Metro Weekly

Christian Pastor Explains Why He Enjoys Using Anti-Gay Slurs

Hate group pastor Aaron Thompson claimed words like "homosexual" don’t convey a negative enough intent toward gays.

Pastor Aaron Thompson of Sure Foundation Baptist Church – YouTube Screenshot

Christian pastor Aaron Thompson explained why he enjoys using anti-gay slurs while preaching the Bible in a video posted Sept. 15 on Twitter.

Thompson is a pastor at Sure Foundation Baptist Church in Vancouver, Wash. The Southern Poverty Law Center identified the church as an anti-LGBTQ hate group in its 2021 list.

In his recent sermon, Thompson argued the word “f****t” makes the most sense for his homophobic rhetorical purposes, using it three times in quick succession.

“What the inspired word is, in this book, is the right word,” he said. “We shouldn’t be ashamed of it.”

He wants to hew close to the Bible, he claimed. But at the same time, he said words like “sodomite” don’t work as well as the anti-gay slur — even though the slur doesn’t appear in the Bible.

“When you say sodomite, most of the time people don’t know what you’re talking about. It’s not like everyone outside reads the Bible,” Thompson said. “It’s not a real popular word.”

He continued by explaining what’s wrong with “homosexual.”

“You can say homosexual, but it doesn’t have the negative connotation that it should have,” he said. “The negative connotation that it should have is that they’re a bunch of freaks and that God pronounces the death penalty upon them in Leviticus 20:13. And I’m not gonna shy away from anything that the Bible says.”

Leviticus 20:13 is often translated to say men who have sex with men should be put to death, though some Biblical scholars argue that that interpretation mistranslates the exact vocabulary used and fails to consider historical context.

This is far from the first time Thompson and others at Sure Foundation Baptist Church have made homophobic statements and called for the death of LGBTQ people.

In August, Thompson gave a sermon full of anti-LGBTQ tropes. He claimed schools are teaching about sodomy to children. He also said children are now identifying as animals in schools, “You know what my proper pronouns are? I’m a he-she-it-they-dog cat-monkey. I got the litter box in the room. I’m a cat. Meow meow.”

And in February, Thompson’s fellow preacher Danil Kutsar said he hates gay people and hopes they all die.

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