In a recent article, I chronicled the incidents surrounding a Florida church threatened with the loss of its lease because of allegedly anti-gay sermons by its pastor. To briefly recap the story, Pastor Jack Hakimian leased space for his Impact Miami church from the Miami-Dade school district, though when the district’s superintendent received word of supposedly bigoted messages from the pulpit, he tried to find a way to evict the church. While the story of Christians persecuted for spreading the Word of God is unfortunately not rare in modern America, this was a cautionary story I felt needed to be shared.
As fate would have it, I discovered after writing the article that Pastor Hakimian was one of my social media contacts. In my capacity as the founder of The Informed Conservative, I have been blessed with thousands of smart, diverse online acquaintances. Still, the odds are incredibly small that I would be connected with a pastor I have never met, more than 1,300 miles away from me, who I just wrote an article about. I knew I had to reach out to him.
The principled pastor graciously agreed to speak with me, and I am pleased to report an interesting development in the story through this exclusive interview.
Hakimian said he has led the Impact Miami for about two and a half years, explaining the church has leased space from the school district for the past seven to eight months. The relationship between the church and district was good, he said, until a local reporter decided to become part of the story.
“Local 10 reporter Jeff Weinsier brought it to [the school board's] attention,” Hakimian said. “He saw a sermon on YouTube.”
Turning a biblical view of homosexuality into a call for action, Weinsier alerted officials about the video, which led to outrage among some in the Miami government.
“I think they were overreacting to the message that homosexuality is a sin, and I think it was provoked by a homosexual councilman who doesn’t necessarily like us because of our moral stance in the city,” Hakimian said. “It’s more of a witch hunt than anything.”
In a positive development for the good pastor and his flock, the school board backed down after the story began to spread.
“I think they just realized they would have a long legal battle,” Hakimian reasoned, adding they might have also recognized the precedents set across this nation allowing the free expression of religious views in places of worship.
As for whether the church will remain in its current location, the pastor said he will follow God’s direction.
“As of now, we will see what happens,” he said.
Speaking candidly about his actual feelings toward homosexuality, rather than what those with an obvious agenda claim he believes, Hakimian said he is concerned for the eternal souls of anyone living in sin.
“I think we should treat all people who are living a life that God would not agree with with love and respect,” he said, “but we should try to persuade them to walk by faith and to walk in a manner that is pleasing to the Lord.”
This supposedly hateful rhetoric sounds like the beliefs of nearly every practicing Christian on the planet, and Hakimian made a point to separate his values from those of blatantly anti-gay congregations.
“There’s a gospel message and a gospel mission behind it,” he explained. “We’re nothing like the Westboro people.”
Just as Jesus Christ dealt with sinners where they were and encouraged them to turn away from their sinful lifestyles, Hakimian said he just wants to see more people make it to heaven.
“Caring doesn’t mean we don’t deal with truth and biblical revelation and stay committed to that,” he said. “I can love you, but disagree and debate.”
B. Christopher Agee founded The Informed Conservative in 2011. Follow him on Twitter @bcagee.
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This pastor has every God-given right to speak out in defense of the family as God made it — marriage between one man and one woman. This IS NOT hate speech. Our government and the misguided homosexaul lobby are lying to themselves and every one else when they call this ‘freedom of speech’ hate speech. The pastor merely tells the truth as God commands all true Christians to do. He fears God more than man. We need more God-fearing pastors like this and more God-fearing leaders and judges. This IS the only way to save America, especially Christian America.
I thought there were laws against discrimination on grounds of religious beliefs.
Debra…
Homosexuals should take a while and read the bible about Sodom & Gomorrah. They will see how horribly homosexuals have behaved in the past. They were bandits, rapists, intimidators and God-haters. Although we have also known that they have always existed, we also know that they have always bad news. Unfortunately, the lesson hasn’t been learned and nothing about them has changed. They are still the same criminal thugs they always were.
Isn’t there still FREEDOM OF SPEECH or did Obama get rid of that as well?
What the hell is the Miami-Dade School Board doing owning a church in the first place?? There are far too many liberals wanting to re-educate our youth to their way of thinking on most school boards. What did they think a Christian church would preach ?
Do Americans no longer have freedom to speak the truth or relay what Gods says is right and or wrong? That is what good pastors do, they spread the word of god! So screw anyone and or any one in our government at any level who says we should accept and agree with sick homosexuals. God shuns the sick acts of Homosexuals and so do I!
Why is it that the sexually perverse, more so than any other group it seems, get so upset when the Word of God is preached as it pertains to their abominable lifestyle as judged by the Creator God according to His Word? I believe its because they can’t abide the thought that they will one day be held to account for their lives and the lifestyle they’ve chosen, not by man, but by God. Thus their quarrel is not with the messenger, but with the Author of the message. You don’t see them shaking their fists heaven-ward and cursing at God, or at least I haven’t, not publicly anyway, because even they, or at least many of them, know down deep in their souls that such behavior would be adding to the risk of their being judged for eternal damnation.
Life in this physical realm is but a vapor while eternity is, well, eternal. Taking revenge on fellow mortals who are themselves sinners for daring to preach the Word of God with gentleness and respect from a pulpit inside a house of worship seems less risky thus it is done especially now given that political correctness and moral relativity have been conveniently rationalized as the means by which one should be judged in this physical world. And that pesky First Amendment to our Constitution? Not a problem. It can easily be manipulated and twisted with the help of the media, the corrupt legislative, executive and judicial branches of our government such that special interests are served while others are censored, restricted and made the object of ridicule and persecution contrary to the plain truth of the law.
Humans are unique in that we alone have incredible capacity for rationalization. There is no limit to it, but there will come a time in the not too distant future when all rationalization ceases and the truth, the Absolute Truth, will be the only standard by which we are judged whence the Judge’s decision will be final for all eternity.
It would appear that the gays agenda is to not allow any opinions but their own. They already have equality but they seem to want superiority at any cost. Think my way or we will force you. This attitude is what I have against gays; not their lifestyle. They are intolerant of anyone else’s opinion.