The White pastor of a megachurch in California spat fire and brimstone on a recent Sunday, barking to his congregants that Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was “not a Christian at all” and misrepresented Christianity.
John MacArthur, 85, the leader of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, about 30 miles north of Los Angeles, reportedly ripped MLK for being a supposed race-baiter and “immoral” person.
MacArthur denounced a group of evangelical pastors known as Together for the Gospel [T4G] for honoring King several years ago, Right Wing Watch reported.
“[T4G] bought into the deceptiveness of the woke movement and the racial baiting that was going on a couple of years ago, and it literally put them out of existence,” MacArthur reportedly said. “The strange irony was a year later, they did the same thing for Martin Luther King, who was not a Christian at all, whose life was immoral.”
John MacArthur, an influential right-wing evangelical preacher, denounced Rev. Martin Luther King as an "unbeliever," adding to MacArthur's history of cringe-worthy comments, on race, slavery, religious freedom, and more. https://t.co/RC1ed2JQ7f
— Right Wing Watch (@RightWingWatch) February 28, 2024
MacArthur continued, “I’m not saying [King] didn’t do some social good, and I’ve always been glad he was a pacifist, or he could have started a real revolution. But you don’t honor a non-believer who misrepresented Christ and everything about the gospel,” according to NewsOne and Baptist News Global.
This Martin Luther King critic also said Christianity does ‘not free the slaves’
MacArthur had more outlandish statements for the congregation, including the belief that there is no such thing as being “gay,” and that Christianity does not “free the slaves” and does not give “equal social rights.”
LGBTQ Nation reported that, on a previous occasion, MacArthur told his congregants these jaw-dropping thoughts: “The Bible is abundantly clear — slavery is the heart of what it means to be a true Christian,” and “Christianity does not free slaves. Christianity does not give equal social rights. … Jesus did not propound equal rights and he did not upset the social order…. Rather, they all affirmed that, with great fear of God and great respect, you are to be submissive to your masters. Whether they’re good and gentle or whether they are unreasonable — you are to submit.”
When it comes to the LGBTQ+ community, MacArthur also said, “No one is gay. People commit adultery, they commit sins of homosexuality, they lie, they steal, they cheat,” according to NewsOne and Baptist News Global.
“That’s like saying, ‘You know, I keep robbing banks, but I’m a robber. I’m a bank robber. What am I gonna do? I’m a bank robber.’ That is not an excuse for what you do,” MacArthur added. “Are there certain kind of impulses that lead people in that direction? Yes. But I think one of the really deadly aspects of this is to let people define themselves as gay.”
As he proudly points out below, MacArthur is apparently accustomed to having folks get up and walk out on his sermons:
