I'm offended, too, Jonathan.

Jonathan Capehart recently went to his aunt's funeral. He wrote a column telling how offended he was at the pastor's funeral sermon. I'm offended, too, Jonathan, but I hardly know where to start. So I think I'll just take your offensive comments starting at the beginning.

Jonathan says, "I took a stand against religion-based anti-gay bigotry while sitting in the front pew for my aunt's funeral in North Carolina recently." I find it offensive, Jonathan, that you call God a bigot because He says your lifestyle is an abomination. Perhaps it is you, Jonathan, who is the bigot. Where is your toleration for people who have different spiritual views than you?

Jonathan says, ". . . the guest eulogy gave way to a harsh sermon about who can and cannot get into the kingdom of heaven." Unfortunately, some people find the truth offensive and harsh, Jonathan, and I guess you just might be one of them. Generally, these people find the truth especially offensive and harsh when the shoe fits their own feet.

Jonathan says, "Now, I can't speak for the whores, drunkards, adulterers and thieves who might have been present, but this openly gay man was enraged." You know what enrages me, Jonathan? That whores, drunkards, adulterers, and thieves usually have no problem owning up to the fact that what they are doing is wrong, and they usually exhibit some shame for their behavior instead of having pride parades while queers insist they are doing nothing wrong and flaunt their behavior in our faces and call us bigots for speaking the truth.

I am condensing and paraphrasing Jonathan's next paragraph because of its wordiness. What it says is that the pastor implored those who had not found redemption through the blood of Jesus Christ to do so. He gave his own testimony and said that if God could save a sinner as awful as he was, then He certainly could change any of them caught in the same cycle of sin. Jonathan took this to mean that somebody had put a bug in the pastor's ear about his perversion, and the pastor was speaking directly to him. Leave it to a queer to think that his aunt's funeral is all about him and not the deceased. No, Jonathan, most likely the pastor wasn't even aware of you -- this may hurt your feelings, but I daresay most people have never even heard of you. What you were experiencing is called consciousness of guilt.

Jonathan says that the preacher is terribly misguided when he says that homosexuality is wrong -- it is a God-given trait, says Jonathan. So, Jonathan, can you give us the scripture reference for God giving out that trait? I can give you the ones that say the preacher is right, but I'm quite sure you can't reciprocate. Is pedophilia a God-given trait? How about a proclivity for having sex with one's own mother? I find it offensive, Jonathan, that you think you know more than the Creator.

Jonathan says we shouldn't put up with scripture when it is employed to "strip the humanity of gay men and lesbians. So the pastor's every word was an affront to who I am." I don't think you understand the Bible at all, Jonathan. The scripture doesn't strip the sinner of his humanity -- it tells him how all too human sin really is. "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" the prophet wrote. I guess Jonathan picks and chooses which parts of the Bible he will put up with and which parts he won't. Extremely convenient, isn't it? Sorry, Jonathan, but if the scripture is an affront to you, guess who's on the guilty side.

Jonathan says he had vowed not to shake the pastor's hand, but being the gracious man that he is, he did shake his hand and "use the opportunity to make my displeasure known." "Your sermon was offensive to me. I need you to know that," Jonathan told the pastor. That sounds similar to what the mob said to Jesus as they nailed Him to the cross. To be blunt, Jonathan, your crass behavior is offensive to me, and I need you to know that.

Jonathan is very proud of himself. Jonathan says he is not an especially religious person (no kidding!). But no one, he says, is going to say that he and other queers are less-than in the eyes of God and not hear about it from him! You know what, Jonathan? God finds that offensive, and He needs you to know that.

"Pastor's anti-gay sermon demanded response." The Dallas Morning News; August 21, 2013; p. 19A.