Queer LiberAction activist Rick Vanderslic, left, gets up close and personal with a member of Kingdom Baptist Church in a November 2009 protest outside Fort Worth City Hall
Folks in Fort Worth’s LGBT community are more than passingly familiar with Pastor Joey Faust and his congregants from Kingdom Baptist Church. Faust and his flock have been bringing their Bibles and their megaphones to every LGBT gathering in town since at least late 2009 when they showed up to protest outside City Hall as the City Council was inside voting to approve expanding the nondiscrimination ordinance to include protections for transgenders.
(Dallas Voice staff writer John Wright took the photo above during that protest as Kingdom Baptist member squared off against Queer LiberAction activist Rick Vanderslice.)
The Faustian flock often showed up to “evangelize” during subsequent Queer LiberAction events in Fort Worth, and most recently, the Kingdom Baptist folks showed up at this year’s Tarrant County Gay Pride Parade, held on Main Street in downtown Fort Worth for the first time.
Now, Kingdom Baptist has made the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, which today posted an article on its website about the street preachers and those who make it a point to confront and “mock” them.
Faust told the Star-Telegram that members of his congregation — who number about 100 and worship in Venus, near the border between that town and Mansfield — have been going to downtown Fort Worth on Friday nights to preach on the streets for about 10 years. He said they do it because the Bible tells them to, and that the Bible also warns they will face “mockers” as the end times draw near. And they aren’t just preaching about the sins of being LGBT; apparently they have a long list of targets, according to the Star-Telegram, from “baby killers” to “party animals.” They even warned moviegoers recently that the animated movie Puss In Boots, and all the movies showing at the Palace 9 theater, had “something Satanic” in them.
The Fort Worth newspaper says that folks out for a night on the town in Fort Worth are starting to fight back. Some stand around and make fun of the street preachers, and others write letters of complaint to Downtown Fort Worth Inc.
But as irritating and insulting — and idiotic — as we might find them, Faust and his flock have every right to stand on the streets and preach, as long as they don’t get too loud and violate the noise ordinances. I say let ’em preach, because I have every right to ignore their rants. I just hope, for their sake, they don’t ever try to confront my wife; she’s not as calm and peace-loving as I am.
“historical journalist and ordained theologian”, in disguise, murders Liberal Minister west of Fort Worth. Glad to see the Fort Worth newspaper giving coverage of the activities of Kingdom Baptist.
https://mediaelites.com/2010/01/26/the-bizarre-tale-of-renata-monet/
Interesting coverage keep covering the updates.
As American becomes more secular, the fundamentalist churches fear that they will lose their grip on their precious followers and financial contributors. Most have now resorted to fear tactics to try and frighten people into doing what they are told. Unfortunately for churches like Kingdom Baptist, some of us are not afraid. What’s funny is that if you ask one of these “demonstrators” to define the word “moral”, most of them are not able to do so. Why would anyone fall in line behind a group of people who are so obviously uneducated?
“I do not feel challenged by organized religion. In some cases it is helpful, and often is harmful.” TCU Grad Morris Kight
I’m with you, Steve. I no longer embrace the supernatural either.
So…..was I the only one who got a thoroughly anti-trans tone from Steve’s link above?
@Jessica, Bob L’Aloge, a “Historical Journalist & Ordained Theologian”, hated all GLBT’s and those who accepted them.