14 DAY TRIAL // An assistant pastor at a First Baptist church in Kentucky has been asked to resign after his wife wrote a column grilling the church for opposing gays in the Boy Scouts.
Angela Thomas, the wife of Bill Thomas, pastor and musical director at First Baptist Church in Madisonville, spoke out after the Southern Baptist Convention opposed gays being allowed in the organization.
She wrote a column in a local newspaper dubbing church leaders "raging Shiite Baptists," ranging on the far right with their extreme views on being gay, which they believe is a sin. She also dubs Baptists "the crazy old paranoid uncle of evangelical Christians."
"Santa and the Easter bunny are simply the devil in disguise and cable television and the Internet are his playground. The Boy Scouts are his evil minions," she said in the column, according to the Tennessean.
First Baptist Church Pastor Joe Leonard states that Thomas was not terminated or forced to leave because of the article.
"That's what people have made it out to be. [...] That column precipitated some conversation with (Thomas), but that is not the reason he resigned. And because of confidentiality I can't divulge the conversation and what went on," Leonard says.
Rev. Russell Moore, in charge of public affairs for the Southern Baptist Convention, argues that they "expressed disappointment" because of the Boy Scouts' decision, but were not critical or offensive on the matter.
"I didn't find the column to be the sort of lighthearted poking that one would typically find in satire. [...] I found it instead to be more of a screed from someone who's very hostile to where most Baptists stand," he describes the column.
Church member and Hopkins County magistrate Larry Wilson notes that Thomas previously got in trouble with church leaders for allowing a gay man in the choir.
"To me, it sounds more like a termination or a forced resignation than a resignation," Wilson describes.