A “preacher” armed with a semiautomatic rifle showed up at Beto O’Rourke’s townhall in Hemphill, Texas, to challenge O’Rourke’s position on … abortion, calling it murder.
A self-proclaimed “minister of the gospel” (at present not identified by name or address) showed up at Beto O’Rourke’s town hall in Hemphill, in East Texas, on Saturday, July 30, asking questions about abortion and if Jesus was the gubernatorial candidate’s “lord and savior.” The man did all this while carrying an assault-style rifle over his shoulder just months after a gunman used a similar rifle to kill students and teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde.
The man, who claimed to be a preacher, is seen in multiple videos posted to Twitter over the weekend. Before asking his question, the man says in the video that he was not at the town hall to talk about guns, asking O’Rourke how to “deal with the murder of the unborn for anything other than to save a woman’s life.” The man then goes on to claim that there are plenty of “great men of god who are the product of rape.”1 Actually no “great men of god” were the product of rape but all christofascist preachers argue that rape, if inevitable, must be accepted as “god’s will”… identical to former Texas gubernatorial candidate Clayton Williams’s argument against the brutal reality of rape.2
Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council
The problem is that there are many individuals and organizations that claim to be pastors or churches to gain tax exemptions for their organizations enabling them to spew hate and violence with impunity. Family Research Council (FRC) and other far-right organizations have tried to avoid federal taxes and audits by registering as churches. In 2020, the FRC — which was once a tax-exempt charity — applied to the IRS to receive reclassification as “an association of churches.” The FRC reportedly met 11 of the 14 characteristics that the IRS uses to determine whether an organization is a church and was granted the reclassification, ProPublica reported. 3 Tony Perkins,4 president of the FRC, has argued that “homosexual men are more likely to abuse children than straight men.” He believes that the Bible commands Christians to kill gay people5 and has urged his followers to pray against any expansion of LGBTQ civil rights.6 Perkins and other right-wing theocratic christofascists welcome the overthrow of democracy in the USA and want a Christian-Taliban style government to take its place outlawing all religions except for the Baptist cult and white christian evangelical churches in keeping with the dreams of Hitler and the SS.5 Perkins is directly involved in grooming hate preachers calling for the execution, assassination, and maiming of LGBTQAI+ people, calling them “children of Satan” and antichrists, even in contradiction of his own bible:
31 πασα πικρια και θυμος και οργη και κραυγη και βλασφημια αρθητω αφ υμων συν παση κακια
32 γινεσθε δε εις αλληλους χρηστοι ευσπλαγχνοι χαριζομενοι εαυτοις καθως και ο θεος εν χριστω εχαρισατο υμιν (Ephesians 4:31-32).8
Texas pastor Awes calls for execution of gays
It is a common theme among televangelists and Baptist cult preachers to call for the execution of women who seek an abortion and against LGBTQIA+ people who rightfully demand to be treated as equals. Texas and Idaho are the states where hate-filled preachers prattle on their interpretation of their god’s will for all people regardless of the individual’s faith or rejection of religion. A Texas baptist church — labeled an “anti-LGBT hate group” by the Southern Poverty Law Center — has caused outrage after a pastor said gay people should be “lined up against the wall and shot in the back of the head.” Pastor Dillon Awes of Stedfast Baptist Church in Watauga,9 a suburb of Fort Worth, made the comment and other controversial remarks during a Sunday morning sermon titled “Why We Won’t Shut Up.” At one point, the poorly educated predatory pastor proclaimed, that “gay people “are dangerous to society” and said that “all homosexuals are pedophiles.”10 Without facts or references the willey wordsmith roared: “They’re not your average everyday sinners. … They have no hope of salvation.” Awes summarized his hate harangue hollering, “These people should be put to death. Every single homosexual in our country should be charged with a crime. The abomination of homosexuality that they have, they should be convicted in a lawful trial. They should be sentenced [to] death. They should be lined up against the wall and shot in the back of the head.”11
Texas Baptist preacher Jonathan Shelley calls for the execution of gays
Awes is aped by other Baptist-cult preachers, including Jonathan Shelley of Steadfast Baptist church in Fort Worth, Texas. Breathing fire and shouting brimstone, this satanic sentencer pathetically preaches that homosexuality merits the death penalty and railed against Pride Month at the Arlington City Council meeting in Texas this week, saying the Bible teaches “we should hate pride, not celebrate it.” Continuing Old Testament terrorist, the tart-throated troll treated against reality: “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, proclaimed at the council meeting Tuesday.12 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.” Shelley’s ignorance of his bible was revealed, inasmuch as Sodom was destroyed by general wickedness and not helping the poor or needy (a Republicanazi virtue).13
Joe Jones Baptist preacher calling for the executions of gays in Boise Idaho
Aping Awes, Pastor Joe Jones of Shield of Faith Baptist Church in Boise, Idaho called for the executions of all gay people. Jones told his congregation that “God told the nation that he ruled: Put them to death. Put all queers to death.” Jones, whose church prohibits LGBTQ members, said in his sermon, “When they die, that stops the pedophilia. It’s a very, very simple process… These people know that they’re worthy of death.” The Idaho Statesman reported that “Conzatti is an influential lobbyist whose nonprofit spearheaded Idaho’s new law that bans most abortions. The Idaho Family Policy Center also lobbied this year for legislation that sought to ban gender-affirming medical care for transgender children and a bill that would have held librarians liable for distributing ‘harmful material’ to minors. Most of the materials found in a Meridian library that spurred the legislation depicted LGBTQ relationships.”14 Jones’ call for executions of members of the LGBTQIA+ community, inspired many hate groups to go to Idaho with the intention of causing “violence” at the annual Boise Pride Prade. The police arrested 30 people who conspired to deny basic rights and life to the gay community: all were Baptists,
Police name 31 members of Patriot Front little army arrested for plan to riot during Idaho Pride event
The Washington Post has reported on the GOP trend of resorting to the 1980s Religious Right propaganda that all gay men and lesbians are pedophiles trying to “groom” children and promote a “homosexual agenda.” The Post noted, “GOP turns to false insinuations of LGBTQ grooming against Democrats” and reported how Michigan “GOP state Sen. Lana Theis accused Democratic state Sen. Mallory McMorrow by name in a fundraising email of wanting to ‘groom and sexualize kindergartners’.”15
Senator Mallory McMorrow Wert and her family
Senator Mallory McMorrow gave a speech in response to Theis’s attack. Noting, “I am a straight, white, Christian, married, suburban mom,” McMorrow called out Theis and the GOP, saying, “I am the biggest threat to your hollow, hateful scheme. Because you can’t claim that you are targeting marginalized kids in the name of ‘parental rights’ if another parent is standing up to say no. You say, ‘She’s a groomer. She supports pedophilia.” Notably, no GOP politician has, at press time, rejected the language of either pastor whose sermons continue to be promoted on YouTube, social media, and on national news sites. Yet the most surprising number of latent gays and pedophiles are within the Republican Party (among them were/are US Senator Larry Craig of Idaho, John Hinson, a former Mississippi congressman, was arrested in 1981 for oral sodomy, former Florida state representative Bob Allen was arrested in 2007 after he allegedly agreed to pay an undercover male police officer for oral sex in a park bathroom and so many more.).
Brother Tanner Furrh of Stedfast Baptist Church in Hurst, TX
Brother Tanner Furrh of the Stedfast Baptist Church in Hurst, Texas called for the death of lesbians during a sermon this weekend, saying that getting “a bullet in their head is too nice.” “They’re sick and gross because the Bible says so,” Furrh said. “And not just the male faggots. Also the women-faggots too.” Stopping for a moment to inhale, Furrh fulminated, “All the lesbos, all the dy**s, all these butch dy**s out there, they deserve the death penalty too,” he continued. “It should be punished with death by the government.” “Putting a bullet in their head is too nice,” Furrh said. “You know, the Bible said to stone ’em with stones. That’s a little bit harsher of a punishment. That punishment lasts a little bit longer than a bullet to the head. That’s the easy way out, honestly.”16
Steven Anderson preacher in Tempe, Arizona
Steven Anderson of the Faithful Word Baptist Church preacher in Tempe, Arizona prayed for the death of President Obama and celebrated the Orlando, Florida gay club massacre–earning for himself a ban from ever entering Ireland.17 Anderson was supported, with weapons, by Christopher Broughton, the anti-Obama, anarchist AR-15-carrying activist, who declared Steven Anderson to be his pastor on conspiranut moonhowler Alex Jones’ radio show. Anderson claims that he has a direct line to his god, and he spat: “God hates Barack Obama,” the preacher told his congregation. “I hate Barack Obama.” For Anderson, Obama cannot be “saved,” and because Obama backs access to abortion for women, he deserves to die.18
Steven Anderson’s family is a testimony to his fecundity
PreacherAnderson, who argues the sole reason for people is to have babies, openly calls for executing every gay person in America during a Sunday sermon at his church in Tempe, Arizona. He claimed from the pulpit that gays need to be put to death in the name of God by Christmas Day in an effort to wipe out AIDS, even though AIDS is not a virus exclusive to the LGBT community. Anderson has no medical education, and his theology is weak at best. He justifies his hate by citing the Old Testament, rejecting the words of his Jesus: “Turn to Leviticus 20:13, because I actually discovered the cure for AIDS. If a man also lie[s] with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death. Their blood shall be upon them. And that, my friend, is the cure for AIDS. It was right there in the Bible all along — and they’re out spending billions of dollars in research and testing. It’s curable — right there. Because if you executed the homos like [sic: as] God recommends, you wouldn’t have all this [sic] AIDS running rampant.”19 Anderson neither reads nor understands Hebrew or any of the original languages. The passage in Leviticus is against seeing a relative naked (Leviticus 18:6-18 that was practiced in Egypt) and misconceptualizing gender and the customary role of each gender (Leviticus 18:22-23):
22 וְאֶ֨ת־זָכָ֔ר לֹ֥א תִשְׁכַּ֖ב מִשְׁכְּבֵ֣י אִשָּׁ֑ה תּוֹעֵבָ֖ה הִֽוא׃
23 וּבְכָל־בְּהֵמָ֛ה לֹא־תִתֵּ֥ן שְׁכָבְתְּךָ֖ לְטָמְאָה־בָ֑הּ וְאִשָּׁ֗ה לֹֽא־תַעֲמֹ֞ד לִפְנֵ֧י בְהֵמָ֛ה לְרִבְעָ֖הּ תֶּ֥בֶל הֽוּא׃
Nazis, white supremacists, and Republicans join together
White christian evangelical nationalists in the USA and Germany: Many in Germany regarded the Weimar Republic’s toleration of homosexuals as a sign of Germany’s decadence. The Nazis posed as moral crusaders who wanted to stamp out the “vice” of homosexuality from Germany… Because some Nazis believed that homosexuality (specifically, gay men. Whilst, in comparison to other persecuted groups, lesbians were able to continue their lives in a relatively normal manner under the Nazis, their activities were oppressed and there were women who suffered under Nazi rule as a result of their sexual orientation. The Nazis did not believe that women were inherently corrupted by their sexuality in the same way that gay men were. Despite this, they did not agree with the concept or act of lesbianism.
Nazism and white christian nationalism
Some high-ranking Nazis, such as Hans Frank (the leading jurist of the Third Reich known as the Butcher of Occupied Poland who served as Governor for Hitler) and Rudolf Klare (author of Homosexualität und Strafrecht) actively campaigned for more extreme oppression of lesbians, though they were not very successful. While Klare jettisoned writings on homosexuality, Frank worked draconically to eradicate all male homosexuality in Germany. No punishment was too severe, no act too barbarous, as Frank held that homosexuals like all other marginalized people were only fit to be experimented on as if they were laboratory rats in keeping with Frank’s religious views: his god blessed only one nation (to him that was Germany, although the bible in his day clearly stated it was the Hebrew nation that was his god’s chosen land and chosen people), Deuteronomy 14:2: כִּ֣י עַ֤ם קָדוֹשׁ֙ אַתָּ֔ה לַיהוָ֖ה אֱלֹהֶ֑יךָ וּבְךָ֞ בָּחַ֣ר יְהוָ֗ה לִֽהְי֥וֹת לוֹ֙ לְעַ֣ם סְגֻלָּ֔ה מִכֹּל֙ הָֽעַמִּ֔ים אֲשֶׁ֖ר עַל־פְּנֵ֥י הָאֲדָמָֽה׃ ס
Hans Frank was a German white evangelical Lutheran who idolized Martin Luther and Luther’s antisemitic Von den Jüden und iren Lügen (a treatise written in 1543). Luther argued that Jewish synagogues and schools be set on fire, their prayer books destroyed, rabbis forbidden to preach, homes burned, and property and money confiscated. They should be shown no mercy or kindness, afforded no legal protection, and “these poisonous envenomed worms” should be drafted into forced labor or expelled for all time. Luther also seems to advocate their murder, writing “[W]e are at fault in not slaying them”.
Hanz Frank Governor and Butcher of Poland
It was based on a too-general reading of Luther’s many hate-filled tracts, that Frank believed that lesbians were not seen as a threat in the same way that gay men were in Nazi Germany, due to the small part that they were seen to play in public life. Lesbianism was wrongly considered a sickness that could be cured, they designed policies to “cure” homosexuals of their “disease” through humiliation and hard work.20 On 6 May 1933, the Nazis led the first physical attack on homosexuals following their rise to power. Students led by members of the SA attacked and looted the Institute of Sexual Research, set up by gay rights pioneer Magnus Hirschfeld, author of Leben und Werk eines jüdischen, schwulen und sozialistischen Sexologuen, in 1919.21 A few days following this, the Nazi youth/students burned the stolen books in the street22 something that the Baptist cult wants all students to do in the USA and rid the nation of all books that counter their faith and reject their god.
Roger Jimenez and his growing family
Pastor Roger Jimenez implored his congregation at Verity Baptist Church in Sacramento, CA, to separate themselves from the ways of a modern, wicked world. The bigoted blasted from behind his alter: “Burn your Harry Potter books. Trash your rock ‘n’ roll CDs. Don’t vaccinate your babies. Stay away from gay people.” Jimenez, who is frequently accused of being a “closet queer” gained national attention for praising the mass shooting of 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida.23 Jimenez preaches from a storefront church six miles from the state Capitol. Several pastors, including Jimenez, had called for the U.S. government to start executing LGBTQ people.24
Grayson Fritts pastor and detective calls for the execution of all LGBTQIA+ people
Another bible illiterate is Grayson Fritts, a Knoxville, Tennessee pastor, and detective with the Knox County Sheriff’s Office who, in June, called for the arrest and execution of LGBTQ people. Fritts took a buyout from the sheriff’s office in July and continues to preach.25 Baptists are not alone in spewing sewers of venom and hatred; they are linked intimately with the United Methodist Church. Homosexuality remains divisive among people of faith. The United Methodist Church this year tightened its ban26 on gay clergy and same-sex marriage, a decision that could split the denomination. In June, the Southern Baptist Convention adopted a resolution discouraging the phrase “gay Christian” because it considers same-sex attraction a “sinful desire.”27 While Baptists and Methodists yell against equal rights for LGBTQ+ people, they claimed, wrongly, that the existence of LGBTQIA+ people infringes on their rights to discriminate in the name of their god. Baptists and United Methodist cults are strongly and savagely against democracy, almost all their preachers are MAGA Trump supporters, and reject the 200-year-old principle of state-church separation and the Constitution since the Constitution does not contain the words Jesus, Church, or Christianity and the forefathers spoke against a state church. The Department of Justice as of Friday, August 12, 2022, is investigating sex crimes with minors in the Southern Baptist Convention. The Southern Baptist Convention, the second-largest faith group in the country, said Friday that the Justice Department is investigating multiple arms of the denomination following an internal report that showed mishandling of sexual abuse cases. The investigation is related to a recent bombshell third-party report commissioned by the SBC, a spokesman said late Friday. The report concluded that sex abuse survivors were often ignored, minimized, and “even vilified” by top clergy in the nation’s largest Protestant denomination.28
Southern Baptist Convention Headquarters in Nashville TN
Leaders in the Southern Baptist Convention on Sunday released a major third-party investigation that found that sex abuse survivors were often ignored, minimized and “even vilified” by top clergy in the nation’s largest Protestant denomination. The findings of nearly 300 pages29 include shocking new details about specific abuse cases and shine a light on how denominational leaders for decades actively resisted calls for abuse prevention and reform. Evidence in the report suggests leaders also lied to Southern Baptists over whether they could maintain a database of offenders to prevent more abuse when top leaders were secretly keeping a private list for years.30 Sanctioned pedophilia was commonly sanctioned by televangelists and “back to the Bible” preachers, especially in Texas, Tennessee, Georgia, Florida, and Mississippi. The report states I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY For almost two decades, survivors of abuse and other concerned Southern Baptists have been contacting the Southern Baptist Convention (“SBC”) Executive Committee (“EC”) to report child molesters and other abusers who were in the pulpit or employed as church staff. They made phone calls, mailed letters, sent emails, appeared at SBC and EC meetings, held rallies, and contacted the press…only to be met, time and time again, with resistance, stonewalling, and even outright hostility from some within the EC.29 The “Steadfast” groups within the Southern Baptist Convention are among the most hate-filled organizations void of all compassion or sanity for any minority: racial, gender, age, etc. Their mantra is “all for white heterosexual evangelical christians”.32
Footnotes
- https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/8/5/2114677/-A-heavily-armed-American-Taliban-cleric-terrorizes-a-town-hall-meeting-held-by-Beto-O-Rourke?pm_source=story_sidebar&pm_medium=web&pm_campaign=recommended ↩
- Arthur Frederick Ide (1990). Blatant Millions: Clayton Williams buying Texas. Las Colinas, TX: Liberal Press. ↩
- https://www.propublica.org/article/a-right-wing-think-tank-claimed-to-be-a-church-now-members-of-congress-want-to-investigate#1380306; cp. https://www.propublica.org/article/family-research-council-irs-church-status. Cf. https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2022/08/hate-groups-registering-churches-now-40-congressmembers-want-irs-investigate/?utm_source=LGBTQ+Nation+Subscribers&utm_campaign=193c081109-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2022_08_07_12_54&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c4eab596bd-193c081109-432379780. ↩
- https://www.mediamatters.org/msnbc/perkins-claimed-homosexual-men-are-more-likely-abuse-children-straight-men-experts-disagree. ↩
- https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2021/03/hate-group-family-research-council-reminds-followers-bible-says-kill-immoral-gays/. ↩
- https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2018/11/hate-group-leader-asks-followers-pray-civil-rights-law/. ↩
- https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2021/03/hate-group-family-research-council-reminds-followers-bible-says-kill-immoral-gays/. ↩
- Cf. Matthew 6:1-32; Proverbs 29:20, etc. ↩
- https://stedfastbaptistkjv.org/preaching. ↩
- https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-news/texas-pastor-says-gay-people-shot-back-head-shocking-sermon-rcna32748. ↩
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L61723RQpb8. ↩
- https://www.advocate.com/pride/2022/5/27/texas-pastor-jonathan-shelley-who-wants-death-penalty-gays-rails-against-pride-month. Cf. https://www.newsweek.com/texas-preacher-jonathan-shelley-calls-pride-abomination-1710353. ↩
- Arthur Frederick Ide (1985). City of Sodom & Homosexuality in western religious thought to 630 CE. Dallas, TX: Monument Press. ↩
- https://www.eastidahonews.com/2022/06/ahead-of-pride-month-idaho-pastor-says-lgbtq-people-deserve-death-penalty/. Cf. https://idahonews.com/news/local/joe-jones-boise-bastor-faith-baptist-church. Cp. https://www.eastidahonews.com/2022/06/boise-police-cant-charge-pastor-who-said-lgbtq-people-are-worthy-of-death/ ↩
- https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/04/20/republicans-grooming-democrats/. ↩
- https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2022/06/christian-preacher-calls-death-lesbians-putting-bullet-head-nice/. ↩
- https://www.dailymail.co.uk/video/news/video-1141647/Pastor-calls-execution-gay-people.html. ↩
- https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/christopher-broughtons-pastor-steven-anderson-prays-for-president-barack-obamas-death-6500993. ↩
- https://churchandstate.org.uk/2017/11/conservative-christian-pastor-calls-for-executing-all-gay-people-by-christmas-day/. ↩
- German Section 185; https://www.theholocaustexplained.org/life-in-nazi-occupied-europe/oppression/homosexuals/. ↩
- https://www.theholocaustexplained.org/life-before-the-holocaust/pre-war-homosexual-life/. I recommend reading this work in the original German. ↩
- Anna Hajkova, ‘Queere Geschichte und der Holocaust’, Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte, 38-39/2018, pp.42-47. Cp. Claudia Schoppmann, Hidden Holocaust: Gay and Lesbian Persecution in Germany 1933-1945 (London: Cassell, 1995). Williams J. Spurlin, Lost Intimacies: Rethinking Homosexuality under National Socialism (Oxford: Peter Lang, 2009). Ref. Müller, Joachim and Sternweiler, Andreas (2015). Homosexuelle Männer im KZ Sachsenhausen Published in Germany by Männerschwarm with a special section on Sachsenhausen (concentration camp). ↩
- https://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-orlando-nightclub-shooting-ticktock-20160613-snap-story.html. ↩
- https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-08-01/radical-baptist-pastor-lgbtq-hate. ↩
- https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/06/14/they-are-worthy-death-cop-preached-that-government-should-execute-lgbtq-people/?noredirect. ↩
- https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-methodist-church-lgbtq-20190319-story.html. ↩
- https://www.sbc.net/resolutions/2304/resolution-5–on-sexuality-and-personal-identity. ↩
- https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2022/08/12/fbi-southern-baptist-sexual-abuse/?utm_campaign=wp_post_most&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_most&carta-url=https%3A%2F%2Fs2.washingtonpost.com%2Fcar-ln-tr%2F37a46c8%2F62f7c97ccfe8a216012b6007%2F5d3c5ec9ae7e8a7c4fcf9b72%2F27%2F72%2F62f7c97ccfe8a216012b6007&wp_cu=ce6393d8695b209f97f836ec2d76c07c%7C8EAB0CB5727E149EE0530100007F7E90. ↩
- https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/22031737-final-guidepost-solutions-independent-investigation-report?responsive=1&title=1. ↩
- https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2022/05/22/southern-baptist-sex-abuse-report/. ↩
- https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/22031737-final-guidepost-solutions-independent-investigation-report?responsive=1&title=1. ↩
- https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2019/06/11/sexual-abuse-expected-dominate-southern-baptist-debate/. ↩
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