Homophobic sermon at North Texas church sparks protests

The pastor of a North Texas church evicted in February from its building for trying to incite violence against the LGBT community is facing protests again after calling for gay people to be executed. “What does God say is the answer, is the solution for the homosexual in 2022, here in the New Testament, here in the book of Romans? That they are worthy of death,” preacher Dillon Awes of Stedfast Baptist Church in Watauga said in a Sunday sermon.

“These people should be put to death,” Awes continued. “Every single homosexual in our country should be charged with a crime, the abomination of homosexuality that they have, they should be convicted in a lawful trial, they should be sentenced to death, they should be lined up against a wall and shot in the back of the head.” Brandy Sotillo, the mother of an LGBT child and a woman who herself identifies as LGBT, has been protesting outside the church at every sermon for nine months. She was protesting when the church was based out of Hurst, the location from which they were evicted for breaching their lease and advocating violence against LGBT people, and showed up to the first sermon at the new location in Watauga. She said she wasn’t surprised by the words she heard in that sermon, but that she has been surprised by how much more support she’s had in her protests outside the church. On Wednesday night, she estimated 40 to 50 people had shown up to join her protest and another 200 had requested to join a Facebook group she runs, No Hate in Hurst. She said the latest sermon, a video of which has gone viral on social media, was “absolutely horrific to hear.”