E.W. Jackson, the Republican candidate for lieutenant governor in Virginia, says he knows God better than the Pope, who said in an interview late last week that the Church should stop obsessing over gays and abortion, and, referring to homosexuality, has no business "interfering in the spiritual life of a person."
Jackson said he disagrees, in a sermon given on Sunday,, the Times Dispatch reports:
“The family was ordained by God. He ordained it one man and one woman in the bonds of holy matrimony,” Jackson said. “(In the Bible) I don't hear anything about two people of the same sex being married,” he said.
Jackson said Sunday: “I know even the pope has said when we talk about these things, we imply a kind of intolerance. That is not the point at all. The point is to be true to the word of God. The point is to stand up and tell the truth. There is no better way found, ever, to raise children than with a mother and a father in the home. Even sociologically, you can make the argument.”
But Jackson said that “this is not about hating people based on their sexual orientation or based on same-sex relationships or having bigotry against them,” but about whether “this culture is going to remain a culture based on Judeo-Christian values and principles, or whether we're going to become something else.”
In describing himself, Jackson said: “I am a preacher of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, that is really who I am. I am called to do something in addition to that right now, but there is no higher priority and no higher office than being a proclaimer of the Gospel of Jesus Christ."
Jackson has claimed he has never been hateful about homosexuality, though his statements tell a far different story. In addition to linking homosexuality and pedophilia, Jackson has said that gays are "perverted, they're frankly very sick people psychologically, mentally and emotionally" and has said pro-gay rights liberals “have done more to kill black folks whom they claim so much to love than the Ku Klux Klan, lynching and slavery and Jim Crow ever did.”
Jackson also said on Sunday that unless you are a Christian, "you are engaged in some sort of false religion."
