Pastor Performing Same-Sex Weddings Getting Daily Death Threats

A Kansas pastor whose church supports the LGBT community is getting death threats every day. She says she’s scared. The police say there’s nothing they can do.

The First Metropolitan Community Church in Wichita, Kansas does what churches are supposed to do. They minister to their community. They have a food bank. They perform weddings. 

But because the church specifically supports the LGBT community, Reverend Jackie Carter is now the target of anonymous death threats. Daily.

The Wichita Eagle reports, “Some callers tell her ‘to repent so I don’t have to suffer inhumane death at the hands of Satan.’ Others have threatened specific acts of violence. Before the group wedding ceremony last month, two callers threatened to chop off her head and put it on a stake.”

That group wedding Carter mentions was on November 17. Over a dozen same-sex couples married on the courthouse steps, and Carter was an officiant. But that joyous occasion was also marred by hate. A protestor, who can be seen in the video above, screamed, “God says no,” repeatedly.

Carter described another threatening incident, just this week.

“The phone rang and I went to answer the phone and it was just somebody heavy breathing on it. Then somebody rang the door bell and then somebody started throwing rocks at the windows.”

“Honestly, I’m beginning to get more scared every day that this goes on,” Carter says. “I’ve kind of talked myself into trying to be more calm about it and realizing that there are more people out there that are supporting us than threatening harm to us.”

Carter said that most the calls are of a religious nature.

Carter said that she has reported some of the threats to the Wichita Police, but that the department’s ability to investigate is limited because the callers have been anonymous and no number shows up on the church’s caller ID.

“It always says ‘Unknown,’ ” Carter said. “So the couple of times that I’ve made reports, they’ve (the police) said, ‘What do you want us to do? There’s nobody here. There’s no phone number.’ So they take the report and tell me to be careful.”

She tells the Eagle, “My faith informs me that this is exactly the message that Christ came to bring, that we were to include all people. And look what the world did when they heard that message to the bringer of the message?” Carter said. “I don’t think we’re called to suffer, but I do believe if we bring the actual message of Christ we will anger people who don’t want to include all people.”

 

Image: Screenshot via KSN