After pastor Roger Jimenez of Verity Baptist Church in Sacramento, Calif., said he was upset more people hadn't died in the Orlando shooting massacre on June 12, another pastor in Fort Worth, Texas, publicly just expressed the same sentiment. "These 50 sodomites are all perverts and pedophiles, and they're the scum of the earth," Donnie Romero of Stedfast Baptist Church said in an animated sermon posted to YouTube on Thursday.
Romero told his congregation he agreed "100 percent" with the pastor in California. "And the earth is a little bit better place now," he added.
He also said he would pray to God that He would finish the job "that that man (gunman) started," regarding all of the injured victims still recovering in hospitals.
Romero joined a controversy sparked in California after Jimenez praised the Orlando massacre, saying the true tragedy was that there had not been more victims, reports The Dallas Morning News.
Jimenez made the comments a few hours after the shooting, KCRA-TV reported.
"People say, 'Well, aren't you sad that 50 sodomites died?' " Jimenez said. "Here's the problem with that; it's like the equivalent of asking me, 'Well, aren't you sad that 50 pedophiles were killed today?'"
At least 1,000 protesters gathered outside Jimenez's church on Sunday to chant "shame on you" and "love conquers all," the Sacramento TV station reported.
Romero told his Stedfast Baptist congregation that Jimenez is a friend. According to the group's website, the congregation represents "a soul-winning church," in that they preach the Gospel from door-to-door.
Romero started an independent, fundamental Baptist church in the summer of 2014.
The site's homepage states: "This church is old-fashioned, has traditional music, and is King James Bible only! The new evangelical movement in America has been a complete disaster. The worldly, rock and roll, contemporary-style churches are not getting the job done when it comes to preaching the Gospel to every creature, teaching Bible doctrine, and preaching hard against sin. We do not pattern our church after these trendy social clubs. Stedfast Baptist Church stands for the old paths and zero compromise preaching."
Romero acknowledged to KDFW-TV that his sermon was "a message of hate," but he defended it.
"Just like if there was a building that had a bunch of rapists or a bunch of evil, murderous people, and the building collapsed on them, or something happened where they were all killed, I don't think that's something we should mourn over, because they're evil people," Romero told the station.
Romero was born in Western Colorado in 1982. He was raised as a Roman Catholic. In 2002, at the age of 19, he was saved through door-to-door soul winning, according to the church's website. He said he does not believe churches are started by bible colleges or denominations, but by "hard Bible preaching."
He also believes the Bible is the final authority in all matters of life.
