Texas pastor says gay people should be 'shot in the back of the head' in shocking sermon
By: Minyvonne Burke (NBC News)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
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, a suburb of Fort Worth, made the comment and other controversial remarks during a Sunday morning sermon titled "Why We Won't Shut Up."
"I'm angry this morning because our entire country is celebrating the worse sin in the Bible," Awes said during the sermon referring to Pride Month, which commemorates the LGBTQ+ community every June.
"You know a lot of pastors have this stupid idea where it's just like, 'oh you know God loves everyone. And God hates the sin but loves the sinner.' But people have taken this to such an extreme where they're saying celebrate the sin, not just tolerate it, celebrate it," he continued. "Let me show what the Bible says about these people."
Awes read several passages from the Bible and condemned homosexuality as a sin. At one point, he told the congregation that gay people "are dangerous to society" and said that "all homosexuals are pedophiles."
"I'm not saying that every single homosexual that's alive right now has committed that act with a child already because it could be they haven't had the opportunity yet and they will at some point later in their life," he said. "This is why we need to put these people to death through the proper channels of the government. ... These people are not normal. They're not your average everyday sinners. ... They have no hope of salvation."
At certain times during the sermon people from the crowd could be heard cheering in agreement. Awes told the room that he thinks the "solution for the homosexual in 2022" is the death penalty.
"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 with death. They should be lined up against the wall and shot in the back of the head," he said.
Many people on social media criticized the pastor with some labeling his remarks as a violent threat to the community.
"Encouraging the execution of gay persons is not protected speech. Dillon Awes should be considered a domestic terrorist and charged," one Twitter user wrote.
Another said Awes' comment "makes the LGBTQ+ community a huge target" and the pastor "needs to be on FBI watch list."
Other people complained to the Watauga Police Department, prompting it to issue a statement Wednesday. While denouncing "any message that promotes hatred" the department said Awes' comments are protected by free speech.
"First, the Watauga Police Department would like to affirm our commitment to making Watauga a Great Place to Live for all people. The Watauga Police Department values diversity and will continue to protect people's right to express their identities," the statement read.
"Any message that promotes hatred toward any class or group of people is absolutely counter to the culture of the Watauga Police Department. The language used by the Pastor of the Stedfast Baptist Church is likely to be offensive to many people. However, at this time, the reported language of the sermon appears to be Constitutionally protected free speech. We will continue to monitor this evolving situation."
Awes could not be reached at phone numbers listed for him. The church's main pastor, Jonathan Shelley, defended Awes saying in a lengthy statement that America has weakened "punishments for homosexuality."
"The Bible teaches that God's laws have not changed on this issue," Shelley said. "We will not let the Devil's influence in our culture stop us from believing the Bible. Our main purpose is not to preach controversial things but rather get people saved. However, we will preach everything the Bible says."
CORRECTION (June 9, 2022, 3:24 p.m. ET) A previous version of this article misspelled the name of the church. It's Stedfast Baptist Church, not Steadfast Baptist Church.
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meh, I feel the same way about most evangelicals...
Where has our repressed evangelical been lately??????????????????????
I think you know who I'm referring to.
He's on vacation
Somehow I get the feeling that if the threats were aimed at police officers, they would be singing a different tune.
Or how about all idiot bigoted pastors get rounded up and hung in the town square.
Free speech?
I really like when thumpers rush towards martyrdom.
That's what a lot of today's alleged conservatives/gqp/gop/republicans think of Democrats - that they should be shot in the back of the head also.
Used to live in Topeka back when the Westboro Baptist Church was in its evil heyday.
Fred Phelps wrote the book on idiot bigoted pastors.
So much for free speech, sound much more like hate speech to me.
Condoned by the cops...
I think someone should start a campaign saying that this piece of shit pastor is a pedophile. Photoshop some pics of him with children.
Free speech right?
don't get caught...that could lead to a defamation law suit
You forgot atheists. If it wasn't for gays we would be at the top of their shit list.
2 Thessalonians 3:
11 For we hear that some among you are leading an undisciplined life, doing no work at all, but acting like busybodies. 12 Now we command and exhort such persons in the Lord Jesus Christ to work peacefully and eat their own bread.
Well that there tells you this ass should have never graduated from any seminary that valued the
truth.
According to Billy Graham and thousands of other Churches all sins from anger to zenophobia
are equal but forgivable outward sins.
The only true sin is nonbelief, an inward sin.
Sheeley, Awes, Romero and Jiminez sin every time they preach. The hatred is palpable.
There are only a hundred congregants at this location, fully a third of them children.
By definition, no seminary can possibly value truth.
I'm an atheist.
I don't believe in God, Satan, Heaven, Hell or sin (except "SiN Nation" on Newsvine).
Hence the Nation, Sinners and Buttheads...
twice...
I seem to remember that you (and Trout Giggles) were Admins in ButtHead Nation on Newsvine.
With BB, Cobalt and Fiery One, Stu, Fargo and that damned ostrich!
Well, TFPTB (Sally) demoted Cobalt (and threatened to eliminate ButtHeads) Nation before you, Stu and Fargo were brought in to salvage BHN.
That's why Cobalt and I founded SiN Nation (six months later). SiN always had a much smaller membership (it always 666 members) than BHN.
I think someone is having issues with their own sexuality.
"Haggard's Law"?
Yes, that.
Now the rainbow coalition is actively picketing the strip mall
that contains this "church".
Subway is loving the extra business.
The church filed for an injunction against the protesters and lost.
The three "preachers" went to the most recent City Council meeting to scream at the
Mayor that they were trying to save mankind and repeatedly invoked Leviticus and
repeated their death wishes again. A couple of people clapped.
Most of the rest went outside and waited until an officer said the coast was clear
to return and watch normal city business.
The city solicitor was called upon to reaffirm that hate speech has been deemed
protected by SCOTUS and there is little that anyone can do about that or the presence
of the church presently.
I know he has the right to say it or anything else he wants, but they all need to learn that words have consequences and some people take the words to heart & move on them (Jan. 6th ring a bell with anyone - or Gabby Gifford??)
I find his words and meaning far being Christ like.
He also needs to realize that people protesting his bigotry and hatred have the same freedoms he does, and can march wearing rainbow t-shirts, carrying rainbow flags, and call him and his flock out four ways to Sunday.
Hell, he might even end up hearing that bigots hiding behind their Bibles should be strung up from the nearest convenient tree, turnabout being fair play and all. And he'd have absolutely no room to complain about it.
But he will & will start the whole "war on Christians" bullshit again.
Where are the satanists when you need them? This is a good call for an "intervention" And no, I can't believe it has come to this-just to aggravate and vex a group of bad people!
The Bible is a collection of 66 "books" written over a 1,500 year period.
The Bible is a collection of oral histories dating back 6,000 years.
Mesopotamia, Egypt, China, Greece, Rome all have art, artifacts depicting same sex
partnerships dating back 5,000 years or more.
Apparently "it" is as natural as natural selection and evolution.
I strongly suspect that Awes doesn't believe in evolution either.
Used to have a German Shepherd who would hump anything/any leg whenever he felt like it.
BAD DOG!
Get the feeling that he thought that his name was "bad dog" at one point in time.
LOL
You tube removed the sermon for violating YT rules.
In other places the "holder", Awes/Stedfast removed the 'sermon' on their own
but not before the young Turks captured the succinct parts.
When searching online, there appear to be many branches of this church,
mostly in TX but some in FL all of whom operate in small strip mall storefronts.
The Watauga location is new because they were evicted from neighboring Hurst TX a few
months ago after losing to their landlord (/s) in court and ordered to pay $42,000 in atty fees.
TX Church Evicted After Pastor Preaches That Gay People Are ‘Worthy of Death’ (churchleaders.com)
In June of 2021, Shelley lamanted that only one person was killed in a FL gay pride "f*g" parade
but many were injured and perhaps more will die in the coming days.
I would be happy watching people beat the shit out of this jackass.
Always amazes me they speak hate yet complain when someone says something back. Acting like they are the poor persecuted ones.
If he is any indication of his God, then his God can kiss my ass.
Because only white male Christians can say anything negative about other people - if anyone else does then they are persecuting the white male Christian.
I hate you! Free speech! I hope you die! Free speech!
What did you say to me? How dare you. See everyone how I am persecuted?
I see it here everyday.... and it is exactly as you said.
Did everyone hear about, I think it was in Utah, a group of fine young white nationalists, proud boys, whatever, were set up to terrorize a gay pride parade or some other such hatred.
That was Idaho. Perrie has a seed up about it
2 of them are from the same town that this church is in.
I don't think that's a coincidence.
Another chapter of why the SPLC labels these people a hate group.
Anti-Gay Pastor Resigns After Allegedly ‘Being With Prostitutes’ – NBC New York
The Jewish Torah, Christian Bible and Muslim Koran all advise their believers to kill any nonbelievers...
Advise? Like a recommendation?
I have heard that baptists don't have sex standing up because it could lead to dancing.
A bus full of ugly people had a head on collision with a truck. When they died, God granted all of them one wish. The first person said, "I want to be gorgeous." God snapped his fingers and it happened. The second person said the same thing and God did the same thing. This went on and on throughout the group. God noticed the last man in line was laughing hysterically. By the time God got to the last ten people, the last man was laughing and rolling on the ground. When the man's turn came, he laughed and said, "I wish they were all ugly again."
LOL
Get a grip, 'pastor', you are reading from an ancient book written by ancient men (not God) who are reflecting personal, local mores and values that were in place thousands of years ago. Stop using your authority to teach bigotry to gullible people.
You know (sighs) that was a hard article to read through. Sometimes, with so much progress behind us recently and promise ahead of us, reading this kind of vitriol from somebody who is acting as a 'Shepherd' - mind you, one who is scrutinizing his flock for homosexual imperfection and talking about matters too deep for him to understand, I can be struck silent As a practicing Christian, I need a moment. . . the hatred and dread emanating from those words is beyond proper digestion . . . . I need to 'vomit' them up and out. . . .
Some people use the Bible as an excuse to reify their bigotry. I think this guy fits that bill.
You know I have a long-term Netflix subscription and the streaming company is well known for its diverse and progressive treatment of subject matter. To this end, Netflix as a great many shows that introduce, illustrate, even star-cast homosexuality as normative. I can watch these shows, without running out and fornicating, because of a maturity as a believer I write about often here. Let people alone, let them find their way to the God of the Bible, if they wish or not if they don't. In which case, they simply live out their status as a free, industrious, citizen of this the only world we know not based on faith and hope.
Anyway, when I was a child and young adult homosexual, there was no "Me" like what is "immediately" being produced now. We 'fumbled' our way through life on a daily basis risking it all, never knowing who or when we would be taken down or at least found out—through probing, through 'set-up,' through entrapment, or even blackmail. We never knew who was being kind to us as homosexual 'couples,' and looking for a reason to expel us based on something fact or fiction they heard, found out, or just wanted to use as a ploy.
When I read what this man, not a Shepherd, is saying, first, I am glad Youtube has shut him down. Second, I am glad the community makes him move on from place to place, time to time. Because when he speaks I hear- the confusion in my upbringing; I hear Iran, I see in my mind's eye - a video clip I once saw of the cruelty of homosexuals being (gulp) blind-folded and tossed off of tall buildings, caning in India, and Matthew Shepherd impaled on a fence. . . .
It's such a set-back. It is such a 'horrible' reminder of a negative found deeply entrenched in the bible's past, that somehow can't be self-corrected in the teaching of 'today' - if churches won't get out of a mindset to live out the past!
So many thoughts, but this is like a. . . gut-punch. Processing . . . .
There is a missing 'value' in the Old Testament teaching on homosexuality, even on sin itself this emphasis is not placed: No one is guiltless before God. That is, even when God is placed in the role of 'Pure and Awesome' God, it is understood by the fact that sin as stated in the bible was a constant stumbling block to the Israelites who simply could not keep the laws-perfectly. So this one lapsed into adultery, this one constant lies, that one fornication, another greed of all kinds. And. . . yes, homosexuality.
God also knew that all parents would not be willing to submit to stoning their children over disrespect or their lifestyle choices. You may remember the parable Jesus told about the prodigal son. . . . who 'wandered' away from his father (spiritual meaning, "God") and went a 'whoring' and lusting after the world. . . but in the 'fullness of his life" he returned to his father (God) and his father (God) was happy for his transition.
The positive in this story is the young person became independent and one day he returned to his Father. The negative? Where is it? From God's point of view where is the negative in this narrative? It is not there. No negative. Why? Because God did not 'stone' or kill this son for any disrespect of God's 'person.'
God always knew if given space to live, one day, this young man after 'tasting and seeing' would return. . . to where he belonged and fit perfectly.
This is what this so-called, Shepherd, should be explaining to his 'flock.'
That, if God can not fail. . . then, God can not fail no matter what!
It is time for the Church as a whole to start believing "the Press" that they grant God or leave it off altogether!
I'm willing to bet that Pastor Dillon Awes is a so-called "right to lifer".
He is also a deluded hypocritical bigoted asshole.
The Bible was written by ancient goat herders (guess what they did with their goats).
You're being too nice. He's all that and worse. Complete and total filth.
I have nothing nice to say and analysis is wasted on this kind of thing.
Fuck him, he is a retard. Things to be said: said
Analysis: Analyzed.
So now I guess we will be seeing endless innocent people being shot in the back of the head, because 'God told them to do it'. That always works as a good reason among the brain dead preachers and their equally brain dead followers.
To do so, to shoot someone in the back of the head, shows the disrespect of not giving them a chance to know what is happening, to plea their case, or see their executioner. I am ashamed of this foolish man and his flock that hates as he does. No one should feel safe turning their back to anybody who enjoys or feel it his or her duty to shoot people in the 'back'!
And that preachers words totally goes against his God's Ten Commandments one of which is #6 "Thou Shalt Not Kill."
I am not associated with any religious entity, as I follow the religious beliefs of my Cherokee ancestors, however, I am aware of the beliefs of various religions. t is my humble opinion that this preacher is not a true man of his God, and today it is gays that he advocates shooting in the back of the head, but, how do we know he won 't be advocating the same thing for Blacks, Asians, Jews, Muslims, and who knows what other types of people he will be saying the same for in his very sick mind.
I feel sure the Creator does not at all approve of what this preacher, who is supposed to be representing Him, is saying and will determine what, if any, punishment he deserves in the afterlife, and I really don't care. However, I worry what he will be advocating other sick minds in his followers to doing more diabolical acts that will cost the lives of more innocent people before he is put out of business.
He should be challenged. And on that note: I am glad that he is being challenged and 'taken down' socially. He is a pathetic human being. Why? Because if one was to reciprocate his life would be on the line. I want to be explicitly clear I am not advocating harm to this foolish man who operates under a facade of religion.
That's why we can know he is a fool. Because he has not counted the cost of making irresponsible statements about the brother, sister, husband, son, or friend of people he thinks should be murdered (enmasse). As if this country has not suffered mass shootings (executions) already.
This guy is no religious leader. He is a fraud. You can know them by their statements and their actions. He is a monster! Indeed, authorities should run a check on his background looking for skeletons or missing homosexuals he made have literally hidden in his past! Compare locations and his times of living in the areas.
I agree CB.
This kinda shit is exactly why I turned away from religion. Well, one reason, that main one being religion never actually explains anything. But aside from religion being completely empty when it comes to answers for... anything, all it does is teach people to hate each other for the dumbest things.
Stirring the pot of hatred, and stoking this kind of targeted hate does not qualify as a "religion". Using religion as a cover for spreading hatred should carry some kind of penalty even within the church community.
Wow, no trollers trolling or condemning this miserable human being. Speaks volumes, eh?