Rural Congregation Kicks Out Homophobic Pastor After Sign Controversy

A pastor whose homophobic sign made headlines across the country has been forced to resign by his congregation.

As previously reported, ex-pastor Justin Hoke put up a sign in front of Trinity Bible Presbyterian Church in Weed, California just before the new year, reading “Bruce Jenner is still a man. Homosexuality is still sin. The culture may change. The Bible does not.”

Members of the rural town did not take this slight against the LGBTQ community lightly, and organized a protest designed to show support with rainbow flags and positive signs.

For his part, Hoke doubled down, claiming that he would leave the sign up even longer than he planned, and adding this comment on Facebook:

“The response we're receiving from this sign proves that it was posted way too late. If a conservative mountain farming community is no longer a safe place to call sin, sin. Then is anywhere in this country still safe for real Christians?”

But in the end, it seems that even his church was dissatisfied with Hoke’s message.

Hoke announced on Saturday that the other elder of his church asked him to resign, and that he had been informed almost the entire congregation had vowed to leave if he was not removed from his leadership position.

Of course, there’s been an outpouring of support for him on his personal Facebook — fellow “real Christians” horrified that anyone who claims to believe in God would be upset about an aggressively homophobic and transphobic sign welcoming people to church.

But Hoke got to be a martyr for his cause, and seems content merely asking his Facebook stans to pray for him to find a new teaching opportunity to continue to spread his “truth” that the LGBTQ community is against God.

After all, he posted, “it is neither loving nor kind to remain soft and accommodating in the presence of blasphemy against Christ.”