Tag: pastor

A Florida pastor has been arrested after he allegedly wrote a homophobic slur on his waiter’s receipt and then stuffed it down the restaurant manager’s blouse after she confronted him outside over the homophobic comment, police say. Frederic Sterry Smith, 62, of St. Augustine, Florida, was charged with simple battery following the incident at the Milagro On 12 Latin Kitchen restaurant on July 27. Smith was out dining with a female companion when he allegedly wrote “if he wasn’t gay,” and...

A dying Tennessee man’s final wish will not be honored. Jessie Goodman says his dying father’s last wish is to have his funeral held at his childhood church, Lee’s Chapel Baptist Church in Sweetwater, Tennessee. Goodman, a hairstylist who is engaged to Brandon Smitty, told WTCV that when church leadership found out the gay couple would be involved in the funeral service, the pastor and some of its members refused to be a part of the funeral. “As long as I was...

The Congolese health ministry has confirmed the country’s first Ebola case in the eastern city of Goma, raising concerns the disease could spread across the border to Rwanda. The person with the confirmed case is a pastor who had been in the town of Butembo, said the press release by the health ministry. “During his trip to Butembo, the pastor preached in seven churches where he would regularly place his hands on the sick. His first symptoms were detected on July...

Grayson Fritts is a deputy with the Knox County Sheriff’s Office in Knoxville, Tennessee. He also moonlights as a pastor at All Scripture Baptist Church, where he recently gave a fiery sermon about the evils of homosexuality. In the sermon, which was delivered on the first Sunday of Pride month and then uploaded to Facebook, Fritts called LGBTQ people “f*gs,” “freaks,” and “animals” and said it was the duty of police officers like himself to enforce the homophobic teachings outlined...

Find out if Jeremiah Lloyd Harmon made it to the top 20 finalists of American Idol Jeremiah Lloyd Harmon is the gay son of a pastor. He made headlines last month for his moving American Idol audition with an original song about not getting into heaven because he’s gay. Harmon also revealed his parents didn’t have a positive reaction when he came out as gay to them. ‘I first came out to my parents and my family three years ago,’ he said during...

When Jeremiah Lloyd Harmon came out as gay, his parents told him it's 'not a path' he should follow Jeremiah Lloyd Harmon is the gay son of a pastor. He works as a janitor at his dad’s church in Catonsville, Maryland, but he’s also an aspiring singer-songwriter. Harmon appeared on American Idol last night (10 March) to try to impress judges Katy Perry, Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan. But during his prerecorded interview, he revealed coming out as gay to his family didn’t...

“God is burning down California” because the citizens of the state “legitimize the sin of homosexuality” according to controversial conservative Pastor Kevin Swanson. Swanson is a radical anti-LGBTQ radio host and conservative darling beloved by such GOP politicians as Ted Cruz. Commenting on the wildfires raging in California, Swanson, speaking on his “Generations” radio program, claimed that the wildfires are God’s punishment on the state for its years of attempting to “legitimize the sin of homosexuality.” The angry, gay-hating pastor declared: If...

Eight victims have come forward to say they were molested as children Once again a pastor has proved that any previous talk of ‘protecting family values’ was hypocritical abusive nonsense. Pastor Matthew Dennis ‘Denny’ Patterson was an outspoken opponent against LGBTI rights in Nashville, Tennessee. In 2003, he took on a local LGBTI anti-discrimination law. He said he would ‘always oppose’ any attempt to stop progress on LGBTI rights in the state. He was arrested on multiple counts of child abuse for incidents that...

Another day, another antigay pastor caught up in a prostitution scandal. This time it’s 41-year-old Edward Ignacio Espinosa, who just stepped down from his position as community outreach pastor at Antioch Community Church in Waco, TX after being arrested for allegedly soliciting sex at a local massage parlor. The Waco Tribune-Herald reports: Espinosa’s charge stems from a massage parlor targeted by undercover McLennan County Sheriff’s Office investigators last year. Hundreds of men engaged in prostitution at two massage parlors in Waco between...

A Pennsylvania pastor is trying to dodge lewdness charges and accusations after being caught with a man tied up in his car. 61-year-old George Nelson Gregory was caught in the backseat of his car by police around 11:30 pm in Homestead. That’s all well and good until you mention the fact that Gregory was with a naked man who was bound by nylon rope. As the police report says, Gregory told police they “were just playing” and the man confirmed this...

“He took a huge stick and started beating me." A South African man says he was beaten by his pastor for being gay and then forced to pay damages for “shaming” his church. Dumisani Ngcobo, 43, says he’s one of 50 gay men who have been brutally attacked by his pastor at the Shembe Nazareth (eBuhleni) church in Pietermaritzburg, the capital city of South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province. During a church retreat, Ngcobo was sleeping in a tent with other men from his...

Conservative Christian Pastor Steven Anderson is back at it again, this time around calling for an execution of all gays by Christmas of this year. How lovely. He echoed something similar three years ago, saying that it would be an AIDS Free Christmas if all the gays were killed. Steven is a pastor who resides in Tempe, Arizona, where he delivered a sermon at his church stating that gays need to be put to death in the name of God by...

When he heard his pastor deliver a homophobic sermon, church organist Jason Biel decided to walk out, and not look back. Biel used to attend the local Adventist church in LaCombe, Alberta. While speaking to the I’m From Driftwood project, he explains what happened: “It was when the sermon started that things seem a little different. It wasn’t the usual head pastor who was doing the sermon. They had a chaplain from the university doing it. “The service started like any other, I...

A California pastor has claimed that Satan is responsible for gay weddings. The claim comes from pastor Jim Garlow, the pastor of Skyline Church in San Diego. Speaking at the Family Leadership Summit in Iowa, Garlow suggested that gay couple getting married is a Satanic plot. The pastor claimed that the marriage of men and women in the Bible He said: “You put male and female together, ish and ishah, and you get yod hey – that’s the name for God. “That’s the...