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A
pastor who preached against homosexuality believes his
sermon was the motive for three men who assaulted his
church's part-time janitor.
Pastor
Paul Endrei of the Church on the Rise in Westlake, Ohio,
told the Cleveland Plain Dealer newspaper his Aug. 10
message was about the Rev. Gene Robinson, who became the
first openly homosexual Episcopalian confirmed as a bishop.
The
janitor, Richard Bilski, 49, told police three men beat
him Sunday morning outside the nondenominational church
after demanding to know when the pastor would arrive,
the Cleveland paper said.
As
the men fled, Bilski said, one yelled, "This is a
message for Pastor Paul."
Endrei
said the point of his Sunday sermon was "we love
the homosexual, but we hate the sin."
"I
told the congregation, 'The Gospel according to Gene Robinson
is not the Gospel of Jesus Christ,' " he told the
Plain Dealer.
Bilski
also suspects the sermon was the motive for the attack.
The
Cleveland paper quoted a former host of a gay-themed radio
talk show, who contended sermons like Endrei's can fuel
hate crimes.
"If
they don't preach tolerance, they are preaching violence,"
Harris told the paper.
Bilski
said the men confronted him as he took out the trash at
about 6:45 a.m. The janitor reported he was attacked after
he told them he didn't know what time Endrei would arrive,
suffering cuts and bruises to his face, arms, hands and
ribs.
"I
did nothing against anybody, and I'm the one in the middle
of this," Bilski said, according to the Plain Dealer.
On
Aug. 7, a Kenyan Anglican bishop was attacked on a London
street by two Church of England colleagues for opposing
Robinson's appointment, according to the East African
Standard of Nairobi.
The
confrontation turned to blows before passersby came to
the rescue of Bishop Simon Oketch who was attending an
international seminar in the city.
An
Episcopal vicar in Graham, Texas, near Fort Worth, reported
his church was vandalized and a portion set ablaze Aug.
5 in an apparent reaction to the congregation's defense
of traditional orthodoxy.
Police
said their only lead is writing on the wall: "God
and Jesus love Homosexuals."
In
a letter, Rev. Scott Wooten said, "The thought of
an active persecution crossed my mind when I decided to
take a stand against biblical revisionists, but it turned
very personal when it hit my church."
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