Pastor who called gays ‘pedophiles’ and praised the Pulse massacre resigns after prostitution scandal

Donnie Romero‘s virulently anti-gay sermons have made national headlines. Now, he’s making headlines for a different reason.

As NBC News reports, the Baptist pastor resigned from his Texas church after admitting he’s been a “terrible husband and father.” Romero has seven children with his wife.

“I have not been ruling my house well,” Romero told his congregation on January 2. “I’m the one at fault in this situation. I love Stedfast Baptist Church. I love my family. This is the best decision for my family and this church to make.”

Romero didn’t speak about why he’s resigning, but fellow anti-gay pastor Steven Anderson of Faith Word Church in Phoenix posted a video to YouTube describing Romero’s “grievous sins.”

“The major sin involved was being with prostitutes, and then there were also marijuana and gambling,” Anderson said in the video posted one day after Romero’s resignation.

Speaking to NBC News, the new pastor of Stedfast Baptist Church, Jonathan Shelley, confirmed that Romero’s frequenting of prostitutes was the reason for his resignation. When asked if he shared Romero’s feelings about homosexuality, Shelley said that the bible is “clear.”

“The bible makes it clear that homosexuals should be put to death according to God’s law, and at the founding of America that once was the law,” Shelley said. “I personally believe that every homosexual is a pedophile … because of this they should be removed from society.”

Anderson is probably the most widely known for his anti-gay views. In the wake the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando that killed 49 people, Anderson posted a 4-minute “response” to the shooting and celebrated the deaths, saying that there are now “50 less pedophiles” in the world. He added that people shouldn’t get too broken up over the incident, since it happened to “a bunch of… disgusting homosexuals at a gay bar, okay?”

In 2016, Romero posted a video to YouTube (which has since been removed) where he called the victims of the Pulse nightclub shooting “scum of the earth.”

“These 50 Sodomites were all perverts and pedophiles and they are the scum of the earth, and the earth is a little bit better place now,” he said. “And I’ll even take it a little further — I heard on the news today that there are still several dozen of these queers in ICU, and I will pray that God will finish the job that that man started.”

Although Romero is stepping down, he says he and his family will remain with Stedfast Church as members.

“I’m very sorry for the hurt this may cause people,” he said. “I’m so sorry. I wish I would not have let it get to this point.”

Featured image via screen grab/YouTube

Sky Palma

Before launching DeadState back in 2012, Sky Palma has been blogging about politics, social issues and religion for over a decade. He lives in Los Angeles and also enjoys Brazilian jiu jitsu, chess, music and art.