Pastor Curtis Knapp, of the New Hope Baptist Church in Seneca, Kansas — who said in his Sunday sermon that the government should put gays to death — is not backing away from his comments, and said he was simply preaching what he believes to be “scripture.”
Knapp told KTKA-TV in Topeka, Kan., that he has nothing to be ashamed of for preaching against homosexuality, and cited the Biblical verse Leviticus 20:13: “If there is a man who lies with a male as those who lie with a woman, both of them have committed a detestable act. They shall surely be put to death.”
“We punish pedophilia. We punish incest. We punish polygamy and various things. It’s only homosexuality that is lifted out as an exemption,” Knapp said, adding however, that his hope for homosexuals “is for their salvation, not for their death.”
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Knapp said that since the audio recording of his Sunday sermon was posted on the internet and LGBT blogs and websites, including LGBTQ Nation, his voice mail filled up with messages saying “things you don’t want your kids to hear.”
In his sermon “Homosexuality and the Need for National Revival,” Knapp said that the government should put gays to death — after all, “that’s what happened in Israel.”
“They should be put to death. That’s what happened in Israel. That’s why homosexuality wouldn’t have grown in Israel. It tends to limit conversions. It tends to limit people coming out of the closet. — ‘Oh, so you’re saying we should go out and start killing them, no?’ — I’m saying the government should. They won’t but they should.”
A report on Knapp’s sermon, including additional audio, is here.
Preaching against homosexuality the same day, Pastor Dennis Leatherman of the Mountain Lake Baptist Church in Oakland, Md., said his “flesh” is intrigued by the idea of killing certain kinds of sinners, such as homosexuals and adulterers. Audio of that sermon is here.
