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Stephen Falco gave a sermon at Sure Foundation Baptist Church where he used a slur from the pulpit while preaching queer people should die by suicide or be murdered.
An Indiana church held a “Pray The Gay Away” event, and now stands by one speaker who went much further, calling for the execution of LGBTQ+ people.
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Stephen Falco gave a sermon at Sure Foundation Baptist Church where used a slur from the pulpit while preaching queer people should kill themselves or be murdered, according to local TV station WISH TV.
“There’s nothing good to be proud about being a f*****,” Falco said on video streamed on the church’s Facebook, adding that queer people should die by suicide. “You’re so disgusting.”
Another speaker at the event, Wade Rawley, endorsed the statement.
“These people should be beaten and stomped in the mud," Rawley said in the video, also adding that queer people should kill themselves.
After the bigoted speeches generated widespread outrage, the church stood by the hateful comments. On the church’s socials, evangelist Justin Zhong issued a statement on behalf of the church defending the remarks.
“I will not apologize for preaching the Word of God. I will not apologize for stating facts. I will not negotiate with terrorists, among whom the LGBTHIV crowd is full of domestic terrorists,” Shong wrote.
“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. We are not to take the law into our own hands.”
Comforting as that indirect insistence that only agents of the government execute LGBTQ+ people, many faith leaders and LGBTQ+ advocacy groups condemned the sermon’s content.
The Concerned Clergy of Indianapolis issued a statement to Newsweek criticizing the hateful language.
"The Concerned Clergy of Indianapolis stands firmly against the harmful rhetoric recently preached that condemned all LGBTQ individuals to hell and instructed people to stay away from them. Such messages are not only theologically irresponsible but pastorally dangerous," the statement reads.
