A New York pastor known for his anti-gay stance blasted the efforts of two non-profit groups that are trying to secure the property of his church, which is reportedly headed for the auction block.
Rev. James David Manning of the ATLAH World Missionary Church spoke out on his radio webcast, "The Manning Report" on Monday, arguing that "the sodomites" are after him and his parish, the Edge Media Network reports.
"The homos are trying to take our church," Manning said in a three-hour broadcast, audio of which can be found here. "All the fag rags are writing all these salacious stories. The sodomites are jumping up and down like a bunch of frogs on a hot tin roof. They are ecstatic!"
The pastor's remarks were in response to a fundraising campaign by the Ali Forney Center, a New York advocacy group dedicated to homeless lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) teens and young adults. Last week, the center launched an online fundraiser to help raise $200,000 to secure the ATLAH World Missionary Church building, which is located in New York's Harlem neighborhood, as housing for its clients.
That fundraiser was launched after a New York judge ordered the ATLAH World Missionary Church to be sold at a public foreclosure auction, according to court records cited by DNAinfo New York. The church, which has been known to display messages like "Jesus would stone homos" and "Obama has released the homo demons on the black man" on its billboard, has reportedly amassed debts and tax liens totaling more than $1.02 million.
On Monday, the Rivers of Living Water, which is billed as a "spiritual place of refuge for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Christians," also launched a GoFundMe campaign to buy the property, too, the New York Daily News reports.
"At Rivers our trans community is empowered, young adults are thriving in their uniqueness, same-sex couples are being married, and the elderly are honored and cared for," organizers wrote on the campaign's page. "Now that the hate spewing anti-LGBT ATLAH church is going up for auction, we believe it would be divine justice to replace that church with our 'radically inclusive and open and affirming' ministry." Currently, the effort has raised over $20,000.
UPDATE: Manning posted the following video to ATLAH's official YouTube channel shortly after this story was published on Feb. 1:
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