When pastor Roger Jimenez, above, of the Verity Baptist Church in Sacramento, California, delivered a hateful sermon in the wake of the Orlando gay club shooting, he sparked such fury that an estimated 1,000 people targeted his church on Sunday.
According to this report, Jimenez told his congregation that:
They shouldn’t be mourning the death of 50 sodomites.
More than 100 people from Sacramento’s LGBT community gathered last Wednesday evening to protest outside the church, and in response to a call for a further protest, around 1,000 people said they would attend on Sunday, June 19.
John Hayden, who created a Facebook page for the rally, included a note explaining why he believes a larger protest was in order:
Why am I calling to action the people of Sacramento? The Verity Baptist Church is right here in our own backyard. It disgusts me that this immoral, sacrilegious individual is spewing hatred and ignorance, and is condoning murder to his churchgoers who may not be old enough to see what true religion is instead of the brainwashing he is doing.
I am calling for a peaceful protest for anyone who would like to join me. I won’t stand for this. Not in my own backyard. The church opens at 10:00am. I would like to assemble at 8:30 am — so the members see what they are walking in to.
Make signs, we can make a rally cry, I’ll make it up along with anyone who would like to help me organizs. I don’t care if I’m the only one out there. But it is my hope that we can [draw] attention to this ‘pastor’ and church, because this is what homegrown terrorism looks like.
Hayden held back tears as he thanked the crowd for its support. He said the protest grew from a personal event for himself and his friends to the hundreds-strong crowd at a rate he’s never seen before from the LGBT community.
It’s just remarkable how it didn’t matter your race, religion, creed, background or orientation. It didn’t matter. We came together as the Sacramento community.
Sacramento sheriff’s deputies were in communication with the protesters and the church and provide ample security around the church on Sunday to ensure that things did not escalate to violence.
Sheriff’s spokesman Tony Turnbull said:
We requested there be no weapons at the event whatsoever and that has been made clear to both sides.
The pastor’s 45-minute sermon went viral after it was posted on YouTube. YouTube later took down the video, saying it violated the site’s ban on hate speech.