Church Doubles Down After Preacher Encouraged Prayers for LGBTQ Deaths
An independent Baptist church in Indianapolis has defended a sermon in which church members called for the deaths of people in the LGBTQ+ community.
On July 3, preacher Justin Zhong said in a post on the Sure Foundation Baptist Church's Facebook page that the church would not apologize for the sermon.
"The Bible is crystal clear that sodomites (homosexuals) deserve the death penalty carried out by a government that actually cares about the law of God," Zhong wrote.
The Sure Foundation Baptist Church said: "The Bible puts the death penalty on the LGBTQ people. We as Christians must believe and preach what the Bible says. The reason people are so shocked about all this is not many 'Christians' and even 'pastors' actually believe the Bible. To be clear, we only called for the government to execute those people. We are against vigilantes."
The church's unapologetic endorsement of violent anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric reflects a worrying rise of open homophobia in the United States.
On June 29, the Sure Foundation Baptist Church held "Men's Preaching Night," where multiple church members used homophobic slurs and called for violence against the LGBTQ+ community while speaking from the pulpit.
In a sermon titled "Pray the Gay Away," Stephen Falco addressed the LGBTQ+ community, saying: "You ought to blow yourself in the back of the head. You're so disgusting."
https://www.newsweek.com/church-preacher...is-2094734
An independent Baptist church in Indianapolis has defended a sermon in which church members called for the deaths of people in the LGBTQ+ community.
On July 3, preacher Justin Zhong said in a post on the Sure Foundation Baptist Church's Facebook page that the church would not apologize for the sermon.
"The Bible is crystal clear that sodomites (homosexuals) deserve the death penalty carried out by a government that actually cares about the law of God," Zhong wrote.
The Sure Foundation Baptist Church said: "The Bible puts the death penalty on the LGBTQ people. We as Christians must believe and preach what the Bible says. The reason people are so shocked about all this is not many 'Christians' and even 'pastors' actually believe the Bible. To be clear, we only called for the government to execute those people. We are against vigilantes."
The church's unapologetic endorsement of violent anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric reflects a worrying rise of open homophobia in the United States.
On June 29, the Sure Foundation Baptist Church held "Men's Preaching Night," where multiple church members used homophobic slurs and called for violence against the LGBTQ+ community while speaking from the pulpit.
In a sermon titled "Pray the Gay Away," Stephen Falco addressed the LGBTQ+ community, saying: "You ought to blow yourself in the back of the head. You're so disgusting."
https://www.newsweek.com/church-preacher...is-2094734
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
