Baptist pastor writes gay author he hasn't met: 'I pray that you will commit suicide'

Responding to a book written by an author documenting his struggles as a gay Christian, a Baptist minister wrote the author a very un-Christian email saying "I pray that you will commit suicide."

Pastor Logan Robertson of the Westcity Bible Baptist Church in Auckland, New Zealand wrote the email to Jim Marjoram, author of the book 'It's Life Jim,' written to promote a more gay-friendly Christianity, reports The New Zealand Herald

In the email, Robertson wrote, "We are not interested in your filthy lifestyle or book. The Bible says you are vile, strange (queer), reprobate, filth, sodomite, natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed. I pray that you will commit suicide, you filthy child molesting fag."

After being informed that his email had created outrage on social media, Robertson denied doing anything wrong, telling NZME News Service, "I didn't tell him to go and commit suicide. I said I prayed that he would. All I did was write what I wrote, and then I prayed about it that he would, and that's it. There's nothing more to say."

Marjoram, who was previously involved in Christian ex-gay groups, said he wasn't bothered by the email.

"I guess he just sort of epitomizes what a lot of fundamentalists and that type of really heavy religious people [have as] attitudes," he said. "I realized it's exactly the sort of reason why I created my support group, because of people like him and those attitudes that...creep through the church."

An openly gay reporter from One News attempted to speak with Robertson to allow him to defend the email, but Robertson -- who admitted  he was familiar with the reporter's sexual orientation -- said he wouldn't give an interview to a "filthy faggot," adding that he hoped that reporter would commit suicide too.

In a later interview, Robertson admitted, "I think every single one of them should be put to death. Christians shouldn't be doing it, I'm not going to do it, it's the Government's job to be doing it."

Robertson's comments come right after a Baptist minister in Arizona promised an "AIDS-free Christmas" if all gays are killed, as God commands.

Recently, Christian anti-gay activist Scott Lively assisted the government of Uganda in instituting a 'kill the gays' law.

Lively is currently being sued in federal court for violating U.S. law by trying to influence the laws of a foreign country.

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