'Stone the Gays' Pastor Has Some More Crazy Ideas

The pastor of the Harlem church who believes "Jesus would stone homos" isn't holding back.

In a new interview with Vocativ's Luke Malone, James David Manning, the 67-year-old pastor of the ATLAH World Missionary Church, borders on self-parody in his ridicule and condemnation of LGBT people.

Now that Fred Phelps of the notorious Westboro Baptist Church is out the picture, Manning shows condemnatory use of religion remains alive.

He says his interest in battling LGBT rights stems from his belief that President Barack Obama released "homo demons" during his “second illegal inaugural address.”

“In my estimation, that was an official release of the demonic spirit,” he said. “Because homosexuality is a demonic spirit, such as cannibalism or other kinds — even pedophilia is a demonic spirit — and it’s these wicked manifestations that are in our universe that inhabit people and cause them to act in one way or the other. And he released them.”

Five more crazy insights from Manning:

“Just like in the Jungle Fever movie by Spike Lee. ... The white homos are going to take the black woman’s man.”

“Homosexuals are the most intolerant of all people I’ve met. I’ve encountered Ku Klux Klan members that are more tolerant.”

“The white homo who now lives in the community — and there are a lot of them that moved up here — they brought their restaurants with them, they brought some of their lifestyle, they brought their Starbucks coffee with them … and like anybody else they prey on black men, they convert black men.”

“Anyone who promotes that as a lifestyle and tries to make it a national and international event and create warfare upon everybody else, then the appropriate response would be to stone them back to the Stone Age, or stone them back to hell.”

“In the Catholic Church, the homosexual spirit is imminent, it is powerful, but it is also degrading. It seeks out the innocence of young boys and preys upon them where it moves from homosexuality to pedophilia. That same spirit runs around here in New York City. It’s on television. They’re in movies, they’re in sports — there’s Jason Collins and Michael Sam and a bunch of other people as well. They’re just not Catholic and they’re not priests, but it’s the same identical thing.”

Vocativ notes that concerned New Yorkers have established Harlem Against Violence & Homophobia, a group that raises money for New York’s homeless and at-risk LGBT youth, and that they are accepting donations.

Read the full article here.

MICHAEL O'LOUGHLIN is The Advocate's religion writer. Follow him on Twitter at @mikeoloughlin.