Pastor Who Wants Death Penalty for Gays Rails Against Pride Month
Texas this week, saying the Bible teaches “we should hate pride, not celebrate it.”“God’s already ruled that murder, adultery, witchcraft, rape, bestiality, and homosexuality are crimes worthy of capital punishment,” Jonathan Shelley, pastor of Stedfast Baptist Church in Fort Worth, said at the council meeting Tuesday.The council was taking public comments on whether to proclaim June as Pride Month.
It has issued such proclamations for the past several years, TV station KERA reports. Arlington is part of the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area, and Shelley said he has church members from Arlington and does business there.“I don’t understand why we celebrate what used to be a crime not long ago,” Shelley said at the meeting, in an appearance captured on video and shared on social media.
He cited passages in the Bible condemning gay sex and noted that the Texas antisodomy law is still on the books, although the Supreme Court’s 2003 decision in Lawrence v.
Texas has made it unenforceable.”He claimed that by celebrating Pride, the city is promoting “disease and AIDS,” and he falsely claimed that LGBTQ+ people are child molesters. “They say that they love so much, but they hate children,” he said. “They hate Baptists, they hate Christianity, and they hate God.”He called on the city to eliminate its LGBTQ+ liaison and recommended that everyone in attendance watch a film he directed, The Sodomite Deception, “which would clearly illustrate what the Bible says on this issue, providing actual stats instead of bullying people.” It’s not the first time Shelley and his church have engaged in such hateful rhetoric.
