Reverend Phil Snider has been caught off-guard by the outpouring of support after a YouTube video of a speech he gave supporting gay rights went viral over the weekend.
Snider, a pastor in Springfield, Mo., delivered his speech on gay rights to a Missouri City Council over the summer when the city was considering an LGBT ordinance that would have added homosexuals to a list of protected minorities, The Advocate reported.
Snider began his gay rights speech by saying that "special rights for gays and lesbians" was in opposition to God's order and would lead to "destruction and trouble." What appeared to be a homophobic litany took a twist when Snider said, "I'm sorry, I've brought the wrong notes with me this evening. I've borrowed my argument from the wrong century. It turns out what I've been reading to you this whole time are direct quotes from white preachers from the 1950s and the 1960s all in support of racial segregation."
The YouTube video of the reverend's speech has since received over 2 million views and counting.
On Saturday, Snider took to his blog to thank those for their "kind words of affirmation and support."
The last few hours have been a bit of a whirlwind for me, to say the least. I’m really heartened by all of the emails, Facebook messages, and kind words that I’ve received over the last 24 hours. As I read each one, I don’t see them simply as messages that seek to affirm a particular talk I gave on a particular night in Springfield, MO (as grateful as I am for such affirmations), but rather, I view them as a reflection of the thousands — indeed, the millions — of people who, on a daily basis, are journeying together because we believe that our world can be a better place, a fairer place, a more beautiful place — for all people and not just for some — and we won’t stop calling for a more beautiful world to be born. I’m also grateful for all of the people who have come before us — many whose names history won’t recall — who have allowed us to be where we are now, on whose shoulders we stand. These folks may not be famous — more times than not they are friends or family members who have bravely told their story, often in the face of major consequences. They are the ones who have brought us to this place, and we carry their stories with us as we try to build a a more just world.
He goes on to say that there are countless pastors across the nation who support LGBT rights, "not in spite of their faith, but precisely because of it."
The Missouri town has tabeled the LGBT ordinance, according to MSN. The bill would have secured sexual orientation and gender identity protections in the areas of employment, public housing and accommodations.
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