Jeopardy! champ Hemant Mehta called a ‘closet f*g’ by hate preacher for being an LGBTQ+ ally

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Atheist activist and Jeopardy! champ Hemant Mehta was described as a “closet f*g” by a Christian hate preacher, all because he is an LGBTQ+ ally.

Mehta, who won $13,999 as a contestant on Jeopardy! in 2020 and founded the Friendly Atheist blog on Patheos, dedicates much of his social media content to tracking and exposing anti-LGBTQ+ Christian fundamentalists.

But Pastor Aaron Thompson of Sure Foundation Baptist Church in Vancouver, Washington, who has called for the execution of gay people, has not taken kindly to the criticism.

Christian hate-preacher Aaron Thompson insists he's not calling for the execution of gay people.

He just wants gay people to be executed. pic.twitter.com/gj9ZBjgsJK

— Hemant Mehta (@hemantmehta) May 24, 2022

In fact, this week Thompson hit out at Mehta in a sermon, declaring him a “closet f**g” because he is an LGBTQ+ ally.

Mehta shared a compilation of the sermon to social media, writing: “Christian hate-preacher Aaron Thompson spent 20 minutes condemning me during this weekend’s ‘Red Hot Preaching Conference’. I boiled it down to two minutes.”

In the clip, Thompson said Mehta was a “major beta”, adding: “I have some things to say about him, and I also suspect he might be a closet f*g.

“He definitely talks like one, he definitely likes to defend f*gs. Every clip that he puts on there is pretty much about us ripping on homos during Pride month.”

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Christian hate-preacher Aaron Thompson spent 20 minutes condemning me during this weekend's "Red Hot Preaching Conference."

I boiled it down to two minutes. pic.twitter.com/hw25FB7eVs

— Hemant Mehta (@hemantmehta) July 19, 2022

Hemant Mehta says the silver lining is living “rent-free” in Aaron Thompson’s head

In a truly bizarre defence of his views, hate preacher Aaron Thompson continued: “He knows that when he posts this stuff, people are going to get upset because of the way he words it, you know?

“We’ll get up and we’ll caveat what we’re preaching and say that the government should do this, after a fair trial, and then take them out the back and shoot them in the head. But they don’t concentrate on the whole quote.”

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“I suspect he’s a f*g,” Thompson added. “I can’t say 100 per cent for sure that he is, but you know what? If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck and it’s constantly defending f*gs all the time, I think it’s possible that he is. I mean, he’s definitely got some soy in the tank.”

One follower asked: “Golly, Hemant. Why you gotta be so kind and considerate and reasonable? You should really work on that.” Mehta responded: “Gotta be the soy.”

Luckily, Mehta was unfazed by the hateful sermon, explaining later in an article about the sermon what the “silver lining” was.

He wrote: “It’s nice knowing that, in this economy, I can live rent-free in Aaron Thompson’s head.”