In reply to the letter written by Elizabeth Samse, I would first of all like to come to the defense of the Reporter.

Maybe it was incorrect of me to not substantiate the claims of the outrageous sermons. Honestly, I did not feel it necessary as they had been all over the national news, but I will be more than happy to substantiate them now. I love reading our local news but also follow the news outside of Kirkland as well.

The comment that was made about rounding up all gays and putting them behind electric fences came from Pastor Charles Worley of Providence Road Baptist Church in Maiden, N.C. The children who were singing about homosexuals not going to heaven happened at Apostolic Truth Tabernacle Church in Greensburg, Ind.

I also spoke about a pastor who wanted the government to kill all gays – that comment was made by Curtis Knapp, pastor of the New Hope Baptist Church in Seneca, Kan. and this was followed by Dennis Leatherman of the Mountain Lake Independent Baptist Church in Oakland, Md., who suggested that his flesh kinda likes the idea of killing the gays.

If you would care to take the time to search for any of the attacks that I have clearly outlined for you above, you will very easily see that I am in no way being paranoid and psychotic, as they really did happen.

I would like to ask you when the last time anybody called for your death during a religious service, or that of your partner and millions of other people? I think that I can very confidently state that you have not – I have, and I was deeply disturbed.

I’m fairly certain you seemed to just skimmed my letter and not actually read it as I did not once refer to the people who made these hateful comments as being in the Kirkland neighborhood at all – all I said was that I was worried that it would happen here.

I didn’t even suggest that these people were Christian leaders – I just called them church leaders. It also doesn’t matter how many people are preaching this – for one single person to stand in front of a group of people who look up to him, and for that person to call for the government to kill a huge number of people is unconscionable. It needs to stop, and it needs to stop now.

The reason for writing my original letter was because I was tired of reading about gay children committing suicide after being bullied, and that it is time for everyone to re-evaluate their thoughts and start to be more inclusive. Children should be taught that it is not appropriate to bully, but when they are hearing it from a bully-pulpit there is no wonder that they do not know any better.

Shaun Kelly, Kirkland