Milton Quintanilla – September 9, 2020
UK Pastor John Williamson of Newquay Baptist Church is facing violent threats from members of the LGBTQ+ community for insisting that homosexuality is a sin.
According to Christian Concern, a UK based watchdog organization, Williamson simply wrote, ”wonderful news!” in response to a news article that stated that the Cornwall Pride Parade was canceled. The festivities were originally scheduled to take place on August 29.
When an online user asked Williamson why he celebrated the cancellation, the pastor replied, “because I don’t think sin should be celebrated.”
Williamson proceeded to use Scripture to defend his stance on homosexuality. He cited the books of John, James, and 1 Corinthians 6:9-11.
The pastor then shared the article on his personal Facebook page, noting that his church had previously prayed for the cancellation of the parade.
“We also prayed that the Lord would save the organizers. One prayer answered, now we wait for the second prayer to be answered,” he added.
But the parade organizers caught wind of Williamson’s page, took a screenshot of his post, tagged his church and posted it together with anti-LGBTQ+ comments by online users.
The names of the users were blocked out by Cornell Pride, in order to make it seem like Pastor Williamson was the one behind the negative comments.
Williamson’s wife received online threats as her husband’s head was superimposed upon an image of homosexual pornography, which was also shared online.
The pastor was then reported by Cornwall Pride’s followers to police for hate speech as well as committing a hate crime.