Church defends pastor who called for the deaths of LGBTQ+ people in sermon.

An independent Baptist church in Indianapolis is defending their pastors who encouraged the congregation to pray for the deaths of members of the LGBTQ+ community in a sermon late last month.

During a ‘Men’s Preaching Night’ event at the Sure Foundation Baptist Church on June 29, pastor Stephen Falco delivered a sermon titled “Pray the Gay Away.” During the sermon, he used homophobic slurs, called members of the LGBTQ+ community “disgusting” and encouraged them to kill themselves, according to Newsweek.

“There’s nothing good to be proud about being a f*****. You ought to blow yourself in the back of the head. You’re so disgusting,” Falco said.

“How shall we then properly pray for gay people?” he continued. “We should pray for their deaths, plain and simple.”

Other speakers also encouraged violence against the LGBTQ+ community.

“You got another Pride Month here. I mean, obviously, I think they should be put to death,” church member Wade Rawley said. “These people should be beaten and stomped in the mud, and then they should take a gun and blow the back of their heads off.”

The sermon was first reported by local outlet WISH-TV. It was broadcasted live on Facebook and was widely condemned by social media users.

The Concerned Clergy of Indianapolis also slammed the sermon in a statement saying they “stand 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.”

In response, the church doubled down on the violent homophobic rhetoric.

“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,” pastor Justin Zhong wrote on the church’s Facebook page.

“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 added.

In a statement to Newsweek, Sure Foundation Baptist Church stood by their pastors, arguing that they are calling for the government to execute LGBTQ+ people, not vigilantes.

“The Bible puts the death penalty on the LGBTQ people. We as Christians must believe and preach what the Bible says,” church officials said. “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.”