“An Indiana church is urging the Trump administration to ‘execute’ members of the LGBTQ community because ‘the Bible teaches that those people are worthy of death.’

In a sermon titled, ‘Pray the Gay Away,’ Stephen Falco, an evangelical preacher with the Sure Foundation Baptist Church, yelled from the pulpit, ‘They’re all a bunch of fa**.”

Raw Story

The tribal God of the Old Testament demanded death, by stoning, for myriad offenses including working on the sabbath, adultery, false prophecy, consulting a witch, divination…

Mainline Protestants and most evangelicals have evolved theologically, morally, and ethically and do not expect this draconian penalty for these “sins” to be enacted by a civilized society.

However, evangelical Christians hate the LGBTQ community, and a few even believe they should be put to death.

If all false prophets (think Trump prophets), adulterers, horoscope aficionados, people who work on Sundays and gay people in evangelical congregations were put to death, the pews would be empty.

Evangelicals deflect and distract from their many transgressions by focusing all their rage on gay men. They hurl epithets at them, dehumanizing them and treating them like people with leprosy.

Extremists like Stephen Falco who call for the execution of members of the LGBTQ community are in the minority, but they allow ordinary evangelicals to rationalize that their homophobia is not so bad, after all they are not calling for them to be murdered.

Pray the Gay away? How about embracing, affirming, blessing and welcoming them to the fold?