A tweet by Texas Lt. Governor Dan Patrick reading from the words from Galatians 6:7. The verse reads, "Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows."that went out hours after approximately 50 people were killed at a Florida LGBT nightclub has been deleted.
Trying to explain himself he says,
"Our scripture was not posted in reaction to the shooting."
"I’m actually on an island. The Internet is slow. I first heard of the news late this morning from a reporter. However, the time lag has given me an opportunity to reflect on this tragedy, your comments, our war on terrorism, our divided nation and God’s word for all of us."
"The verse has nothing to do with God’s judgement on any one person or a specific group of people. If some chose to read into it what they wanted they either have never read Galatians Chapter 6 or have misread it."
"Some wanted the post pulled down and others did not. Let me be clear, I didn’t pull down the FB post & tweet because God’s word is wrong. His word is never wrong. Taking down his word would be like tearing a page from the Bible because we didn’t like what God was telling us. I took it down to stop the hateful comments and the misinformation being spread of God’s message to all of us- straight or gay."
"God’s message to all of us in the world is that of love and forgiveness – not hate. Jesus was clear that the only way to the Father was through him."
"We are all sinners, straight or gay, and we all fall short of heaven and eternal life unless we accept Christ as our Savior. He died on the cross for all of us. Let me repeat that. He loves us all and died for all of our sins."
"The hateful comments today following my post of a simple scripture verse, totally unrelated to the terrible killings last night, that were directed at me and God’s word, is another example of that hate. I pray these divisions will end."
"For those who have never read Galatians 6, here are the first ten verses. Only those who choose hate speech can suggest God’s word was directed at them. It was directed to the church of Galatia as Paul was talking to early Christians about moving from the law of Moses to the new Christian church."
"Today God’s message is directed to ALL of us."
Anyway, it went on and on, we had to cut some of it out it was so long.
As we were reading this, all we could think of was William Shakespeare.
