Restaurant owner hands lesbian couple letter condemning their relationship
Sun. January 13, 2013 8:42 AM by OnTopMag.com
New Bern, NC -
A restaurant owner in New Bern, North Carolina handed a lesbian couple a letter condemning their relationship after they patronized his establishment.
Ed McGovern, the owner of The Stingray Cafe, does not deny he gave Ariel and Shawnee McPhail the letter but says he did it out of love.
"God said in the last days that man and wom[a]n would be lover of self, more [than] the lover of God," the letter reads.
"That man and woman would have unnatural [affection] for one another. Then, the coming of the Son of Man, who is Jesus. So please, look at your life. See how it hurt[s] everyone around you. And ask the Lord to open your eye[s] before it [is] to[o] late."
McGovern added in a postscript: "[M]y daughter also was gay. It destroy[ed] her life and my grandson."
The women, who married in the District of Columbia, denied McGovern's claim that they were kissing in his restaurant, which he said prompted him to write the letter.
"First of all, we didn't kiss," Shawnee McPhail told ABC affiliate WCTI News 12. "We don't kiss in public. We were holding hands. Secondly, if I did kiss my wife in public, what married couple would you go to and say, 'How dare you. You cannot hold hands and you cannot kiss in public therefore you deserve my judgment.'"
Ed McGovern, the owner of The Stingray Cafe, does not deny he gave Ariel and Shawnee McPhail the letter but says he did it out of love.
"God said in the last days that man and wom[a]n would be lover of self, more [than] the lover of God," the letter reads.
"That man and woman would have unnatural [affection] for one another. Then, the coming of the Son of Man, who is Jesus. So please, look at your life. See how it hurt[s] everyone around you. And ask the Lord to open your eye[s] before it [is] to[o] late."
McGovern added in a postscript: "[M]y daughter also was gay. It destroy[ed] her life and my grandson."
The women, who married in the District of Columbia, denied McGovern's claim that they were kissing in his restaurant, which he said prompted him to write the letter.
"First of all, we didn't kiss," Shawnee McPhail told ABC affiliate WCTI News 12. "We don't kiss in public. We were holding hands. Secondly, if I did kiss my wife in public, what married couple would you go to and say, 'How dare you. You cannot hold hands and you cannot kiss in public therefore you deserve my judgment.'"
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