Tim Tebow and the First Baptist Church of Dallas

I don't know how much y'all have heard about this but Tebow was scheduled to speak at the "controversial" First Baptist Church of Dallas in April. There's been a big uproar about it because apparently the leader of the church, Dr. Robert Jeffress, has spoken out against homosexuals, jews, muslims, and mormons. Supposedly this guy is supposed to be almost as bad as the Westboro Baptist Church guy, giving hate speeches about gay's and jews all over the place. here is a link

LINK

quote:

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In the past, Jeffress has claimed that Islam promoted pedophilia, said Judaism "leads people to an eternity of separation from God in hell," and reportedly reduced Catholics, Hindus, Buddhists and others to members of cults. (Jeffress criticized Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney for his Mormon faith but eventually supported him over Barack Obama, whose reelection he said would "pav(e) the way for the future reign of the Antichrist.") Jeffress denounced the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" by observing that "It's a fact that [AIDS is] a gay disease so there's a reasonable reason to exclude gays from the military.”

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Notice a lot of that is "reportedly"

Just today Tebow cancelled the appearance because of all the bad press, now here's the thing....

Dr. Jeffress was on local radio this morning and he seemed like a very smart, realistic, and sensible person. He said what Westboro Baptist does is horrible, has nothing to do with faith, and he is ashamed that someone compared him to them. He said he does not believe that all Jews, Catholics, Gays, Muslims, ect.. go to hell, and he does not believe all Protestants go to heaven. He said "You don't go to heaven in a group" rather it's based on your personal relationship with god and Jesus Christ. He also said the quote of him saying Aids is a "gay disease" was him directly quoting a gay activist leader saying that the gay/bi community needs to own the fact that 70% of the people with Aids in America are gay or bi. He said having gay sex is comparable to adultery or pre-marital sex in that it is a sin. He also said he wouldn't be surprised if being gay was a genetic thing that people don't choose but are forced to live with.

He went on to say that heaven will be filled with Protestants, Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Gays, and anyone else who has accepted Jesus as their savior and lived life the way the lord intended. Basically he sounded like any other southern preacher I've ever met.

I actually feel for the guy because all he's done is preach what he believes based on what he;s been taught in the bible, and none of his beliefs seem that over the top crazy as far as a preacher goes, yet he's getting pegged as some horrible hateful guy.

I know this is way TL;DR but I think it's interesting how this guy just not denouncing his beliefs which are shared by probably all preachers gets him pegged as the next Westboro Baptist.

TL;DR version: This preacher is getting a bad rap, he isn't that crazy insane