Mayoral Candidates Enter Bishop Benjamin's House Of Worship

Tonight, both Mayor Bart Peterson (D) and Republican Greg Ballard spoke at a property tax forum at the Light of the World Church presided over by Bishop Thomas Garrot Benjamin. You may recall he was one of several local ministers demanding that Mayor Peterson provide money to churches for faith-based initiatives to combat the city's spiraling crime. Some supporters of both Peterson and Ballard may be asking what the two candidates feel about Benjamin's views on homosexuality. As Advance Indiana previously reported on one of his sermons entitled the "High Cost of Low Loving, Benjamin is quoted as saying:

The most dastardly thing about homosexuality is silly silly homosexuals going around trying to convince people that what they're doing is normal. That’s the sin; the abomination. Instead of saying I have a serious problem and I am struggling with it and I know that it is wrong . . . Homosexuality is a spirit of the underworld and you who collaborate with that spirit collaborate with the devil himself. But be careful on who you think is a homosexual and who is not. Everybody that is effeminate is not a homosexual, they just didn’t have the kind of parenting where a father said ‘son take that switch out yo' walk boy, son we don't walk like that, or bend like that either.’ The first time a father sees his son do his wrist like this he needs to take his hand and say .....uh............uh...........here. Your wrist goes like this. Men don’t talk up here (high). It’s a choice, you can change, you can choose, you can choose. Every effeminate person is not gay and every weight lifter is not straight. He might be the biggest girl in the city.” Uproarious laughter breaks out in the congregation.

Now, if Greg Ballard alone had attended tonight's event, you can bet there would be plenty of Democrats complaining about his appearance at an event sponsored by Benjamin and interpreting it as an endorsement of Benjamin's homobigoted views. What do you want to bet you won't hear any of those same Democrats complaining about Peterson's appearance at Benjamin's church tonight?

UPDATE: The Star's Brendan O'Shaughnessy has a story on the forum today, but it sheds little light on the views of the two mayoral candidates. He writes of the two:

Mayor Bart Peterson echoed the themes of his recent budget and income tax speeches -- that local spending was only part of the reason taxes increased. He said the state legislature should be meeting to fix the tax problem right now, or at least to turn a proposed rebate program into a credit on November bills.

His opponent in November's election, Greg Ballard, also gave his stump speech about why he should replace Peterson and make government more accountable. Ballard also said some people were scared of losing their homes, while others were moving out.

"The current property tax system is beyond repair," he said. "It must go."

I understand the most important information from the two came during the Q&A. If anyone was in attendance and can share what the candidates said in response to specific questions, please share it.