Controversial pastor Scott Lively, who has mounted high-profile campaigns against homosexuality and is being sued in a US federal court for his involvement in passing Uganda's notorious laws criminalising the activity, has written to his local newspaper complaining that he is described as "anti-gay".
However, British theologian Vicky Beeching, who came out as gay last year, told Christian Today that she believed the description was justified.
In his letter to Springfield's newspaper, The Republican, Lively says that it "editorialises" in news articles about him by using loaded language.
"Most irritating and misleading is that all or most of the stories identify me (often in the title) as 'anti-gay pastor', as if that were some sort of professional title rather than an editorial comment. I strongly object to that characterisation, which deliberately misrepresents my opposition to the mainstreaming of homosexual conduct as hatred of homosexual persons."
Lively continues: "The term 'anti-gay' effectively mistranslates the pro-family motto 'Love the Sinner, Hate the Sin' into 'Hate the Sinner because of the Sin'. As such it is not an honest descriptor but a slur, and its use by the media is an act of complicity in a dishonest and manipulative LGBT political tactic."
He concludes: "I am asking The Republican to stop using the term 'anti-gay' in news stories entirely, but especially in stories about me. Pro-family would be best, but if you insist on framing my position in the negative, use 'Anti-homosexuality'."
Lively is the president of Abiding Truth Ministries. He has called for the criminalisation of the "publicy advocacy of homosexuality" and appeared in a Russian TV documentary entitled Sodom. He is the co-author of The Pink Swastika, which says in its preface that "homosexuals [are] the true inventors of Nazism and the guiding force behind many Nazi atrocities". He was reported recently as considering a run for Congress in Massachusetts.
Vicky Beeching told Christian Today: "Having personally interacted with Scott Lively in a TV debate, I do think it's fair to describe him as 'anti-gay'. It's not a title I feel should be attributed in general to Christians who hold a traditional theology on sexuality, but I feel Lively is in a different demographic.
"For anyone to write a book as offensive and bizarre as The Pink Swastika, or to (allegedly) influence laws to criminalise or put to death gay people in various nations, goes beyond a theological disagreement rooted in love, and into the territory of an all-out attack on the human rights and dignity of anyone identifying as gay."
