【A Male Friend Who Spins it Around】

More than 78,A Male Friend Who Spins it Around000 people have signed a petition to strip a New Zealand church of tax-free status after its leader blamed LGBTQ people for earthquakes.

On Monday, Brian Tamaki of Destiny Church in Auckland posted a sermon on Facebook that blamed sinners and gay people for natural disasters and murders generally.

SEE ALSO: Watch: Colourful 'earthquake lights' illuminate New Zealand skies

New Zealand was shaken by a magnitude-7.8 earthquake Monday, but Tamaki claimed on Radiolive Thursday he made the remarks Sunday morning before he knew about the most recent disaster that left two people dead.

---

You May Also Like

---

---

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Tamaki, a Donald Trump fan judging by his Twitter feed, quoted the Old Testament during his sermon. "Leviticus says that the Earth convulses under the weight of certain human sin," he said.

"It spews itself up after a while -- that's natural disasters. Because nature was never created to carry the bondage of our iniquity."

Referring to the devastating 2010 and 2011 earthquakes in Christchurch that killed 185 people, Tamaki suggested "even the churches there were allowed all sorts of activities that you wouldn't even dare to imagine.

"There were churches there that weren't churches. They were actively involved in homosexual practice. Homosexual priests."

Mashable Trend Report Decode what’s viral, what’s next, and what it all means. Sign up for Mashable’s weekly Trend Report newsletter. By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Thanks for signing up!

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.

Despite the resulting threats and furore, Tamaki told the radio station he would not change anything in his sermon.

"I believe it was proper and right for me to give a biblical perspective of the fact that some of these natural disasters, like when you see earthquakes, flooding, volcanic eruption ... that can be caused, according to the word of God, by the actual rise and the degradation of sexual sin on the Earth," he said.

Since Tamaki's video, tens of thousands of people have signed a Change.org petition that calls for New Zealand Prime Minister John Key to strip Destiny Church of its tax-free status.

"It's ridiculous to allow this charleton [sic] to rip off people by tithing then get tax free status as a charity by promoting hate and discrimination against fellow New Zealanders," one signatory wrote.

In an interview with Radiolive Wednesday, Key dismissed Tamaki's comments as "ridiculous."

"The facts of life are New Zealand is a seismically prone country, with a number of very well identified fault lines," he said. "It's nothing to do with people's sexuality. I mean, it's just madness."

Sitting on the Pacific Rim fault line known as the "Ring of Fire," New Zealand is prone to earthquakes and tremors.

Destiny Church has been approached by Mashablefor comment.

Topics LGBTQ

• Games
• Entertainment
• Shopping
• Digital Culture
• Social Good
• Life
• Deals
• Tech

• Sweet, Sweet Phantasy
• Going Roth Mode by Sean Thor Conroe
• Shadow Canons: Danzy Senna and Andrew Martin Recommend by The Paris Review
• Announcing Our Summer Issue by Emily Stokes
• Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 and RTX 2080 Ti Overclocking Guide
• Mapping Africatown: Albert Murray and his Hometown by Nick Tabor and Kern M. Jackson
• Are 'love languages' the key to healthy relationships? Scientists say no.
• 'The Greatest Night in Pop' review: Netflix music doc favors fun facts over depth
• A Show Trial that No One Watched
• Making of a Poem: Michael Bazzett on “Autobiography of a Poet” by Michael Bazzett

• Tesla Roadster should come in 2023, Elon Musk says
• LinkedIn says it's killing Stories. Yes, LinkedIn had Stories.
• Twitter finally launches Super Follows as OnlyFans stumbles
• CDC reports flu season is worsening, as 17 more children die
• Pornhub offers 110 gallons of lube to the city of Philadelphia for its dry pole problem
• I tried living like Tom Brady for a week
• Amazon's Alexa can speak over loud situations with 'adaptive volume'
• Audi's Grandsphere concept car is a dreamy autonomous luxury EV
• School board somehow fails to realize it's being pranked
• 'Candyman' is fantastic, but you'll need to see it fives times: Review

• Shrinking the President
• Scientists are catching sea turtles 'rodeo style' for an important reason
• Yelp introduces AI
• SpaceX's most recent rocket landing looks so sci
• Whitewash
• Making of a Poem: Kyra Wilder on “John Wick Is So Tired” by Kyra Wilder
• Best home security deal: Get the eufy Security
• “The British Male!”: On Martin Amis by The Paris Review
• Tragic Kingdom
• Shadow Canons: Danzy Senna and Andrew Martin Recommend by The Paris Review

• Tom Hanks: Typewriter Fetishist
• Making of a Poem: Kyra Wilder on “John Wick Is So Tired” by Kyra Wilder
• SpaceX's most recent rocket landing looks so sci
• Fun Factory anti
• The Lunatic Face of Fiction
• Americans Abroad by Andrew Martin
• It’s Nineteen Seventy
• Rear Window, Los Feliz by Claudia Ross
• Raise Your Hand
• Rick Perry regrets calling for abolishment of Energy Department