INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Protest erupted outside an Indianapolis church after I-Team 8 reported the church is calling for the LGBTQ+ community to face the death penalty and to commit suicide.

On Sunday, against a backdrop of pride flags and police officers, the church doubled down on their message in an almost two-hour sermon with homophobic slurs. This time, though, the sound of protesters joined the chorus in opposition.

“I came here to attend the worship service,” Charlize Jamieson said.

Jamieson drove down all the way from Muncie, hoping to peacefully sit in on Sure Foundation Baptist Church‘s Service.

The transgender Christian woman watched I-Team 8’s story about the northwest side church and thought she’d come and listen for herself.

“I’m almost 70, and I’ve been a Christian most all of my life, and I’m I’m bothered by the vitriol and the hate that’s it’s come out of this,” Jamieson said.

But, before she’d thrown her car in park, a man in a dark suit came up to her window with a message.

“He said ‘you’re trespassing, the police have been called. You need to leave right now and we’re taking a picture of your license plate.’ I’ve never had that happen attending a church service ever in my life,” Jamieson said.

She says she told the man several times she wasn’t there to protest, just to attend service. After she was denied entry, she decided to join those outside the building.

The protest was attended and supported by the 50501 Movement.

“Wrong is wrong, right? Like, this isn’t, this is not a question of it’s a ‘little’ wrong,” 50501 State Organizer Scott Johnson said. “You’re calling for people to be put to death. You’re calling for people to commit suicide. That is, first of all, that’s hate speech, right? By any rational administration, he’d be up on charges for that.”

Inside the building, the man giving the sermon doubled down on their calls for death and called on police to arrest and kill the protesters outside.

The message was live streamed on their Facebook page with the title “Love Thy Neighbor.”

“If you love your neighbor and don’t believe that the government should be putting the ‘homos’ to death, you don’t really love your neighbor,” Senior Evangelist at Sure Foundation Baptist Church Justin Zhong said. “I thank God for these perverts standing outside right now because it is a great time to show our children how wicked those perverts are. Hey kids, you know, don’t join their distyle ways and don’t love them. They hate God. They are rejecting the Word of God.”

It’s messages like this that are prompting protesters to do their own doubling down.

“As a Christian, this cannot be allowed to stand as God’s Word,” Jamieson said. “God says the exact opposite of this. As a Christian, I feel compelled to be here to kind of present, the other side, the real side.”

Mental health resources

• Be Well Indiana
• Indiana Suicide Prevention
• Indiana Department of Child Services’ Children’s Mental Health Initiative
• National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline: 988 or 800-273-8255
• More resources

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