Hate preacher says letting women preach in church is “spitting in the face of God”

Pastor Dillon Awes of the Stedfast Baptist Church in Watauga, Texas told his congregation that allowing a woman to preach in church is like “spitting in the face of God.” His sermon preceded a similar statement from the Southern Baptist Convention that was released today.

Stedfast is one of the most hateful churches in the country, and its pastors have repeatedly called for death to LGBTQ people. Awes himself has preached about “the solution for the homosexual,” which was murder. He called for every gay man to “be lined up against the wall and shot in the back of the head” this past June.

Now he’s making it clear that he believes that women should not be able to speak in church.

“It is a complete shame for a congregation to allow a woman to preach to them the word of God,” Awes said.

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He brought up a nearby megachurch where a woman preached recently. “Talk about having no respect for yourself! Talk about being a complete shame!”

“It’s blasphemous to God’s word,” he said. “You might as well just be spitting in the face of God when the Bible is so clear that they’re not permitted to teach, they’re not permitted to speak, and you’re going to sit there as  thousands of people in the congregation and allow a woman to preach the word of God?”

“You don’t love God! You don’t love the Bible!”

“That’s wicked, that’s pathetic, you have no respect for yourself,” he said. “Every single person in that church should have walked out and left.”

For conservative Christians, it’s far from accepted to allow women to preach in church. Prominent Southern Baptist theologians published a document today reaffirming that the word “pastor” can only be applied to men, continuing established SBC policy.

“While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture,” the statement said. The statement comes after Rick Warren’s Saddleback Church ordained women earlier this year.

Last week, “The Transformed Wife” – a popular conservative Christian lifestyle influencer – tweeted that it “would be amazing” if all the men at a church “stood up and left” if a woman preached.

Editor’s note: A previous version of this article incorrectly said that Stedfast is located in Hurst, Texas. The church used to be located in that city but it moved to Watauga. We regret the error.

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