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Bombing at California church accused of hateful messaging against LGBT community

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – The FBI is investigating a bomb blast that broke windows at a California Baptist church that has been subject to protests for what has been described as extremist, hateful messaging against the LGBT community, Religion News reports. El Monte police said the city’s First Works Baptist church building was attacked at 1 am Saturday when an “improvised explosive device” was thrown at it. No one was in the building at the time and no injuries have been reported.

A motive for the bombing has not yet been identified; the ‘Keep El Monte Friendly (KEMF)’ organization that led recent protests outside El Monte’s First Works Baptist church has stated it was shocked to hear of Saturday’s explosion and asserted it does not believe anyone in its group was involved. In a statement to Religion News about the incident, KEMF organizer Brandon Olmos II said: “We want people from El Monte to know it’s a queer safe space for all genders and sexual orientations. This church is the opposite of that.” Olmos added: “We never encouraged any forms of violence.”

First Works Baptist is a member of the New Independent Fundamental Baptist Movement, a network of 30 churches led by controversial pastor Steven Anderson. In 2009 Anderson gained notoriety for saying during a sermon that he had prayed for President Barack Obama to die. In 2015 Anderson was criticized by the Anti-Defamation League who said in a report that the pastor “alleges that the Jews lied about the Holocaust so that the state of Israel could be created.” In 2016, following the killing of 49 people at a gay bar in Orlando, Anderson is widely reported as saying: “These people all should have been killed, anyway, but they should have been killed through the proper channels, as in they should have been executed by a righteous government that would have tried them, convicted them, and saw them executed.”

Targeted by locals protesting the church’s anti-LGBT messaging, First Works Baptist is led by Pastor Bruce Mejia, an associate of Anderson’s. At a 2019 “Make America Straight Again” conference organized by Anderson, Mejia is reported to have said about homosexuals: “We don’t advocate Christians to go out and be vigilantes and try to put these f— to death. We want the government to do it,” Religion News said.

In a statement, El Monte mayor Jessica Ancona said the bombing was “highly concerning” and called for a full investigation. In any event, some 14,000 people have now signed a petition calling for the removal of the church from El Monte.