A Street preacher who yells anti-gay messages got hit over the head by a student outraged by his offensive speech, ABC15 reports…. Brother Dean Saxton makes it a habit to stand outside local high schools and loudly condemn students and members of the LGBT community. ABC15 reports he often also holds a sign that reads, “You deserve to be raped.”…. But when he embarked on one of his unsolicited missions this month at Apollo High School, Tabitha Brubaker, 19, responded to what she called hate speech by striking him over the head with a baseball bat, according to authorities. She has been charged with felony assault. Police also charged her with marijuana possession. Saxton posted a video of the incident on YouTube, in which he can be seen yelling his message outside the high school. “The Bible says it’s not okay to be gay,” he yells. “You need to stop doing naught, nasty things, Apollo High School. You need to stop looking up naughty, nasty things on the Internet.”
In America, religious freedom is a cherished Constitutional right, up there in importance with baseball, apple pie, and Bill O’Reilly’s loofah. A citizen is free to believe (or not) in whatever concept/hallucination/Supreme Being gives their live meaning and purpose. What the freedom of religion doesn’t provide is license to be an asshole. Denigrating others because they happen not to share your preferred delusion/fever dream/theology is bad form in any league. While some may interpret the freedom of speech as license to be a dick unto others, such unpleasantness is not widely considered to be an effective marketing technique.
Generally speaking, the raison d’ etre of evangelism is to win hearts and minds for Jesus Christ. Carrying a sign saying “You deserve to be raped” seems unlikely to accomplish that lofty, well-intentioned goal. More to the point, it’s kind of a dick move, knowhutimean?
I’m not about to condone Ms. Brubaker’s response. Attacking Brother Dickweed with a baseball bat seems like a waste of a perfectly good felony. Perhaps next time she could benefit by employing a less gratuitously violent approach. When Brother Dickweed begins shouting “It’s not OK to be gay,” try turning the other cheek…and responding with “It’s not OK to be a homophobic asshole!”
If that doesn’t work, THEN it might be time to break out the baseball bat.
Pro tip: Leave the weed at home. You can thank me later.
