Texas pastor doubles down on 'kill the gays' sermon — yet YouTube hasn't removed his church's channel
Days after celebrating the accidental death of a spectator at Fort Lauderdale's LGBTQ Pride parade, Texas hate pastor Jonathan Shelley has doubled down on his belief that all LGBTQ people should be executed.
Despite Shelley's blatant hate speech — and even though a video of his remarks about the Fort Lauderdale tragedy has been removed — YouTube has thus far allowed the channel of his Stedfast Baptist Church to remain active.
Hemant Mehta of the Friendly Atheist preserved this clip:
During his Sunday sermon, Shelley said of the incident: "I think only one person died. So hopefully we can hope for more in the future. You say, 'Well, that's mean.' Yeah, but the Bible says that they're worthy of death! You say, 'Are you sad when fags die?' No, I think it's great! I hope they all die! I would love it if every f*g would die right now.' And you say, 'Well, I don't think that's what you really mean.' That's exactly what I mean. I really mean it!"
A follow-up video posted to the channel Wednesday is titled "Love Thy Neighbor As Thyself (Pastor Shelley Explains Death Penalty Belief)."
In the video, Shelley complains that people "make up a lot of lies about our church ... and try to make it seem like we don't love people." He goes on to clarify that while he believes all gay men are pedophiles, he's not calling for LGBTQ people to be murdered. Rather, he merely thinks that the government should execute them.
"I'm not a violent person," Shelley says. "I've never wished for anyone to be murdered. You know, the Bible makes clear that there's a difference between putting someone to death and murder. Murder is taking someone's life that's innocent, that has not committed any kind of crime worthy of death. When a government takes a criminal that's been found guilty and puts them to death — executes them or slays them — the Bible makes it clear that that's a huge difference between murder or wishing someone just to die."
According to YouTube's community standards, the platform prohibits content promoting hatred or violence based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Normally, channels can be terminated if they commit three violations within 90 days. However, the standards state that, "We may also terminate your channel or account after a single case of severe abuse."
Stedfast Baptist Church has been designated as an anti-LGBTQ hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center since 2015, after previous pastor Donnie Romero first declared that gay people should be put to death. Romero resigned in 2019 after admitting to "sins" including hiring prostitutes, gambling and marijuana.
Watch the video of Shelley's "clarification" below.
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