Hundreds of people protested against Roger Jimenez yesterday
Nearly a thousand people turned up the the Verity Baptist Church yesterday to protest Baptist Roger Jimenez.
Jimenez held a sermon on the day of the Orlando shootings and called homosexuality a sin and said it should be punished with death.
He would not mourn the victims of the shooting because of their sexuality, and called all homosexuals “pedophiles.”
“The tragedy is that more of them didn’t die” Jimenez said, “Florida is a little safer tonight.”
He added: “What if you asked me ‘are you sad that 50 paedophiles were killed today’… no, I think that’s great, I think that helps society.”
A congregant posted a clip on YouTube of the Pastor preaching hate towards the LGBT community which sparked outrage. The clip has since been removed.
The Verity Baptist Church pastor later spoke to CBS Sacramento, refusing to apologise, saying he wished “they finished the job”.
“I think they are safer now because of these deaths, and the reason I think that is because I believe all of these homosexuals are pedophiles.” Jimenez said.
Clad with rainbow flags, signs and megaphones, protesters chanted “love conquers all” outside the Verity Baptist Church.
At 10.45am protestors held a minute’s silence, and then read every victim’s name. When all 49 names were read the crowd chanted “not one more.”
John Hayden, who organised the protest said: “Our message was sent today, we are standing together in solidarity. We’re not just going to stand silently and let these kind of things happen.”
“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.” he added.
It’s the second protest since his comments on the Orlando massacre which happened last weekend.
Watch footage of the protest via The Fresno Bee:
