US preacher: Christians should shun restaurants that employ gay waiters
A US pastor has called on his congregants to shun restaurants that employ “flaming foo-foo fruit loop” waiters.
Adam Fannin, the pastor at Jacksonville Stedfast Baptist Church in Florida, made the claim in a sermon.
The pastor made a number of homophobic comments while attacking restaurants that employ gay staff.
He said: “If I ever go to a restaurant and sit down and here comes this flaming foo-foo fruit loop – I’m just like, oh great.
“I’m here to have a date night, enjoy some time with my wife and because of the lisps, I can’t even, you know.”
The pastor encouraged people to “just get up and leave”, or to demand to be served by a heterosexual.
He said: “My recommendation is just don’t order anything. Tell them to wait. You sit there patiently and look around and you will find a lady that looks like a mom, that looks like a very diligent worker.
“You will find somebody that you notice that’s busy amd that’s doing stuff.
“You say, ‘Yeah, that’s the one right there!’ You walk up to them and you say, hey, what’s your name? Have we had you before? Can we get you over here?”
He adds: “I guarantee you it always works, they say ‘no problem’, and then you can enjoy your dinner.
“And you better tip her well, and let that foo-foo know what he missed out on. That’s how you avoid a gay waiter.”
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Pastor Fannin is a notoriously homophobic pastor. In a previous sermon he declared that gay people were “not born that way but will burn that way”.
A gay waiter was sacked from his restaurant job earlier this month after a customer wrote a homophobic message about him on a receipt.
The restaurant, Hickory Tavern, confirmed that it had sacked the server after he posted a photograph of a receipt with the homophobic message to social media.
The receipt read: “Our gay waiter made me wanna throw up my food!
“Ruined my experience tongt [sic]. Will not be back!”
The server, identified as Justin S on the receipt, was sacked after the restaurant said he had violated the company’s confidentiality policy when he posted the receipt dated 30 November.
A statement from the Hickory Tavern confirmed that the server had been sacked, and also confirmed that the “insults” were left on the receipt.
“We strongly condemn the insults directed at one of our team members in remarks left by a patron on their credit card receipt”, Hickory Tavern said.
“We value diversity and do not discriminate on the basis of race, gender, sexual orientation or for any other reason. We also value the privacy of our patrons, and posting of credit card receipts violates our confidentiality policy.
“Although the team member was initially terminated for violating this policy, after further discussions with the team member, we made the decision to offer his job back.
“We strive to strike the right balance between supporting our team members and protecting the private information of our guests.”
Fannin’s church appears to have some ties with the Faithful Word Baptist Church, run by noted anti-LGBT preacher Steven Anderson.
In a previous sermon Anderson called for the execution of gay people by stoning, claiming: “If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death. Their blood shall be upon them. That, my friends, is the cure for AIDS. It was right there in the Bible all along.”
Anderson also openly celebrated the Orlando massacre at the Pulse gay club, telling his congregation: “The good news is that there’s 50 less paedophiles in this world, because, you know, these homosexuals are a bunch of disgusting perverts and paedophiles.
“That’s who was a victim here… just a disgusting homosexuals at a gay bar.”
Anderson planned to head to South Africa last year to convert more people to his extreme cause.
However, the country’s Minister of Home Affairs, Malusi Gigaba, confirmed he would be banned from entering South Africa after a public campaign to block the visit.