UPDATE: House GOP condemns Springs representative following comments on Boy Scout leadership policy change
The Colorado Republican Party has condemend Rep. Gordon Klingenschmitt for comments he made earlier this week following the Boy Scouts decision to allow gay leaders.
“We strongly condemn Gordon Klingenschmitt’s highly offensive comments. As we’ve said in the past, Gordon does not speak on behalf of the Party, nor do his words reflect our Party’s values,” leaders said in a statement to KRDO NewsChannel 13.
Klingenschmitt made the comments on the July 27 edition of his show “Pray in Jesus Name News with Dr. Chaps.” You can watch the program at the bottom of this article. Klingenschmitt makes the controversial comments at about 14 minutes 15 seconds into the video.
Klingenschmitt was discussing this week’s decision by the Boy Scouts to formally end its ban on gay leaders, when he said “What they’re going to do is promote homosexual men to mentoring and camping with your boys in the woods and it will lead to child abuse.”
A piece of bible scripture that Klingenschmitt quoted in the video is also causing controversy. Some say his quotation of Matthew 18:6, which says “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea,” will incite physical violence against gay scoutmasters for their sexual orientation.
In a statement, the House LGBT Caucus said “”Gordon Klingenschmitt is inciting physical violence against scoutmasters fortheir sexual orientation,plain and simple.This type of language is hateful and certainly below the station of any elected official, especially in 2015.”
Rep. Daneya Esgar (D-Pueblo) is on that caucus and told KRDO NewsChannel 13 the comments were offensive.
“I know the words he uses on a public platform are hurtful, are hateful, are violent and are vindictave. Whatever he does in his offtime, he’s still an elected representative of this state. And he needs to understand that and he needs to remember that when he’s spewing his hate,” she said.
In March, Klingenschmitt was removed from the Health, Insurance and Environment Committee after comments he made about a pregnant woman whose fetus was cut from her body. In that video, he called the attack a curse of god because of the state’s personhood amendment.
Klingenschmitt was later reinstated on the committee. He has not returned KRDO NewsChannel 13’s phone calls regarding this latest controversy.
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