Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Anti-Gay Pastor Charles Stanley Backs Out of Jewish National Fund Honor

A Baptist pastor who has said that homosexuality is “destructive” and that gays are “separate from God” declined an honor from the Jewish National Fund’s Atlanta chapter because of protests.

Charles Stanley will not attend Thursday’s awards breakfast “because of his deep love for Israel, and his reluctance to be a point of controversy and conflict within the Jewish community,” the Atlanta Journal Constitution on Tuesday quoted JNF as saying.

The Atlanta chapter was to have honored Stanley, 82, for his pro-Israel advocacy, but a number of local Jews protested the recognition and rabbis – including those affiliated with The Temple, where the event is to take place – said they would not attend.

Stanley, the senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Atlanta and the founder of In Touch Ministries, was to have received the Tree of Life award.

In a video reply to a query to his ministry about whether gays may gain entry to heaven, Stanley said it would only happen if they stopped being homosexual.

“There is no peace, no joy, no happiness no matter what they say,” he said. “And medical research has proven absolutely unquestionably that a person can be freed from homosexual activity if they want to.”

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.