Youtube has removed a video of a Sacramento pastor's sermon that said the LGBT victims of the Orlando massacre on Sunday "deserved what they got".
Pastor Roger Jimenez from Verity Baptist Church compared the gay victims of the shootings to paedophiles, and told the congregation they should not be grieving them. The video was taken down for hate speech.
"Are you sad that 50 pedophiles were killed today?" asked Jimenez. "Um no. I think that's great. I think that helps society. I think Orlando, Florida, is a little safer tonight. The tragedy is that more of them didn't die. The tragedy is I'm kind of upset he didn't finish the job – because these people are predators. They are abusers."
He went on to suggest that the government "round them all up, put them against a firing wall, put the firing squad in front of them and blow their brains out."
His comments contradict the messages of the majority Christian community, who have called for solidarity, prayer and even repentance in the wake of the massacre.
Megachurch pastor Joel Hunter told RNS that he had "to go back and examine my own heart" in the aftermath of the tragedy. He admitted that "many of us, especially those in the conservative evangelical branch of the faith, don't normally think of the vulnerability of many of the communities around us...but this has put it on the agenda."
Similarly, Rick Joyner wrote on Facebook: "The Christian community has crossed swords with the LGBT for a long time, but when it comes to this kind of diabolical attack on defenseless victims, of any persuasion, we must stand together in defense of our fellow Americans. The fact is that most of the armed Americans who can defend their neighbors are conservatives, and liberal Americans tend to be anti-gun. So be it, but this is the time for the armed conservatives to be ready to defend their unarmed liberal neighbors, or LGBT neighbors."
