382 Comments
User's avatar
oraxx's avatar

As much as anything, this stunt speaks to the depth of the intellects at work here. This is akin to a petulant seventh grader who sees burning down the school house as the solution to his failing grades. The U.S. Enjoys as much religious freedom as can be found on earth, and I will never understand why that isn't enough. People like this fool of a pastor are driven to force their particular set of beliefs on everyone, and have no respect for anyone's freedom of religion but their own.

Expand full comment
Jane in NC's avatar

Great observation, oraxx. It's NEVER enough that these people believe what they claim to believe, they have to force it on everyone else as well. Why? They actually don't have the courage of their convictions, their faith is weak and faltering.

Expand full comment
Troublesh00ter's avatar

It's as I've said multiple times: people like Lammott NEED EVERYONE TO AGREE WITH THEM. To allow second opinions or alternative explanations presents the possibility of cognitive dissonance, which is intolerable to those who have convinced themselves that they are RIGHT and everyone else is WRONG.

How people like Lammott live in our 21st century world is beyond me.

Expand full comment
Jane in NC's avatar

People like that need everyone to agree with them because they don't really believe it themselves. They need constant reinforcement to stave off the truth.

Expand full comment
Sko Hayes's avatar

Exactly! When my brother was in the Campus Crusade for Christ cult in college, they told new members that they had to cut ties with any non-cult members, even if they were Christians, because they weren't the "right kind" of Christian.

Expand full comment
Jane in NC's avatar

Any time a group starts talking about 'cutting ties', a red flashing light should go off: 🚨CULT!!!🚨

Expand full comment
Troublesh00ter's avatar

The phrase, "cutting ties" should set off alarm bells to anyone who values their own integrity and self-ownership. That and labeling those not in a given group as "the other," however they disguise it.

It's all part of the indoctrination playbook, and kids especially need to learn that.

Expand full comment
ericc's avatar

I went to one such meeting in High School! I don't remember much, only:

"Singing? That's cool, I like this"

"Crowd-type party games? Well, okay."

"Now wait, wtf is this?"

Expand full comment
Bill Lawrence's avatar

That's why I love the cartoon that has St Peter and an angel on a cloud overlooking the pearly gates. There are two entrances to heaven, on labeled "Right Religion" and the other "Wrong Religion." Both lead into heaven, but there's a huge crowd at the right religion entrance; nobody at the wrong religion entrance. St Peter sees this and says to the angel, "They never get the joke." I think a little humility is in order here.

Expand full comment
OwossoHarpist's avatar

Dumb Idiot Ken Ham is that type of person. It's obvious deep down inside he doesn't really believe what he preaches, but he preaches them anyway because that's how he gets rich, achieve power over others, and knows all too well that there are those who will believe all his lies. Thus, giving him all the reinforcement he needs to spread lies through his books, videos, theme "parks" and "museums" which he erected out of jealousy of the huge successes of Disneyworld and Universal Studios, etc.

Expand full comment
Jane in NC's avatar

I can't remember where I heard it, but there's a story about Jim Jones, leader of the People's Temple cult, who'd been a long-time grifter without really getting anywhere - until some preacher told him that 'if you want to make real money, you gotta start a religion.' The rest, as they say......

Expand full comment
Edward Bryant's avatar

L. Ron Hubbard is widely rumored to have said "The way to make a million dollars is to start a religion."

Expand full comment
Crowscage's avatar

By bending every effort to transform it into a 14th century world

Expand full comment
Lynn Veit's avatar

"How people like Lammott live in our 21st century world is beyond me."

By sticking their fingers in their ears and yelling "I can't hear you I can't hear you I can't hear you LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA LA..."

Expand full comment
oraxx's avatar

TY. I can't upvote or I would.

Expand full comment
Black Hole and DM mourner's avatar

Did you try upvoting with the profile of another commenter ? It worked with NOGODZ. Zorg and him upvote nearly all comments.

Expand full comment
Zorginipsoundsor's avatar

"This is akin to a petulant seventh grader who sees burning down the school house as the solution to his failing grades."

Or calling in bomb/active shooter threat to avoid a test as kids are wont to do these days.

Expand full comment
ericc's avatar

Those have been going on since the '80s at least. I think in my high school we got between about 3-10 a year. What's changed is public perception and expectations around how to respond. Before, the public wasn't generally aware of them because the administrations didn't stop school, or notify the parents, they just handled it quietly. Maybe in some cases an officer or two gets called in to check it out, but even that was the exception to the rule. They pretty much knew it was a fake, and the police got called in only if you really wanted to find the perpetrator. Nowadays, the school's gotta blast that info out to the entire community over multiple communication channels within an hour of getting the threat, and they have to call in a police response every single time, or they risk a parental lawsuit.

Expand full comment
Zorginipsoundsor's avatar

My high school got none.

Expand full comment
ericc's avatar

For most people, talk is cheap it's walking the walk that's hard.

For these guys, they see no point in walking their walk unless they have an audience to talk to.

Expand full comment
oraxx's avatar

His enablers in the pews are as bad as he is or they wouldn't be there.

Expand full comment
Troublesh00ter's avatar

The problem is that they want everyone and I mean EVERYONE to walk with them and NO ONE to not walk with them.

And no, I don't think I'm exaggerating here.

Expand full comment
Julie Duggan's avatar

No. You are not exaggerating.

Expand full comment
Julie Duggan's avatar

Or, bombing an abortion clinic or federal building- all these extremists are cut from the same cloth.

Expand full comment
Matri's avatar

If libraries worked the same way as AdSense, his mailing list would be veeeeery interesting by now.

Expand full comment
Julie Duggan's avatar

Actually the name of the church is in the article...... thanks for the tip.

Expand full comment
Julie Duggan's avatar

If you can find me his home address or the church address I'm happy to sign him up. 😜

Expand full comment
Matri's avatar

🤣

Expand full comment
Alverant's avatar

"The U.S. Enjoys as much religious freedom as can be found on earth"

You keep saying this, but that doesn't make it true. Other countries have more religious freedom. Like Australia, New Zealand, Denmark, Belgium, Japan, Canada, more. The religious freedom isn't enough in the US for some people because it is, in fact, TOO MUCH freedom because it gives rights and freedom to other religions. Religions some people people don't like and consider evil.

Expand full comment
oraxx's avatar

The U.S. Constitution bans religious tests for holding public office, and bars government from making any laws regarding religion. No one can compel you to join, attend, or financially support a church. Judging by the staggering number of Christian sects alone, it's pretty obviouis no one can tell you what to believe. It doesn't matter if some people dislike a religion and consider it to be evil, because there is no legal basis for doing anything about it but talk. What, pray tell, would more religious freedom even look like?

Expand full comment
Alverant's avatar

Guess what, some states don't follow the US Constitution. For example before Johnson was House speaker, he helped run a Jewish family out of their home because they objected to Christian prayers at a public school ceremony. The SCOTUS said it was legal for tax payer funds to be used to maintain churches. We also pay for their police and fire protection since they don't pay taxes. Every year on the National Day of Prayer, governors across the country encourage people to pray to the Christian god. When the SCOTUS approved of city council prayers, steps were taken to keep non-Christians out. Helmut even reported of times where there was an extra Christian prayer done after a Humanist prayer as if to counter it.

More religious freedom would mean none of the above ever happens.

Expand full comment
Zorginipsoundsor's avatar

"Helmut?"

Expand full comment
Bill Lawrence's avatar

It's an old story, isn't it? I'm right; therefore you must be wrong, so I'll make you think like I do or suffer the consequences.

Expand full comment
ericc's avatar

Wow he could teach a masterclass in Orwellian doublespeak. Restricting your reading is love! Censorship is freedom! I'm not trying to stop them from reading LGBTQ+ issues or characters, just about LGBTQ+ ideology!

But see how often he has to repeat the 'out of love' thing? He himself knows it's not the case, for the conservative doth protest too much methinks.

Expand full comment
Jane in NC's avatar

Reminds me of every abuser who claims he was "only doing this because I love you!" Also, don't tell mom, ok? Our little secret......

Expand full comment
Straw's avatar

One of my cousins was married to a predator like that. My cousins daughter and two of her siblings paid too high a price.

Expand full comment
Jane in NC's avatar

That's horrible. I'm so sorry for them.

Expand full comment
Straw's avatar

Thank you. So am I. The rest of us do what we can.

Expand full comment
Jane in NC's avatar

Just out of curiosity - feel free to decline to answer - did your cousin ever wake up to what was going on with her kids?

Expand full comment
Straw's avatar

Yes she did. That was when I woke up in the middle of the night to find my home full of relatives. 3 of my cousins, including the predators wife, their two kids and my father's sister. He was tried and sentenced to prison for several years. Contact with his kids was only possible when observed. His kids are grown up now and don't (want to) have any contact with him.

Expand full comment
Vanity Unfair's avatar

At least he has not (yet) taken the next step.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_hole

75 years and still relevant.

Expand full comment
Julie Duggan's avatar

Yep. Just like the rest of the extremists and republicans, they are really good at gaslighting. They think nobody notices.

Expand full comment
NOGODZ20's avatar

Christians get so very upset with what they falsely see as indoctrination of children because it interferes with their own very real indoctrination of children into their death cult.

Expand full comment
Holytape's avatar

Pastor Kyle Lammott's wife: Why is the library sending us an overdue notice for the book, "The whipping girl" and "We were Trans"

Pastor Kyle Lammott: Uh, uh,... I....am.. uh, prooooteesting? Yeah, I am protesting the indoctrination of uh um, um the youths. yeah. I am protesting the indoctrination. of youths. Yup. That's the reason.

Expand full comment
Holytape's avatar

Sir, I will not have you besmirch this true saints name. Do you not understand the personal sacrifice that Pastor Kyle Lammott has paid? The weight of the cross this man of men has hosted on his back for the betterment of society? He checked out all the gay books in a in the library to save the children. Just imaging the sacrifice of having to read and re-read every gay scene, no matter how graphic. And that wasn't his only sacrifice. He went and bought every copy of "Playgirl" and the "Hot fireman's Calendar" just so that others won't be tempted. He bought every copy of "Shaving Ryan's Privates". DVDs, Blu-rays, VHSes and even the only known Betamax copy, just so that other unsullied eyes would not become stained with sin. This Saint among Saints even takes the time every Thursday night when his wife go to bingo with the girls, to go to the the rest stop on HWY 16 and preach to the truckers twenty minutes at a time.

Expand full comment
Straw's avatar

Glory to pastor Kyle. Hallelujah!! 🦄 🪱

Expand full comment
Holytape's avatar

All the glory to him. The complete glory to him. One might say the "Whole of glory" to him.

Expand full comment
Black Hole and DM mourner's avatar

Holelujah.

If you don't know what a glory hole is, google it 😁

Expand full comment
Straw's avatar

I didn't and now I don't want to know. I think.

Expand full comment
Zorginipsoundsor's avatar

You can find plenty of videos online. 😈

Expand full comment
Black Hole and DM mourner's avatar

Hold your horse. Maybe Straw has not her mind in the gutter like most of us.

Expand full comment
Zorginipsoundsor's avatar

Give us time we can change that. :)

Expand full comment
Straw's avatar

Not going to find them. I know, I am a chicken.

Expand full comment
cdbunch's avatar

Who cares about the 'hot fireman's calendar'? You want the Red Hot calendar out of Britain. 12 months of naked ginger males.

Expand full comment
Holytape's avatar

I don't believe that is a true thing. In it is common knowledge that gingers don't have souls, and thus don't have reflections. And thus, you could never photograph a ginger, hot or not.

Expand full comment
cdbunch's avatar

If it wouldn’t get me banned I’d scan and post a few months.

Expand full comment
Black Hole and DM mourner's avatar

Not a redhead but a "god" you can choose to "worship"

NSFW

https://images.app.goo.gl/VCwxSHRLW9uAMC1D8

Expand full comment
Lynn Veit's avatar

*convulsive laughter*

Expand full comment
Old Man Shadow's avatar

[If you love children, then you should want them to love themselves.]

You don't want children to love themselves.

The entire fundamentalist message is that each of us is so thoroughly corrupted, so infected by "sin" that we are worthless. Our best efforts can never be enough to please God and have God accept us. We're so wretched and disgusting that God wants to cast us away into eternal fire.

The only value we have is that which God places on us by opting to die a gruesome death as a blood atonement to himself so when we renounce ourselves and find our worth and lives in Him, He doesn't see us in our wretchedness and repulsiveness, but a reflection of Himself.

And our future in that universe is not a future in which we grow and become a better version of us, it is one where we grow and become a more perfect reflection of God, so that we have no purpose of our own, our only purpose is to please God forever and ever.

So yes, you want children to hate themselves. You want them to see themselves as untrustworthy, broken, marred. You want their self-esteem crushed so they can find their entire identity with the god you've constructed. Their own happiness deprioritized to the bottom of the list of importance and this god's happiness elevated to the top.

It is a miserable existence.

Expand full comment
Troublesh00ter's avatar

It's as Christopher Hitchens said a while back: They tell you that you are sick, then offer you THEIR cure! It's the con game to end all con games.

Expand full comment
OwossoHarpist's avatar

Like Christians offering solutions to problems of their own making.

Expand full comment
Jennifer's avatar

I'm trans, and I knew at 4 years old. I was raised catholic, and hated that I felt I should have been born a girl. It permeated my entire existence. There was nothing I could do that my mind wasn't telling me I was a girl. I WISH I had access to information before the internet. These books, especially the children's books, can save lives, and prevent a life of self loathing. These religious zealots just see trans people as a group to malign to make themselves feel better. They're just bullies.

Expand full comment
Jennifer's avatar

I should have mentioned I transitioned at 37 in 1999 and am 62 now.

Expand full comment
cdbunch's avatar

Not just to make themselves feel better, but as a useful distraction to keep the public from seeing that the robber barons are stealing the briefs off their loins.

Expand full comment
97GeoPrizm's avatar

“Goose-stepping morons like yourself should try *reading* books instead of *burning* them!” -Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Expand full comment
Troublesh00ter's avatar

I have liked that line from the moment it came out of Sean Connery's mouth! DAMNED well put!

Expand full comment
Len Koz's avatar

Hemant wrote, "Education is treated as the enemy of faith." That may be the truest thing he's ever written.

Expand full comment
Bagen Onuts's avatar

Education was/is always the enemy of faith.

Expand full comment
Bill Wilson's avatar

'Who controls the past,' ran the Party slogan, 'controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.' - George Orwell, ‘1984’

Expand full comment
Straw's avatar

I would not say it is the truest thing he ever wrote. But it probably is very, very close.

Expand full comment
CozmoTheMagician's avatar

I am going on a diet*. No meat, no sugar, no bad carbohydrates,and NO BEER. So I am demanding that all my fellow followers of the FSM go to the stores I shop at and remove all the BAD foods. Since I know that MY diet is perfect, we will be helping to save the children by making sure that only good wholesome foods are on the shelves.

FFS, aint that the STUPIDEST thing I ever typed...

* of course this is all bullshit, especially the no beer part.

Expand full comment
SeekingReason's avatar

😂Exactly. The sarcasm was obvious once beer was mentioned!

Expand full comment
larry parker's avatar

You can't eliminate meatballs and pasta and be a True follower of FSM.

Expand full comment
CozmoTheMagician's avatar

But I am using 'xtian logic'. After all, it is fine to be a follower of Jesus 'the prince of peace' while shooting a doctor, or a bar full of 'men pretending to be women' etc etc.

Also, MEATBALLS are a sacrament so they excluded from the whole 'no meat' thing. Actually I think by their holy nature, meatballs are ephemeral and spiritual so they transcend mere meatness.

Expand full comment
Black Hole and DM mourner's avatar

Beyond meatballs and whole wheat pasta 😁

Expand full comment
NOGODZ20's avatar

Don't forget spinach spaghetti and spinach raviolis. :9---

Expand full comment
Black Hole and DM mourner's avatar

You ricotta stop with the drool.

Expand full comment
NOGODZ20's avatar

Too cheesy for you? :)

Expand full comment
Black Hole and DM mourner's avatar

Arrabiata you mocking me ?

Expand full comment
Maine Skeptic's avatar

The pastor's responses remind me of the behavior of the insurrectionists after they got into the capitol building. They had no idea why they were there, and they were just doing things trying to look like there was a purpose behind their actions other than being part of a mindless angry mob.

Expand full comment
Matri's avatar

“Ve vere chust folloving orrdahs!”

Expand full comment
XJC's avatar

They were there to make 'murica great 'gain. And that's what they done.

Expand full comment
NOGODZ20's avatar

Hey. P-ass-tor...

Being LGBTQ isn't an ideology. Christianity is an ideology. And you're displeased with LGBTQ-positive books? We can say the exact same thing about the contents of your hole-y bible.

Expand full comment
ericc's avatar

Pretty sure that the "LGBTQ ideology" they oppose is what the rest of us call 'equal rights' and 'civil rights'.

Expand full comment
NOGODZ20's avatar

It is indeed.

Expand full comment
Troublesh00ter's avatar

With an emphasis on "Live and Let Live."

Expand full comment
Black Hole and DM mourner's avatar

What do you have against murder, genocide, incest and rape ?

Expand full comment
NOGODZ20's avatar

Everything? I'm not a Christian, after all. ;)

Expand full comment
Daniel Rotter's avatar

"Christianity is an ideology." Definitely. Look at all the "you can't be a liberal and be a Christian!" rhetoric from religious rightists.

Expand full comment
Daniel Rotter's avatar

:....hole-y bible." No ace in the hole when it comes to Christianity, that's for sure.

Expand full comment
larry parker's avatar

Well men, plan A didn't work so it's time for plan B. Log onto all the gay porn websites and crash their servers.

Expand full comment
ericc's avatar

"Boss, we have a huge uptick in traffic from the bible belt."

"Hmmm, must be a Friday."

Expand full comment
painedumonde's avatar

I thought Friday's were supposed to meatless.

Expand full comment
Matri's avatar

Ba-dum-TISH!!

Expand full comment
Jane in NC's avatar

"No, it's about trying to love our community by helping protect the hearts and minds of children from an ideology that has an insidious appetite..."

Note he said this without a hint of self-awareness or irony. Note also, you don't see LBGT folks pulling religious-themed books off library shelves. The hate flows one way, and make no mistake, this is hate hiding behind the fig leaf of 'protecting the children.'

Expand full comment
Troublesh00ter's avatar

𝑎𝑛 𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑜𝑙𝑜𝑔𝑦 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 ℎ𝑎𝑠 𝑎𝑛 𝑖𝑛𝑠𝑖𝑑𝑖𝑜𝑢𝑠 𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑒𝑡𝑖𝑡𝑒...

And every accusation is a confession.

Expand full comment
Jane in NC's avatar

^THIS right here^

Expand full comment
NOGODZ20's avatar

"If atheists wish to pursue all the Christian texts, let them. After all, the truth has a funny way of revealing itself, regardless of one's intentions."

I've read the bible 4 times from Genesis to Revelation, p-ass-tor. Something most Christians will never do. What I read only confirmed my atheism. Your religion is vile and your bible is a collection of badly-written fiction in desperate need of an editor.

Expand full comment
larry parker's avatar

First words: "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." (Genesis 1:1)

Last words: "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen." (Revelation 22:21)

Wrong from start to finish.

Wrong all the way down.

Expand full comment
Len's avatar

And not a turtle in sight.

Expand full comment
Black Hole and DM mourner's avatar

No editor worth his salt would touch this with a 10 miles pole.

Expand full comment
larry parker's avatar

It's been edited plenty of times, just saying... (I ignored the worth his salt part. : )

Expand full comment
NOGODZ20's avatar

If I got hold of it, it'd be the size of a pamphlet...double-spaced.

Expand full comment
Black Hole and DM mourner's avatar

I don't remember the Song of Songs being so short.

Expand full comment
NOGODZ20's avatar

If they really want to be rid of all the stuff they say offends them, then SoS gotta go, too.

Expand full comment
Straw's avatar

I like that.

Expand full comment
Black Hole and DM mourner's avatar

Only men can check out these books? Why?!

For men who are against culture, they sure have have remembered one of the main lessons from Pandora's myth. Curiosity is bad when womenfolk are concerned due to our feeble mind. I have another myth for them, Icarus.

a book doesn’t have to have a rainbow on it to include LGBTQ characters or situations.

Sci-fi and fantasy novels. Some authors included gays and lesbians characters as early as the 70's.

he’s been inundated with threats and nasty comments that go well beyond fair criticism. 

And ? When they do sermons about the evil of homosexuality, transganderism or just feminism, do they stop to think about consequences for real people ? No, and when LGBTQI+ are killed, they support the killer, not the victims' families.

and he didn’t shut down his Instagram account because he was afraid of criticism

C'est cela, oui (Yeah, right).

Some will hear of this and interpret it as a personal or hateful act.

Because it is. Love is not clipping the wings of a baby bird, it's teaching them to fly.

if a bunch of atheists decided to check out every Christian book in a library—not to read them but to prevent other Christians from reading them. 

It would be persecution.

I don't know if the library staff can track who were the culprits of this stunt, but this should warrant at least a suspension of the library card. This pastor doesn't get to decide what people can read. Remember what happened the last time christians decided to control the librairies. It took us centuries to come back from it. Compare China and Europe up until the 15th century.

Expand full comment
ericc's avatar

"Sci-fi and fantasy novels. Some authors included gays and lesbians characters as early as the 70's."

Conservatives seem weirdly blind or dismissive of the genre. From early comics to ST's first interracial kiss on (US) TV. LeGuin. James Tiptree Jr. Atwood. Even male writers like Heinlein or Delaney. They just completely missed them. Which is really odd from a movement that will find just about any excuse to clutch pearls. I think they only really caught on to the fact that yes this subject area was not just "its a phase" subversive but a serious counter-movement to their religious conservativism when Anne Rice's vampires practically took over the '90s.

Much to the rest of our's amusement.

Expand full comment
GMLoggins's avatar

They avoid sf and fantasy because they might get contaminated with either science or imagination.

Expand full comment
ericc's avatar

Yeah but "I don't read it" has never stopped them from hyperventilating about books in other genres.

Also, Orson Scott Card wrote gay characters. Mormon church response? Crickets. Even though I bet most teen Mormons read him. Like with earlier (70s) mainstream evangelical conservativism, the formal church seemed to just either not know or not care, because he writes sci-fi fantasy.

In any event, I'm not upset. Let them continue to ignore it for all I care; all the better for the authors who want to explore such themes. I'm just, in hindsight, still kinda mindboggled that they didn't react at all to Handmaid's Tale when it was published. Talk about a whoops.

Expand full comment
Matri's avatar

They didn’t react to THT because that’s the future they want. Why complain about that?

Expand full comment
Zorginipsoundsor's avatar

That's interesting considering Card is a rabid homophobe.

Expand full comment
Straw's avatar

And that too.

Expand full comment
Straw's avatar

They don't avoid fantasy, they believe only one fantacy is enough.

Expand full comment
Troublesh00ter's avatar

Science-fiction and fantasy play to the reader's imagination. More than once, I've heard or read Christians saying that imagination needs to be muted or at least discouraged in children, for what to me are obvious reasons.

If someone thinks outside the box, they may begin to wonder if they NEED the box.

Expand full comment
Crowscage's avatar

Every god ever conceived is the product of imagination.

Expand full comment
Straw's avatar

My guess is that fantasy, including SF is not real literature* and does not count. Ergo nothing to worry about.

*) Yes, after I learned to read books in 1970, lots of people has told me that what I read is not literature at all.

Expand full comment
cdbunch's avatar

The Great Gatsby is literature. The Sound and the Fury is literature. The red badge of courage is literature. You can shove them where the sun don't shine. Even 'find and replace' Piers Anthony writes better stories.

Expand full comment
Black Hole and DM mourner's avatar

Mercedes Lackey's The last herald-mage trilogy (1989-90) main character is overtly gay and had partners.

Expand full comment
Zorginipsoundsor's avatar

Yep, Heinlein is where I learned about bisexuality.

Expand full comment
Crowscage's avatar

If those phuckers ever have the chance they will burn every library, every museum and every gallery to the ground. Just like they did last time.

Expand full comment