German Baptist Church wants death penalty for gay people

The German Baptist Church in Pforzheim has been the centre of controversy since it was discovered that they believe that gay people deserve the death penalty. Other churches distance themselves from the statements and call for criminal charges.

“We believe that homosexuality is a sin and a shame that God punishes with the death penalty”, the website of the Baptists in Pforzheim reads. The believers base this view on several Bible texts, such as Leviticus 20,13, Romans 1,31, 2 Peter 2,6, and Jude 7.

In a letter to Pforzheimer Zeitung, pastor Anselm Urban explains that Leviticus clearly says that men who lie together should be put to death. He points out that the illness of AIDS proves that God condemns gay people, as it is “almost exclusively transmitted by sodomites.”

According to the Baptist pastor, introducing the death penalty for homosexual people would be “the most effective way to eradicate AIDS” as well. The state is responsible for enforcing the death penalty for homosexual people, Urban argues.

Distance

The bold statements from the Pforzheim Baptist Church have led to much consternation and outrage in Germany. Other Christians and church representatives were quick to distance themselves from the Church in Pforzheim.

The Protestant state bishop from Baden, Heike Springhart said that “such inciting and discriminatory statements violate human dignity.” That is reported by Stuttgarter Zeitung.

According to Springhart, the statements that incite and motivate violence contradict the message of the Bible.

Also, the Baptist Federation of Protestant Free Churches in Germany distanced itself from Pforzheim.

On Twitter, it stated that “the sect in Pforzheim is not related to the Federation of Protestant Free Churches. The demand for the death penalty for homosexuals is completely absurd and extremely inhuman. We condemn them in the strongest terms.”

Protestant church leader Christiane Quicke has even called upon the public prosecutor's office to investigate the Baptist Church in Pforzheim, Katholisch.de reports.

She has asked the prosecutor to check the community because of “queer hostile and anti-Semitic hate speech.

Source: cne.news, Staff, March 21, 2023

_____________________________________________________________________

FOLLOW US ON:

TELEGRAM

TWITTER

CONTACT: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."

— Oscar Wilde

Former Florida officer who raped, murdered 11-year-old set to be executed

An execution date has been set for a former Mascotte police officer who, in May 1987, assaulted and murdered an 11-year-old girl. Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a death warrant for James Aren Duckett on Friday. He’s scheduled to be executed on March 31. It’ll be the state’s 5th execution this year, following a record 19 executions in 2025. Duckett was convicted in the murder of 11-year-old Teresa McAbee about a year after her death. According to officials, Duckett took the 11-year-old to a lake, where he sexually battered, strangled and drowned her.

Florida executes Billy Kearse

Florida executes man who killed Fort Pierce police officer during 1991 traffic stop Moments before receiving a lethal injection, Billy Kearse asked for forgiveness from the family of Danny Parrish, whose widow said she found peace after a "long, long 35 years.” A man convicted of fatally shooting a police officer with his own service weapon during a traffic stop was executed Tuesday evening, becoming the third person put to death by Florida this year after a record 19 executions in 2025.

Florida Cop-killer Billy Kearse set to be executed today

A man who confessed to fatally shooting Fort Pierce Police Officer Danny Parrish with his own service weapon during a 1991 traffic stop is scheduled to be executed starting at 6 p.m. March 3, barring a last-minute stay. Billy L. Kearse, 53, will be the third person put to death by the state this year, just one week after the execution of Melvin Trotter, who was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death for strangling and stabbing Virgie Langford in Palmetto in 1986. The Florida Supreme Court on Feb. 12 denied a motion for a stay of execution and a motion for an extension due to the fading health and death of the father of Kearse's attorney. Attorneys for Kearse have filed a motion with the U.S. Supreme Court to stop the execution, citing violations of the Sixth, Eighth and 14th Amendments of the United States Constitution.

Texas Plans Second Execution of the Year

Cedric Ricks is set to be killed on March 11 Cedric Ricks spoke in his own defense at his 2013 murder trial, something most defendants accused of a terrible crime do not do. Ricks confessed that he had killed his girlfriend, Roxann Sanchez, and her 8-year-old son. He admitted he was aggressive and had trouble controlling his anger, stating that he was “sorry about everything.” The Tarrant County jury was unmoved. Ricks has spent the last 13 years on death row and is scheduled to be executed on March 11.

Florida | Governor DeSantis signs death warrant in 2008 murder case

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Governor Ron DeSantis has signed a death warrant for Michael L. King, setting an execution date of March 17, 2026, at 6 p.m. King was convicted and sentenced to death for the 2008 kidnapping, sexual battery and murder of Denise Amber Lee, a 21-year-old North Port mother. On January 17, 2008, Michael Lee King abducted 21-year-old Denise Amber Lee from her North Port home by forcing her into his green Chevrolet Camaro. He drove her around while she was bound, including to his cousin's house to borrow tools like a shovel. King took her to his home, where he sexually battered her, then placed her in the backseat of his car. Later that evening, he drove to a remote area, shot her in the face, and buried her nude body in a shallow grave. Her remains were discovered two days later. During the crime, multiple 9-1-1 calls were made, but communication breakdowns between emergency dispatch centers delayed the response. The case drew national attention and prompted w...

Chinese courts conclude trials of 2 criminal gangs from northern Myanmar, 16 sentenced to death

Chinese courts have concluded the trials of 2 major criminal groups based in northern Myanmar involved in telecom and online fraud, the Supreme People's Court (SPC) said Thursday. At a press conference held by the SPC, it was revealed that by the end of 2025, courts across the country had concluded first-instance trials of over 27,000 cases related to telecom fraud operations in northern Myanmar, with more than 41,000 returned suspects sentenced. Notably, among the trials of the so-called "4 major families" criminal gangs -- which had drawn widespread domestic and international attention -- those of the Ming and Bai groups have completed all judicial proceedings.

Florida executes Melvin Trotter

The execution of Melvin Trotter for the murder of 70-year-old Virgie Langford in 1986 comes as Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor questions Florida's 'deeply troubling' lethal injection record. Florida has executed its second inmate of the year even as a Supreme Court justice questioned the state's “deeply troubling" record on lethal injections and how it "shrouds its executions in secrecy." Melvin Trotter, 65, was executed by lethal injection on Tuesday, Feb. 24, for the 1986 murder of 70-year-old Virgie Langford, a mother of 4 who was on the verge of retirement when she was stabbed to death in the corner grocery store that she owned for five decades. Trotter was pronounced dead at 6:15 p.m. ET.

‘Come on with it’: Arkansas inmate asks to hasten execution

A Faulkner County judge has scheduled an August hearing to determine whether a death row inmate can bypass his attorney’s advice, drop his remaining appeals, and hasten his execution. Scotty Ray Gardner, 65, is facing the death penalty for the 2016 killing of his girlfriend, Susan Heather Stubbs, in Conway. In letters sent to Circuit Judge Chuck Clawson and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Gardner said he wants to end his legal battles, writing that he is tired of prison life and skeptical he will receive a fair hearing. “It’s simple,” Gardner wrote in a September letter. “Come on with it.”

Oklahoma Ends Indefinite Death Row Solitary Confinement

Every year, thousands of prisoners in the U.S. are placed in solitary confinement, where they endure isolation, abuse, and mental suffering . This practice might soon become rarer for some inmates in Oklahoma, thanks to the efforts of activists in the state. Earlier this month, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Oklahoma announced that the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester had ended the practice of indefinite solitary confinement for "the vast majority" of death row prisoners.

Man convicted in 1986 murder set to become Florida's second execution of 2026

STARKE, Fla. (DPN) — A man convicted of stabbing and strangling a grocery store owner during a robbery nearly 40 years ago is scheduled to die by lethal injection Tuesday evening, becoming the second person executed in Florida this year. Melvin Trotter, 65, is set to receive a three-drug lethal injection beginning at 6 p.m. at Florida State Prison near Starke. Trotter was convicted of first-degree murder in the 1986 killing of Virgie Langford, 70, who owned Langford’s Grocery Store in Palmetto, in southwest Florida's Manatee County.

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog