Church Website
Sacbee piece on pastor’s sermon where he says “As a Christian we shouldn’t be mourning the death of 50 sodomites”
“There’s no tragedy,” Jimenez said. “I wish the government would round them all up, put them up against a firing wall, put a firing squad in front of them, and blow their brains out.”
The Rev. Donald Lee at First United Baptist Church in Sacramento called Jimenez’s message “heresy.”
“It leaves me speechless that any Christian pastor would say such a thing,” Lee said. “I don’t care what side of the fence you’re on, that’s wrong. All people of faith, Christians, Muslims, Jews, we’re people of peace. We don’t condone violence in any way, and to claim it against a particular group of people – whether they’re gay or Puerto Rican or Mexican or white – is so against our principles. That’s an inflammatory, horrendous remark.”
On Tuesday, a group of more than 700 pastors in the region called the Sacramento City Pastors Fellowship issued a statement in opposition to Jimenez’s sermon. “These comments, applauding the death of innocent people, are completely contrary to the Bible’s teaching and God’s heart,” the pastors wrote. “His statements do not represent Jesus nor hundreds of Sacramento pastors whose hearts have been broken and are praying for the loved ones so tragically affected by this cowardly act.”
Chuck Wysong, senior pastor at Life Community Church, said Jimenez’s hate speech is “polluting to the cause of Christ.”
The Rev. Kristin Stoneking is a lesbian Methodist minister from Davis who serves as executive director for the Fellowship of Reconciliation, an interfaith peace and justice group with 70 chapters nationwide. She said she fears the sermon and others like it will fuel a conflagration of homophobia.
“The fire has started,” she said. “All of us who believe in peace and love must have the courage to put our buckets on that flame. All of us have seeds of violence and love within us, and what grows is what we water.”
Donald Bentz, executive director of the Sacramento LGBT Community Center, called Jimenez’s sermon “downright scary.”
“His church is a 10-minute drive from where I live,” Bentz said.
