Protesters rally outside church that called for LGBTQ+ deaths: ‘God says the opposite’
Members of the church preached that LGBTQ+ people should be shot in the head (Google Street View)
Members of the church preached that LGBTQ+ people should be shot in the head (Google Street View)
Reader warning: this story involves mention of suicide. Members of the LGBTQ+ community staged a protest outside Sure Foundation Baptist Church, in Indianapolis, following a sermon that urged gay people to take their own life.
Sure Foundation Baptist Church was criticised after homophobic language was used by church members during a men’s preaching night, which was broadcast live on Facebook earlier this month.
During a sermon entitled Pray the Gay Away, Stephen Falco said: “You ought to blow yourself in the back of the head. You’re so disgusting.
“How shall we properly pray for gay people? We should pray for their deaths, plain and simple.”
Another Sure Foundation Baptist Church member, named by Newsweek as Wade Rawley, said LGBTQ+ people should be “beaten and stomped in the mud” before they “take a gun and blow the back of their heads off”.
Sure Foundation Baptist Church preacher Justin Zhong refused to condemn the comments, writing on the church’s official Facebook page that he would “not apologise for preaching the word of God”.
Protesters gathered outside the church on Sunday (13 July). Speaking to The Indianapolis Star, organiser Cass Jackson said the action was not about changing the church members’ minds but about their bigotry being held to account.
“What I know to be true is that these people really hate when other people are joyful, because they are not,” Jackson claimed. “Unfortunately, have been indoctrinated into a backyard cult.”
#NEW: Protestors stand outside Sure Foundation Baptist Church. I first told you about the Indianapolis church calling for the LGBTQ+ community to face the death penalty or to kill themselves.
— Kyla Russell (@KylaBRussell) July 13, 2025
Link to my original story below. We have a crew at the protest.@WISHNews8… pic.twitter.com/8wDPjaRrrF
‘God says the exact opposite of this’
A transgender woman who tried to get into the church was stopped before she got to the door, according to WISH-TV. “I came here to worship,” Charlize Jamieson said after hearing about the sermon. “I’m almost 70 and I’ve been a Christian most of my life, and I’m bothered by the vitriol and hate that’s come out of this,” Jamieson said.
However, when she pulled her vehicle into the car park, a man in a dark suit tapped on her window and made it clear she was not welcome, she claimed.
“He said: You’re trespassing, the police have been called. You need to leave right now and we’re taking a picture of your licence plate’. I’ve never had that happen attending a church service in my life.”
After she was denied entry, Jamieson joined the protesters and said: “God says the exact opposite of this. As a Christian, I feel compelled to be here to present the other side, the real side.”
Despite the protest, the Sunday service, under the title Love Thy Neighbour, continued, during which Zhong is quoted as saying if you love your neighbour but “don’t believe the government should be putting ‘homos’ to death, you don’t really love your neighbour”.
He reportedly went on to say: “I thank God for these perverts standing outside right now because it is a great time to show our children how wicked those perverts are. Hey kids, don’t join their ways and don’t love them. They hate God. They are rejecting the word of God.”
Ahead of the protest, a spokesperson for a fellowship of “pastors and other concerned citizens who are God-fearing people who believe injustice, racism, ageism, classism and sexism to be contrary to the will of God”, said: “The Concerned Clergy of Indianapolis stands firmly against the harmful rhetoric that condemned all LGBTQ individuals to hell and instructed people to stay away from them.
“Such messages are not only theologically irresponsible but [also] pastorally dangerous.”
Suicide is preventable. Readers who are affected by the issues raised in this story are encouraged to contact the Samaritans on 116 123 (samaritans.org), or Mind on 0300 123 3393 (mind.org.uk). Readers in the US are encouraged to contact the National Suicide Prevention Line on 1-800-273-8255.
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