Prostitutes, gambling & drugs: Pastor who praised Pulse shooter resigns over ‘grievous sins’

An anti-LGBT pastor who wished the Pulse nightclub victims dead has resigned after being caught engaging in some very “un-Christian” behavior – sleeping with prostitutes and taking drugs.

Donnie Romero, founder of the Stedfast Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas, told his congregation that he had been doing “un-Christian things” when he announced his resignation last week.

“I have been a terrible husband and father,” he said, fighting back tears.

Another pastor, Steven L. Anderson, stepped in and told the church, “He is disqualified from being a pastor.”

After warning people against badgering Romero for more information, Anderson later told church members the details of the “grievous sins” in a video uploaded to YouTube.

“Basically, the major sin involved was being with prostitutes, and then there were also marijuana and gambling that were also discovered,” he said.

Romero issued a video apology on Tuesday, explaining he was in a casino in Jacksonville where he drank and “there were girls there that were prostitutes.” 

“I committed adultery on my wife, multiple times,” he admitted. “I drank I gambled multiple times, I even smoked weed. I did sins that I committed in the past, and it even caused me to commit sins that I had never done before.”

He apologized for not stepping down “the first time I did it,” and for covering up his actions.

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Romero founded the church in 2014, and gained notoriety two years later when he praised mass shooter Omar Mateen for killing 49 people at the Pulse gay nightclub in Orlando. The pastor told his congregation he hoped the 50 people who were wounded in the attack would also die, adding that he believed all gay people were pedophiles, the New York Times reports.

Meanwhile, Anderson was no less vitriolic in his response to the Pulse attack, saying there were 50 less pedophiles in the world afterwards, and that they should have been executed by the government anyway.

Anderson founded Faithful Word Baptist Church in Tempe, Arizona, which teaches homosexuality is an abomination “which God punishes with the death penalty.” In 2009, he said he prayed for Barack Obama’s death during a sermon. Anderson has also argued that people should return to a lifestyle in which there are no women’s rights.

Both churches are are considered hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

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