New York pastor seeks forgiveness after offending community with Mike Huckabee quote

After posting a sign railing against the Supreme Court's marriage equality ruling last week, a New York pastor is now desperately seeking forgiveness from offended community members and looking to repair the church's image.

The sign outside the Christian Church at Holbrook bore a quote from ultra-conservative presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, who reacted to the court ruling by saying, "The Supreme Court is not the Supreme Being!" It didn't go over well, the Sachem Patch reports.

"Normally I enjoy their inspirational positive messages while driving by but this made me feel like I was on a dirt road in the south," a Patch reader wrote on Facebook. "We are too progressive as a community for this."

The pastor responsible for the sign, Pete O'Leary, is now scrambling to do damage control. It was "one of those things that projected out there the wrong way and we are hoping it’s something we can fix," he told Patch.

As of Thursday, the message on the sign had been changed, and the church posted to its Facebook page that, "We regret that our previous message insulted, angered, and hurt many people in our wonderful community."

The sign now reads: "This is love...He loved us and sent his son as atoning sacrifice for our sins."

The Holbrook church isn't the only one that found itself facing blowback from the community for anti-marriage equality signage. In Virginia, Taylor Baptist Church had drivers doing double takes and U-turns for its inflammatory message:

"Remember, Satan was the first to demand equal rights," it read.