Last week, I told you that Roger Jimenez, the pastor of Verity Baptist Church in Sacramento, openly applauded the massacre of 49 people in an Orlando gay bar. He believed that the butchery that took place just hours before his flock arrived for church made Orlando “a little safer,” and thought the only tragedy was that “more of them didn’t die.”
Well, the bill has already come due for this bigotry–and sooner than anyone could have possibly hoped. Late Tuesday, the independent fundamentalist Baptist church learned that thanks to its pastor’s hateful remarks, it will have to find a new home by next spring at the latest. Watch more coverage from KOVR in Sacramento here.
Verity holds its services at the Northgate Business Park in Sacramento’s Natomas neighborhood. The park’s owner, Harsch Investment Properties, issued a burning statement condemning Jimenez’ remarks. Harsch said that while it is very supportive of the LGBT community, it has long rented space to churches who aren’t LGBT-affirming.
However, Harsch said that it draws the line at the kind of bilge Jimenez spewed last Sunday. In case you missed it, Jimenez said that “I think it’s great” that Omar Mateen butchered 49 “pedophiles.” As he saw it, the Orlando massacre “actually helps society,” though he was “kind of upset” that Mateen didn’t kill them all. Later, he said that since God declared homosexuality a capital offense, Christians shouldn’t shed any tears for the victims.
Harsch made its position on such comments loud and clear.
“We have many places of worship and other religious organizations in the properties we manage. Like all our tenants, their occupancy rights are protected in their leases, but we will not tolerate tenants who advocate hatred and the taking of innocent lives.”
For that reason, Harsch decided not to renew Verity’s lease at Northgate when it runs out on March 31, 2017. Legally, Harsch can’t evict Verity before the lease runs out; thus far, no defensible reason has turned up for an eviction. However, Harsch gave Verity a very strong incentive to leave sooner–if Verity finds a new home before March 2017, it won’t have to pay to get out of the lease.
Harsch’s announcement came a little over two days after almost 1,000 people showed up outside Verity to protest Jimenez’ bigotry. The woman who helped organize the rally, Beverly Kearney, was overjoyed to hear that Harsch had struck so fast and hard. She told KCRA-TV in Sacramento that it was “amazing” Harsch responded so quickly.
In an interview with KXTV in Sacramento, Jimenez refused to back down from his comments. He claimed that this wasn’t just a free speech issue, “but a free thought issue.” He believes that he is only being punished for having what society calls “the wrong opinion” about what happened in Orlando.
No, Roger. You aren’t being forced to move because you have “the wrong opinion.” You’re being forced to move because you reveled in innocent people being butchered. It would be no different if a leftist pastor expressed support for the bottom-feeder who tried to kill Donald Trump earlier this week. I see nothing wrong with Harsch effectively telling you that it wants no part of such hate.
At least two real estate attorneys agree. Jeff Kravitz told KOVR that Harsch is trying to keep Jimenez at arm’s length and tell the community that “as the owners of the building, they don’t support what this person has said.” Jessica Warne told KCRA that in her view, Harsch’s lawyers “know what they’re doing,” and they’re probably going to succeed in forcing Verity to move.
I expected to see people flocking to support Jimenez. But so far, the only thing I’ve been able to turn up is this video from an IFB poster.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfGgxPtl99o
In a post on the family blog, Jimenez’ wife, Joann, said this video “brought tears to my eyes.”
What brings tears to my eyes is that Roger and Joann have four children–and based on what I know about IFB culture, they’ve had this hate and bigotry drilled into them from the time they could crawl. I repeat what I said last week–the thought that kids are essentially being told that basic human decency is unbiblical makes me want to retch.
