Waconia Baptist pastor Mike Frey may have provided your moment of cray yesterday in the House Civil Law committee hearing for Representative Karen Clark's marriage equality bill, but the more interesting story might be tracing who put the whacko in Waconia.
A set of photographs at flickr posted by the Baptist Church Planting Ministry(BCPM) states that the Northern Lights Baptist church was planted in Waconia in September 2011 by the group. According to its website, BCPM's "United States office is based in Apple Valley, Minnesota and is a ministry out of First Baptist Church in Rosemount."
Follow the Money notes that First Baptist Church in Rosemount was one of the top 20 funders to the Minnesota Family Council's Marriage Protection Fund in 2012:
| Contributor | Total | % of Total | Sector | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MINNESOTA FAMILY COUNCIL | $611,161 | 81.22% | Ideology/Single Issue | See Records |
| OLSON, CLIFFORD | $10,000 | 1.33% | Defense | See Records |
| SCHARBER, PETER | $5,000 | 0.66% | General Business | See Records |
| FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF ROSEMOUNT | $5,000 | 0.66% | Government Agencies/Education/Other | See Records |
| MARKSMAN METALS CO | $5,000 | 0.66% | General Business | See Records |
The connection between Frey and the church in Waconia was first reported this morning by Aaron Rupar at the City Pages in Mike Frey, outrageous anti-gay testifier, is pastor at Baptist church in Waconia after videos of the hysterically inaccurate testimony went viral.
Huffington Post's Mike Frey, Minnesota Resident, Gives Outrageously Inaccurate Testimony Against Gay Marriage (VIDEO) is typical of the coverage:
A Minnesota resident speaking before the House Civil Law Committee offered a shockingly inaccurate testimony in an attempt to thwart the approval of same-sex marriage in the state.
Mike Frey, a "concerned" father and husband, spoke in front of the committee on Tuesday and cited Minnesota's sodomy law, struck down in 2001, which defined sodomy as both anal and oral sex. He attempted to argue that gay sex poses a danger to citizens of the state because it results in the spread of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS).
He claimed that heterosexual sex could be safer because the vagina has a "barrier of cellular tissue that doesn't allow the sperm ... to penetrate the blood flow," but anal sex doesn't have such protections.
"When ejaculation occurs inside of a colon, it's highly absorbent material, the cells do not have a barrier for the sperm and those enzymes to enter into the blood flow," Frey said. "When the enzymes enter into the blood flow, and a continued, prolonged environment of that happens, these enzymes in the blood flow, it causes what we know as AIDS."
Frey's discussion of AIDS during a same-sex marriage hearing is striking because AIDS affects people of all genders, races and sexual orientations. The information shared by Frey is not only homophobic, it is also misleading. . . .
While Mike Frey's testimony seemed outlandish to most of those watching the hearing, those of us watchdogging the Minnesota Family Council likely perked up our ears, since the group has long been the genesis in Minnesota for this sort of obsession with the details of gay sex.
In May, 2011, Andy Birkey of the Minnesota Independent reported in Family Council asks for ‘respectful debate,’ says gays are pedophiles who engage in bestiality:
Tom Prichard, president of the the Minnesota Family Council, the main proponent of state Republicans’ anti–gay marriage amendment, told reporters after the bill’s passage on Saturday night that the goal was not to get “personal” and that he hoped that Minnesotans could have a “respectful discussion.” But documents on the group’s website uncovered by bloggers on Monday are dashing those hopes. A legislative handbook put out by the Family Council states that gays and lesbians engage in bestiality and ingest human excrement and claims that a disproportionate number of “homosexuals” are pedophiles. . .
One page of the document focuses on “Informed answers to gay rights questions” and offers this example.
8. “Gay people are not different in their behaviors from other people.”
8a. Homosexual practices are often astonishing to heterosexual people. Homosexuals must use body apertures not constructed for sexual penetration or bring their mouth into contact with areas designed for the elimination of human waste, which causes serious hygienic and health risks. Some homosexuals become urolagniacs (ingesting urine and feces) and engage in bestiality as well as other deviant behaviors.
After Birkey's article was published, the MFC removed the report, which was reposted by MnIndy.
Perhaps Frey was indeed at the hearing simply out of his own personal concern. However, his ideas don't jump full-blown from his head like Athena from the skull of Zeus; rather, they're nurtured in the cradle of the Minnesota Family Council and its kindred souls.
There was talk yesterday by some conservative Christians--including Senator Dan Hall when a senate committee heard the companion bill--that they might be called bigots and legally punished for their views should the marriage amendment pass. Senator Dibble and other hope that religious freedom provisions in both version of the bills will prevent that.
One wonders, however, if they simply believe that their "biblical" view of human sexuality gives them a warrant to spread bizarre claims about their fellow citizens without allowing the rest of us to speak out.
Holding them accountable isn't censorship--it's our own free speech. Puritan and poet John Milton defended this right of public discussion, believing as he did that a good public argument would lead to the discovery of the facts (although however open-minded he might have been for his time, he enjoyed his own prejudices against "Popery"). That one makes outlandish scientific claims in the name of one's faith does not make a person exempt from the discussion.
Here's the youtube of Frey's testimony:
Photo: screenshot of the Baptist Church Planting Ministry's Waconia flickr set from 2011.
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