Yesterday, the Parkersburg News and Sentinel published an op-ed by West Virginia state senator Mike Azinger (R – Wood). The piece is entitled “The Shame of LBGTQ Pride” and it begins:

One of my recent Facebook posts was a quote from the late Presbyterian preacher D. James Kennedy: “Tolerance is the last virtue of a depraved society. When you have an immoral society that has blatantly, proudly, violated all of the commandments of God, there is one last virtue they insist upon: tolerance for their immorality.”

Tolerance, in the face of the violation of the commandments of God, is no virtue at all.

The Parkersburg News and Sentinel embraced such tolerance in its Sunday edition with a front-page story of the LGBTQ event [last] Saturday at the Parkersburg City Park. Sexual deviancy is going mainstream.

It goes downhill from there.

Let’s see. In February, we had Republican delegate Eric Porterfield (R – Mercer) proclaiming that the LGBTQ community was “a modern day version of the Ku Klux Klan.” Then in March, we had the Anti-Muslim poster prominently displayed at the “Republicans Take the Rotunda” event in the capitol. Now we get senator Mike Azinger. Here’s a suggestion for a new slogan for the Republican Party:

Intolerant and proud of it!

Evening update

I was beginning to wonder if perhaps I had been a bit unfair to the West Virginia Republican Party by characterizing them based upon just a couple of their elected state officials. And then I saw what the head of the Republican Party in West Virginia, Melody Potter, wrote on her Facebook page:

This op ed written by Senator Mike Michael Azinger is right on and is biblically based. The comments at the end of the article from some readers are the typical about “ not judging “ and “hate”, the usual rhetoric. Thank you Senator for having the boldness to stand for what is right. More people should do the same. Thank you!

Yes, "Intolerant and proud of it!"