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• Put gays and lesbians in a pen – Pastor         

A Baptist pastor in North Carolina triggered internet outrage on Tuesday with his call from the pulpit for all gays and lesbians to be rounded up, fenced in like cattle, then left to die.

Reverend Charles Worley delivered his unabashedly homophobic homily on May 13 – Mother’s Day in the USs – at his independent Providence Road Baptist Church in the small town of Maiden, North Carolina.

“Build a great, big, large fence – 240 to 160 kilometres long – put all the lesbians in there, fly over and drop some food,” Worley told his congregation, as seen in a video that went viral on YouTube with more than 305 000 views.

“Do the same thing for the queers and the homosexuals and have that fence electrified so they can’t get out… and you know what, in a few years, they’ll die out… Do you know why? They can’t reproduce,” he said.

“If a man ever has a young’un, praise God, it’ll be the first one.”

With some of his parishioners in the background shouting “amen,” the barrel-chested Worley, 71, went on to say: “I ain’t going to vote for a baby killer or a homosexual lover.”

That was an apparent reference to President Barack Obama, who four days earlier came out in favour of same-sex marriage, and who is not opposed – as many Catholics and Evangelicals are – to abortion.

The local Catawba Valley Citizens Against Hate launched a social media campaign (www.facebook.com/CatawbaValleyAgainstHate) to condemn Worley’s sermon and organise a protest at his church on Sunday.

“We need to line the street in front of the church with people with some common sense to tell the world that hate is not welcome in our community. And, believe me, the world is watching!!” it said.

Same-sex marriage is a hot-button social issue looming over Obama’s bid for re-election in November, and it’s uncertain whether North Carolina, which voted for him in 2008, will do so again.

Obama’s apparent Republican adversary Mitt Romney opposes gay and lesbian marriage.

On May 8, North Carolina voters approved a state constitutional amendment explicitly forbidding gay marriages, civil unions and domestic partnerships. Similar bans exist in around 30 other US states.

Worley could not be immediately reached for comment, while the Providence Road Baptist Church website (www.prbcnc.com) was out of order. Telephone calls to the church were met with busy signals.

The furore spilled over into Google’s review pages, where a growing number of contributors gave the Providence Road Baptist Church one star out of a possible five and lashed out at Worley.

The only contributor to give the church five stars wrote: “Old Fashion Bible Believing Church. I feel so blessed to be a member. Brother Charles never pretends to be a saint. He preaches the true word of God.” – AFP