If you were a Green Bay Packer fan in the mid 90’s, you knew the name LeRoy Butler and loved the hell out of the guy.
Besides being one of the best safeties in NFL history and helping lead the Packers to a Super Bowl victory in 1996, he also invented the lambeau leap.
Now, there is another accolade to add to his resume.
Butler posted a simple tweet which read, “Congrats to Jason Collins”. Collins was the first NBA player to come out as gay.
After that tweet, a church Butler was going to speak at threatened to cancel his appearance unless he removed the tweet, apologized and asked for forgiveness from God.
He refused stating “Only God can judge” and then the church dumped him. This was a high paying gig ($8500) for Butler, so this was an admirable move by the former safety.
Butler was a Green Bay Packer his entire career and retired in 2001. He now mostly does charity work and started up the Leroy Butler Foundation which gives support to women who are battling cancer.
Anyway, Butler was on Anderson Cooper last night to tell his story.
CNN does not allow embedded videos, so Click Here for the Video
The church has now apologized to Butler knowing they handled this inappropriately and thanked Butler for not releasing the name of their church.
A church, which is a place to go to express your beliefs among other things, is NOT allowed to state their beliefs without the condemnation of the media? That’s irony. The Bible preaches forgiveness, NOT condoning and accepting sinful and immoral behavior… If Leroy’s views are contrary to Biblical Scripture and he refuses to acknowledge that it’s a sin and ask for forgiveness, the church not only has a right, but an obligation to withdraw support.
Many people don’t understand the sentence “Only God can judge”. When God does judge, it’s final for that person. There’s no chance in repenting and judgement has been dealt. What the church told Butler wasn’t judging. That church was only following the teaching of the Word. If Butler supports what God calls an abomination, then it’s the church’s responsibility to uphold the Word.
The bigger question is what church is spending $8500 to bring in a guest speaker, whether it’s Butler or anyone? I’d be skipping the collection plate if that were the case. I give first and foremost to spread the gospel and secondary to help people in need. I suppose one could argue a big name like Butler would bring people in, but I still think it’s a high expense.