Watch: This pro-LGBT church had an amazing response to a homophobic protester
A church unwittingly caught on camera the moment a homophobic Christian activist disrupted their gay pastor’s sermon.
Pastor Don Frueh, who pastors Parkrose Community United Church of Christ in Oregon, had his sermon disrupted on Sunday by a man wearing a t-shirt bearing the slogan ‘FEAR GOD’.
The entire incident was caught on the church’s live stream – as the pastor, who is openly gay and heads an LGBT-inclusive congregation, was screamed at by the man and branded an “abomination”.
The man shouted: “I’m here to tell you that homosexuality is wrong, and what you’re doing is wrong.
“I want you to step down… homosexuality is an abomination of God. There’s a reason God made people male and female… you are here because a man and a woman had sex. You’re not here because two guys had sex. It’s wrong and it has no place in God’s house.”
He later shouted: “I can’t find a wife in this homosexual city!”
Members of the congregation quickly stepped up to defend their pastor, with one choir member encouraging the man to sit down and listen to the rest of the service.
They told him: “You need to sit down and enjoy the service. We’re welcoming you… if you don’t like what we’re saying, then you’re welcome to leave.
“But you will not disrespect our church. You can keep your opinion to yourself. You have to sit down or leave… you will not disrespect my pastor or my church.”
After the protester chooses to leave, the unflappable pastor leads a prayer for the man’s “hurt to be healed”, adding: “If there’s any way we can be part of that healing, please let us be that healing”.
Addressing the incident, he said: “We can’t just go on [with the sermon], we have to understand we live in a time where there’s lots of differences that create anger.
“We are not people of anger, we are people of love. That does not mean we have to set ourselves up for abuse, but it means we need to remember what Jesus taught us.
“I couldn’t have arranged that to happened that way… but I want you to understand, and I want to thank everybody who helped us deal with the situation in a way that was as respectful as possible.”
