Fred Luter Says He Didn’t Mean To Link Gays to North Korean Threats

It is always fun to watch Religious Right leaders say one thing when speaking to right-wing audiences and then something completely different while speaking to mainstream ones. It is even more fun to see what happens when they get called out on it.

Take for example Fred Luter, the new president of the Southern Baptist Convention.

As we reported last week, Luter told End Times radio host Rick Wiles that he doesn’t think it is a coincidence that North Korea’s military threats are coming at the same time the US debates marriage equality and allowing gays to join the Boy Scouts.

During an interview with Anderson Cooper, however, Luter quickly backtracked.

Luter claimed he told Wiles that he didn’t “think there’s any connection” between North Korea’s threats and gay equality but had to backtrack after Cooper played the recording of Luter saying exactly that.

After Cooper confronted Luter about his claim that a favorable decision on marriage equality from the Supreme Court may lead to America’s “destruction” a la Sodom and Gomorrah, Luter again tried to backpedal. Luter said that homosexuality is a sin comparable to abortion, gun violence and racism, but then told Cooper that he does not believe that homosexuality is a sin on par with gun violence.