All Scripture Baptist Church in Knoxville, Tennessee is one of those New Independent Fundamentalist Baptist churches that preaches hate, especially against LGBTQ people. A statement on the church’s website says “No homosexual will be allowed to attend or join All Scripture Baptist Church”… which is troubling since it implies a gay person actually wanted to attend that church.

Last week, Pastor Greg Fritts did what so many of these nasty pastors (Nastors?) do and said the Bible calls for the execution of LGBTQ people at the hands of the government. (It begins around the 27:04 mark. Update: The original video was taken down by YouTube. I still possess a copy. But for now, I’m posting a different version below.)

… The Bible says that they’re worthy of death. The Bible says that the government — somebody stands up, “Oh, I’m LGBTQ” — here’s how it should work: It shouldn’t work where we go out and we enforce the laws, because the Bible says the powers that be are ordained of God, and God has instilled the power of civil government to send the police in 2019 out to these LGBT freaks and arrest them and have a trial for them and if they are convicted than they are to be put to death. Do you understand that? It is a capital crime that should be carried out by our government. Not Christians… unless you’re a policeman, you know what I mean? If you’re a policeman, then you know what? It should be your responsibility to carry these things out…

Oh, by the way, Fritts works for a police department.

No wonder he laughed as he talked about how the police should be executing gay people.

The question is what the Knox County Sheriff’s Office plans to do about this.

The sermon sparked an investigation by the Knox County District Attorney’s Office, which put out a statement saying it is further looking into the incident and will take action accordingly. The Knox County Sheriff’s Office also put out a statement after reports surfaced that Fritts worked in the office. The statement said he is on paid leave until his buy out request if processed. “I want to be very clear that it is my responsibility to ensure equal protection to ALL citizens of Knox County, Tennessee under the law, my oath and the United States Constitution without discrimination or hesitation. Rest assured that I have and will continue to do so,” Knox County Sheriff Tom Spangler said in the statement.

These pastors always say they’re speaking in hypotheticals — about what the Bible says we ought to do — and that they are not inciting their congregations to kill gay people. But considering the people who attend these churches have even less of a reason to hold back, it won’t be long before one of them takes matters into his own hands.

For a law enforcement official to brag about how law enforcement officials have a biblical right to murder gay people is truly frightening. No LGBTQ person should feel safe when this is the sort of person Knox County hires to protect them.

According to the Knoxville News Sentinel, Fritts has been working for the Sheriff’s Office since 1999. He was named a “detective of the month” as recently as 2017.

Considering the church opened that same year, he may have received the award as he was preaching hate to his congregation.

(Thanks to Mark for the link)

