A North Carolina pastor delivers an obnoxious anti-gay rant at a public high school graduation event leaving parents and students angry and confused.

Pastor Scott Carpenter says he just couldn’t pass up the opportunity to alert graduating seniors from Kings Mountain High School that if they are gay, they are going to hell. However, angry parents and students complained that Pastor Carpenter was way out of line by delivering a hate filled rant at what was supposed to be a ceremony celebrating graduation from high school.

Carpenter, a pastor at Temple Baptist Church, made his offensive comments while speaking at the baccalaureate service for graduating seniors at Kings Mountain High School.

Kings Mountain High is part of the Cleveland County public school system near Charlotte, NC.

When confronted by reporters, Pastor Carpenter told WBTV:

Do I hate anybody? Absolutely not. I just love them too much not to tell them the truth. Nobody got bashed or anything. All I did was simply speak biblical truth… The number one audience that I have to please is God. Was I trying to be mean spirited? Absolutely not. Was I trying to hurt somebody’s feelings? Absolutely not. I simply had to do what I had to do as a Christian minister.

However, many disagreed with Pastor Carpenter’s assessment of his own remarks, and many did not appreciate Pastor Carpenter’s “biblical truth.”

Parent Chuck Wilson described Carpenter’s anti-gay, hate filled rant as “Bullying,” saying:

This is bullying. Bullying doesn’t have to happen from the back hallway of a school or a back parking lot. It can happen from the pulpit, it can happen from the stage. It’s a public school. There are children here. I think there should be some level of responsibility of the speaker coming in to not take advantage of a captive audience.

In a statement, Cleveland County Schools said they would be more cautious about the selection process of baccalaureate speakers in the future.

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