Once news hit that the global United Methodist Church upheld its ban on same-sex marriage and gay clergy, a Methodist pastor in North Carolina promised to fight back against the ruling until it’s reversed.

“Let us not rest until all people can be welcome to worship God in any space that they choose,” the Rev. Jason Butler with Open Table Methodist Church in Raleigh said, WNCN-TV reported. “That is what we will fight for.” . . .

Butler told WNCN that when he heard about the ruling, he “was just broken. I felt almost sick inside because I knew that for so many of our LGBTQ friends this was yet another voice, another church saying that we close our doors.”

Depris Price noted to WNCN that he’s acquainted with adversity as an openly gay black man and was taught from childhood that it was a sin to be himself.

“It was the untouched subject,” Price told the station. “You did not talk about this, and even if you did, it was only during like Sunday school, and you just said it’s wrong to be homosexual. There was no reasoning, there was no explanation.” (Read more from “Troubling: U.S. Pastors Increasingly Accepting Homosexual Marriage” HERE)

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The Catholic priest removed from an Avondale church last weekend after burning an LGBTQ-friendly flag said in an interview published Wednesday that he has gone into hiding to avoid being committed to a mental institution by Archdiocese of Chicago leaders.

In his first public comments since Cardinal Blase Cupich removed him as pastor of Resurrection Catholic Church — recorded at an “undisclosed location” — the Rev. Paul Kalchik told the conservative Catholic news website Church Militant that Cupich dispatched two of his top deputies last Friday to take him away from the church at 3043 N. Francisco.

“[They said] ‘Pack your bags now and we’ll make certain that you get to St. Luke’s safely and get locked up for a number of months,’ ” Kalchik said, referring to the Saint Luke Institute, a mental-health facility in Maryland for the clergy.

When Kalchik refused to leave, he says the two deputies — Cupich’s vicars for priests — threatened to call the police to have him “forcibly removed.”

“And I don’t know how that would have played out, because we already had all these volunteer policemen there to make certain I wouldn’t be tarred and feathered by the rabid homosexualists of the North Side of Chicago, you know, who are [sending me] death threats,” Kalchik said. (Read more from “Flag-Burning Priest in Hiding to Avoid Being Committed, ‘Tarred and Feathered’” HERE)

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A decades-old controversy received additional fuel this week when a former “Sesame Street” writer confirmed he felt Bert and Ernie represented a same-sex couple on the children’s puppet show when he wrote them.

After Mark Saltzman’s remarks were published by Queerty, the show’s production company issued a statement once again asserting that the show’s puppet characters “do not have a sexual orientation” and were intended to represent a platonic relationship.

“As we have always said, Bert and Ernie are best friends,” Sesame Workshop wrote. “They were created to teach preschoolers that people can be good friends with those who are very different from themselves.”

Frank Oz, an early collaborator on the show and a creator of Bert and Ernie, also weighed in to deny the puppets were meant to be gay.

“It seems Mr. Mark Saltzman was asked if Bert & Ernie are gay,” he tweeted. “It’s fine that he feels they are. They’re not, of course. But why that question? Does it really matter? Why the need to define people as only gay? There’s much more to a human being than just straightness or gayness.”

It seems Mr. Mark Saltzman was asked if Bert & Ernie are gay. It's fine that he feels they are. They're not, of course. But why that question? Does it really matter? Why the need to define people as only gay? There's much more to a human being than just straightness or gayness.

— Frank Oz (@TheFrankOzJam) September 18, 2018

The comment earned widespread criticism among those who felt an identifiable same-sex couple on the show would be an important step toward inclusion.

Oz responded directly to many of those critics, offering his defense of maintaining the friendship Bert and Ernie were originally created to reflect.

Hmmm. This is confusing to me. It is not my opinion. It is fact. I created Bert. He is not gay. I have also written that I'm pleased people see in him something that gives them comfort and recognition. But that does not change the fact that he is not gay.

— Frank Oz (@TheFrankOzJam) September 19, 2018

You're saying it's "honest" to say that they are not gay. Isn't this writer being honest by saying that he wrote them as gay, bc he pulled real life experiences from his relationship w/ his partner? Whether or not you CREATED them as gay, when HE wrote them, he wrote them gay.

— S♾ (@_securus) September 18, 2018

As of Tuesday evening, the tweet containing Sesame Workshop’s original statement had been replaced by an update.

“Sesame Street has always stood for inclusion and acceptance,” the company wrote. “It’s a place where people of all cultures and backgrounds are welcome. Bert and Ernie were created to be best friends, and to teach young children that people can get along with those who are very different from themselves.”

That statement earned some praise from those who felt the original statement was insufficiently inclusive.

Oz has continued to tweet on the topic, offering some additional context and revealing that he has learned some important lessons after hearing from those offended by his tone.

“Although it doesn’t matter to me if someone is gay or viewed as gay, I learned it does matter to a great many people who feel they are not represented enough,” Oz wrote. “The Tweet discussion was worth it for me to just learn that.” (For more from the author of “Sesame Street Creators Answer Question About Bert and Ernie Being Gay. The Left Isn’t Happy” please click HERE)

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