laws?” he asked. “Do we really believe we can redefine marriage from the word of God to something in our own mind and there not be a response? Do we really believe we can tell God to get lost from our schools and our halls of legislation and there be no response? Do we really believe that?”
Actually, yeah, I think a lot of people believe that. Well, at least the ones who weren't indoctrinated / brainwashed at a young age to believe there's some angry man in the sky judging your actions and creating massive tragedies because he loves you.
And even if God is creating all this havoc and misery in this world, which seems like an asshole thing to do, why is it a result of taking prayer out of school? That happened in 1962, a time when anyone who wasn't a white Christian man faced rampant discrimination and inequality in this glorious country. If anything, you'd think God is punishing us for giving draconian assholes that use His name as an excuse to discriminate against same sex couples a pulpit at the people's Capitol.
