Pinned, Punched and Prayed over for Being Gay
By: James Finn
Tags: Religion, Equality, Christianity, LGBTQ, Bullying

Twenty-three year old Sean Cormie just wanted to please his mom

She’d been urging him to join her in church since he came out to her as gay last spring. He hesitated for months, but finally relented two Sundays ago.

“I wanted to go to church to make my mom proud and make her happy,” he said.

He hesitated because he didn’t believe that he and his new boyfriend would be truly welcome. When he finally did attend a service at the First Assembly of God in Blackwell, Oklahoma, his worst fears were realized.

Congregants surrounded him to “pray away the gay” as his boyfriend was forcibly pushed out of the sanctuary. Members began to speak in tongues and pray over Cormie. They eventually physically assaulted him, somebody (allegedly a church elder) punching him in the face, leaving him partially conscious with a black eye and other injuries.

They hold me down, pin me down, and I’m crying, and the Holy Spirit just comes through me, and they keep speaking in tongues, praying over me. I was just crying ‘mercy, mercy.’

Cormie told KFOR TV in Oklahoma City that, “I couldn’t believe it, a church of all places would show hate and not love.” He believes being gay is a sin, but he says he can’t change who he is. It turns out his church isn’t OK with that.

He filed a police report about the assault, and now he’s receiving anonymous, threatening phone calls urging him to drop the matter. He won’t, saying he wants to publicize his assault and see the church face consequences for its actions.

His partner Gary Gardner told KWTV of Oklahoma City that the two men want First Assembly shut down. “If they’re going to treat people like that, they don’t need to be open.”

The church response

Pastors Bill and Tami McKissick posted a terse announcement on the church Facebook page last week.

This began as a family matter that escalated. Our church would never condone restraint of any person unless they were engaged in violent activity. There is much more to this incident, and we are cooperating fully with law enforcement to hopefully bring all of the facts to light as a rush to judgment is not in anyone’s best interest.

Neither pastor has apologized despite multiple requests on Facebook. Neither has condemned the violence. Neither has urged church members to accept gay people, to treat them kindly, or to refrain from judgement and violence. Their only public position is that the public have engaged in a “rush to judgement.”

Pinned to the floor, prayed over, and beaten

Regardless of why church members shoved Gary Gardner out of the church, and regardless of why they pinned Sean Cormie to the floor, prayed over him, and punched him, somebody in a leadership position ought to be speaking out — not to defend the church, but to encourage people not to use Christian belief systems as a weapon of hate. Somebody ought to be urging love and tolerance.

The Pastors McKissick are clearly not those people

They’ve elected public silence, aside from their statement suggesting the church isn’t responsible. Some church-member witnesses have (on the church Facebook page) urged the pastors to speak up and condemn violence and inhospitality. Neither pastor has responded to those requests, despite that a gay man was beaten almost unconscious during a church service by members of their church, including by at least one elder of their church.

What does this say about homophobia?

First of all, I’d like to note that Sean Cormie’s own dissonant position strikes me as sad and tragic. He believes same-sex relationships are sinful, and he just wants to be tolerated for that — as a sinner. I can’t imagine living with that kind of painful burden. When I first read about how he feels, I had to wipe away a sympathetic tear.

Somebody should be telling Sean that he’s perfect just the way he is. He is not in need of repair, whether through prayer and speaking in tongues, or by any other means. Whether one views “nature” or a conscious God as Sean’s creator, he was certainly created gay. He certainly experiences sexual attraction to other men because of his innate biology. He can’t change that (which he admits), and he’s no less deserving of intimate, loving human relationships than anyone else on earth.

Secondly and tragically, the church leadership’s lack of remorse and moral guidance in the face of violent homophobia speaks volumes. You’d think that Sean’s beating would represent a teaching opportunity for church and community leaders. You’d think that people would be raising their voices high and loud in defense of love-based morality. You’d think Christian leaders would be preaching about Samaritans and neighbors.

No, instead church leaders are silent, except to complain about “a rush to judgment.” Public reaction in Oklahoma has been muted. Yes, some people have condemned the violence, but I’ve been unable to find much evidence at all of people condemning the homophobia underlying the violence.

This is what you get for dissonant teaching

Teaching that people are depraved or are abominations (as church members told Sean) but that one must “respect” them anyway smacks of the absurd. “Love the sinner, hate the sin” is and always has been an invitation to cruelty, rejection, and violence.

We saw that play out this past summer with the anti-gay riots and beatings in Catholic Poland, and we see it playing out now in Oklahoma. Sean’s beating says something that ought to be obvious to decent people.

Teaching that LGBTQ people are immoral is wrong. Churches must purge their doctrines of those foul beliefs. If they won’t stop indulging hateful judgmentalism, then people of good will must abandon those churches.

Would YOU attend a church that teaches that people like Sean, Gary, and I are sinners because we’re gay? Given the inevitable consequences, I wonder how you can morally defend that.