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Anti-LGBTQ preacher can't find a new location for church after eviction: 'No one will lease to us'
Raw StoryIn a video posted to one of his YouTube channels, far-right anti-LGBTQ pastor Jonathan Shelley said he's going to have to find a new location for Stedfast Baptist Church because “nobody really wants to lease to us," adding that Stedfast Baptist Church has also been “hit with a lot of legal fees."
As Only Sky's Hemant Mehta points out, Shelley has given sermons where he's celebrated the murder of LGBTQ people and called for the deaths of abortion doctors, and has even regurgitated conspiracy theories about the Sandy Hook massacre.
Likely as a response to his sermons, the church was evicted from its location in Hurst, Texas, back in February.
"It’s not clear where Shelley would find a new home or who would be foolish enough to rent him space. No amount of rent money is worth the negative publicity that would come from allowing his church to spread hate on your property," Mehta writes. "But for Shelley and his New Independent Fundamentalist Baptist (New IFB) colleagues, location doesn’t matter nearly as much as their online reach. Live-streaming sermons on YouTube matters far more than having some space inside a strip mall, and they’ve evaded YouTube’s repeated bans on their channels so far."
As Only Sky's Hemant Mehta points out, Shelley has given sermons where he's celebrated the murder of LGBTQ people and called for the deaths of abortion doctors, and has even regurgitated conspiracy theories about the Sandy Hook massacre.
Likely as a response to his sermons, the church was evicted from its location in Hurst, Texas, back in February.
"It’s not clear where Shelley would find a new home or who would be foolish enough to rent him space. No amount of rent money is worth the negative publicity that would come from allowing his church to spread hate on your property," Mehta writes. "But for Shelley and his New Independent Fundamentalist Baptist (New IFB) colleagues, location doesn’t matter nearly as much as their online reach. Live-streaming sermons on YouTube matters far more than having some space inside a strip mall, and they’ve evaded YouTube’s repeated bans on their channels so far."