Pastor Defends Teacher Accused of Antigay Facebook Rant

The pastor of Viki Knox, the New Jersey high school teacher under investigation for posting homophobic comments on Facebook, said that she is a "very loving person."

The Washington Post reports on the defense from the Rev. Milton B. Hobbs, pastor of New Covenant Fellowship in Clark, N.J. He said that Knox, a special education teacher in Union, should not be fired for expressing her religious beliefs and that her comments were not false when taken in the context of the Bible.

"No one is pointing to homosexuality as the ultimate sin. We all have sinned," he said. "It's not saying that people who are gay sin any more or less than anyone else. But to say that the Bible doesn't say it's a sin would be untrue. It does say that."

Hobbs positioned the matter as a free speech issue.

"Any Christian who makes a stand that's unpopular can expect to be persecuted. That's in the Bible, too," he said. "But no American should expect to be prosecuted for exercising free speech. At what point does that stop?"

Last week, it was revealed that Knox called homosexuality a "perverted spirit" on Facebook, where she also complained her public school's recognition of October as LGBT History Month. The Human Rights Campaign later found that Knox, who serves as the faculty adviser to a prayer group, had used Twitter to denounce the repeal of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy last month.

Garden State Equality, the statewide LGBT lobbying group, has called on the Union Township school district to remove Knox. The group expressed concern about her ability to enforce the state's new antibullying law given her professed beliefs. They plan a protest at the school board meeting this evening.