Fort Worth pastor prays for Orlando survivors to die
For Pastor Romero, 49 isn’t enough. He wants all gays gone.
“I don’t think that’s something we should mourn over, because they’re evil people.”
—Pastor Donnie Romero of Stedfast Baptist Church speaking to KDFW-TV. Like so many others, pastor Romero expresses that his prayers are with the survivors of the Orlando shootings. Except, rather than save them, Romero asks for God to kill the survivors, calling on his congregation to celebrate the terror attack.
“I will pray to God, like I did this morning, and I will do it tonight, and I will pray that God will finish the job that that man started,” he said.
He compares the victims to murderers, rapists, and pedophiles. “The Bible teaches that they are predators and I believe that every sodomite is a pedophile,” he said. Romero prays for their deaths in hopes of protecting young children.
Yet, messages like Romero’s have a profound damage on children. Evangelical anti-gay efforts do not protect children; rather, they perpetuate the kind of child abuse that is often blamed on LGBT people. The Trevor Project says that LGB youth are four times more likely to attempt suicide than their straight counterparts and nearly half of transgender people have seriously considered suicide at least once in their life.
In his forty minute sermon, it takes Romero less than two minutes before calling the Orlando victims “perverts and pedophiles,” saying he was happy about the massacre. More troubling, however, was that there was a receptive audience in front of him welcoming his message of hate, saluting his words with a loud “amen.” Romero’s church has also made itself known by being on the Southern Poverty Law Center’s infamous hate-group list.
Romero posted the video four days after the Orlando shooting, in support of Sacramento Pastor Roger Jimenez who said “the tragedy is that more of them didn’t die.” The video has gained four thousand views in the last four days. Romero only has one fact straight in his sermon, he agrees that it’s a message of hate.
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