May 31, 2012
Toddler Sings 'Homos Ain't Makin' It to Heaven' in Church & Raises Hell on Web
Jason St. Amand READ TIME: 2 MIN.
An Indiana church is being criticized for allowing a young child to sing an anti-gay song during a congregation. The performance was caught on tape and uploaded online, which caused the video to go viral, the ABC Indiana affiliate station RTV6 reported.
A number of media outlets reported the incident, including Gawker, TMZ, the Blaze and more.
The video shows a very young boy singing a homophobic song in the Apostolic Truth Tabernacle in Greensburg, Ind., while members of the congregation cheer, clap and urge him on.
"The Bible is right, somebody's wrong. Romans 1 and 27, ain't no homo gonna make it to heaven," the boy chants. During the performance a man yells, "That's my boy!"
The news station notes that Reverend Jeff Sangl, the pastor and founder of the church, is also encouraging the boy as he appears to be laughing and congratulating the toddler when he finishes the homophobic song.
Several people have left comments criticizing the video on the church's official Facebook page.
"you are literally destroying the minds of your children. to say you are doing them a terrible disservice would be an understatement. stop preaching hate," a Facebook user writes.
"Want to know why most people in this day and age move away from organized religion? People like you guys teaching young children to spew hate. Children learn the best through song, so no, you didn't teach him some harmless words with a tune. You taught him and every other child there intolerance," another said.
"Shame on you disgusting bigots!!" one user wrote.
According to the church's website the very tan Sangl founded the place of worship in 1997 with his wife, three children and three other church members.
The incident comes on the heels of a North Carolinian pastor whose anti-gay sermon was caught on tape and also went viral.
Baptist minister Charles L. Worley, 71, called for gays and lesbians to be put in concentration camps.
"Build a great big, large fence -- 50 or a 100 miles long -- and put all the lesbians in there. Fly over and drop some food," he said. "Do the same thing with the queers and the homosexuals - and have that fence electrified so they can't get out. Feed 'em. And you know in a few years, they'll die out. You know why? They can't reproduce."
The pastor's comments, which made national headlines, angered a number of people and more than a thousand protesters showed up in North Carolina last weekend to protest Worley and his church.
"My brother, now deceased, lived an alternative lifestyle," Sonya Briggss, a protester and a North Carolina resident said. "If he was here today, he would have to worry about being targeted and put into a concentration camp."