A Texas pastor is in hot water after he called for gay people to be executed, months after his church was evicted from its building when he tried to incite violence against the LGBTQ+ community.
The pastor at Stedfast Baptist Church in Watauga, Dillon Awes, made his comments on Sunday while preaching his sermon.
"What does God say is the answer, is the solution for the homosexual in 2022, here in the New Testament, here in the book of Romans? That they are worthy of death," Awes said. "These people should be put to death."
He then continued, getting more aggressive toward the LGBTQ+ community.
"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 a wall and shot in the back of the head," Awes said.
But the comments from Stedfast Baptist Church's pastor don't only stop there, as another leader at the church, Jonathan Shelley, appeared at an Arlington City Council meeting two weeks ago, also saying gays should be killed.
"What these people do is filthy," Shelley said during the council's public comment section.
Shelley was advocating for the enforcement of a Texas law that made "sodomy" illegal. However, that law was ruled unconstitutional in the 2003 Supreme Court Case Lawrence v. Texas.
Since their comments, groups have gathered outside his church in Northern Texas to protest his call for violence against homosexuals, including Brandy Sotillo.
Sotillo, who identifies as LGBTQ+ and has a child who also identifies as LGBTQ+, shared with the Star-Telegram that she has been protesting outside the church, at every sermon, for nine months.
Sotillo shared that she even protested when the church was located in Hurst, Texas, before it was evicted for lease violations and calling for violence against LGBTQ+ people.
Because of Sotillo and her protests, Shelley has said that he and his congregation were victims of hatred from the LGBTQ+ community, the Star-Telegram reported. He also shared during the council meeting that the community is "bullying people" by having pride month.
"These protesters have been publicly doxing me on social media by sharing all of my personal information, and trying to harass me as much as possible," Shelley said in an email to the Star-Telegram after his comments resulted in an increase in protests. "The LGBTQ community is extremely hateful, rebellious, and violent as the Bible describes in Romans 1."
But Sotillo claims that her protests are quite the opposite, and Shelley and his church are the ones being hateful.
"We're a peaceful protest," Sotillo told the Star-Telegram. "We come out here because of the hatred they spew at us every week."
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