Pastor Dillon Awes, a hate preacher at the Stedfast Baptist Church in Watauga, Texas, is upset that some Christian churches affirm LGBTQ+ people—or “sodomites” and “sexual predators,” as he calls them—and he’s especially angry that some pastors even allow queer people to speak from the pulpit.
“These fa***ts should get a bullet in their brain,” he said in a recent sermon. “They should get the death penalty, not be preaching behind the pulpit.”
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Awes made his comments in response to Pastor Charles Andrew Stanley—founder and senior pastor of the nondenominational evangelical Christian megachurch North Point Ministries—who invited a married same-sex couple to deliver a sermon at a recent conference.
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“In this conference, he invited two sodomites that were married to each other to preach,” Awes said. “These two sodomites were talking about how they’re so excited to be able to preach that because it’s the message that the children need to hear. So they’re literally just admitting their heart, like, ‘We’re here behind the pulpit so that we could defile children with our message.’”
“That’s where we’ve gotten as a nation by being nice to sodomites,” he ranted. “You know, first, it was, ‘They can get married.’ Then it was, ‘They could have all equal rights.’ Then it was, well, ‘We could have drag shows out in public.’ Then it was, ‘Well, we could take children into the drag shows too.’ Then it was like, ‘Well, we could allow homosexuals to attend church.’ Then it was ‘Well, we can now let drag queens attend church.’”
“Now they’re behind the pulpit. Why? Because of nice guys like Andy Stanley that won’t say what needs to be said, which is that these guys should get a bullet in their brain, that they should get the death penalty not be preaching behind the pulpit.”
Of course, LGBTQ+ people do not have full equal rights, and children have viewed age-appropriate drag performances in cartoons, TV shows, and films for decades. Also, numerous Christian churches embrace queer congregants, preachers, and drag performers as a way to spread the gospel.
“What a nice guy Andy Stanley is,” Awes added. “What a nice guy you are for letting children in your congregation be abused by pedophiles. How nice of you, Andy Stanley. How nice of all the pastors today that are enabling sexual predators in their church to harm people permanently, to scar them for life, to hurt them spiritually, because you just want to be nice. Well, you know what? Go to Hell, Andy Stanley, and every single pastor like you—go to Hell.”
Notably, anti-LGBTQ+ figures who accuse LGBTQ+ of sexually harming children rarely, if ever, comment on the tens of thousands of documented cases of child sex abuse happening in Christian churches.
Christian hate-preacher Dillon Awes is furious that a popular pastor let gay men speak at his conference.
“Now there’s f****ts behind the pulpit!… These f****ts should get a bullet in their brain!… They should get the death penalty, not be preaching behind the pulpit.” pic.twitter.com/5BXImJuvVi
This isn’t the first time that Awes has made such comments. In June 2022, he said the government should criminalize homosexuality because of the Bible and then line homosexuals against a wall to be shot in the back of the head. Two months later, he said that allowing a woman to preach in church is like “spitting in the face of God.”
“I cannot believe you expose kids to that garbage,” town resident Mandi Skinner said at a protest outside the church. “That’s not freedom of speech. That’s vile, threatening, slanderous, dangerous language. And I don’t think it should be protected just because they call themselves a church.”
Awes and others like him call themselves New Independent Fundamental Baptist (New IFB) preachers. New IFB isn’t affiliated with any mainstream Baptist denomination, although both Baptist and New IFB teachings exhibit anti-LGBTQ+ bigotry, antisemitism, and misogyny. But while Baptists merely condemn queer people to hell, New IFB goes a step further, calling for the execution of LGBTQ+ people.
The Southern Poverty Law Center considers Stedfast Baptist Church to be a hate group.
