Former Navy chaplain: Same sex marriage is like crucifying Jesus

Former Navy chaplain and anti-LGBT activist Gordon Klingenschmitt argued that same sex marriage and its growing approval in the U.S. is hastening the "end times" and the destruction of the earth, and that people who vote to support same sex unions are ultimately the same as those who voted to crucify Christ during his appearance Wednesday on "The David Pakman Show."

Pakman opened the segment by saying that during Klingenschmitt's previous visit to the show, the pastor had claimed that LGBT rights and same sex marriage were going to suffer a stinging rebuke from the U.S. electorate in the 2012 elections. Given that the opposite happened, with four states either legalizing or declining to ban same sex marriage, Pakman invited Klingenschmitt back to discuss the election results.

Klingenschmitt paraphrased Christ's sermon on "The Narrow Way" from the gospel of Matthew, saying, "Broad is the road that leads to destruction and many enter into it, but narrow is the road that leads to eternal life, and only a few find it."

The fact that so many in the U.S. are embracing same sex marriage, he said, swaying back and forth in front of his computer camera, is no surprise. Calling it "a massive rebellion against God," Klingenschmitt insisted that this is evidence that the "end times" are at hand.

"And do you believe that this is going to lead as you said when you referenced the 'end times,' are we looking here at popular votes for gay marriage leading to the destruction of the planet?" Pakman asked.

"Ha ha, well, I didn't say that," said Klingenschmitt, "but it does say in Romans 1:32, 'Knowing the judgment of God that those who commit such things -- homosexual acts, for example -- are not only worthy of death, not only for those who do them, but for those who have pleasure in those who do them.'"

Meaning, he said, that all people who condone same sex marriage deserve "destruction" just as much as the people getting married.

Pakman asked whether or not the other acts prohibited in Romans, like eating shellfish and women wearing short hair contribute equally to the destruction of the earth, or if homosexuality is special in that regard.

The pastor called that "a common fallacy that homosexuals use" to argue against anti-LGBT Christians. "New Testament Christians," he argued, are exempt from all but four of the Old Testament strictures, three of which have to do with food, and one, he said, against "sexual immorality."

"Ah!" scoffed Pakman, "How convenient! I like that. That's interesting stuff."

He then directed the discussion back to the voters who approved same sex marriage. Pakman asked what happens to them, if their souls are blackened merely by association with homosexual behavior.

Klingenschmitt replied by promoting his self-published book, The Demons of Barack H. Obama. The former chaplain bills himself as an expert exorcist, capable of curing gay people by driving out the demons that possess them.

Klingenschmitt has also claimed that these "gay demons" can infect animals, explaining why homosexuality exists in the animal kingdom.

The pastor reminded Pakman that he was in the military and that he generally supports elections and democracy, but that "the only election in the New Testament was the election to crucify Jesus and let Barnabas go." People who vote to allow same sex marriage, he said, are the same as the people who voted to crucify Christ.

Elections, he said, don't always go the way God wants them to go.

Pakman asked if it isn't "the height of arrogance" to assume that God can be bothered with the electoral minutiae of any particular country.

No, replied Klingenschmitt, it's a sign that "God knows and counts the hairs on our heads."

Pakman argued that perhaps voters have been "touched by God" and "enlightened," and that Jesus would approve of votes toward equality.

Klingenschmitt argued that Pakman is confusing "the Holy Spirit with a demonic spirit."

Watch the video, embedded via YouTube, below: