Hate Group Leader Gordon Klingenschmitt Elected to Colorado House
Former Navy chaplain Gordon Klingenschmitt, who calls himself “Dr. Chaps” and claims he exorcises demons out of LGBT people, is now a state legislator in Colorado Springs, Colo.—part of a landslide of Republic wins during last Tuesday’s election.
Klingenschmitt captured nearly 70 percent of the vote in the heavily Republican District located in El Paso County, on the eastern side of Colorado Springs.
But Klingenschmitt isn’t your usual conservative.
He heads up the Pray in Jesus Name Project, which is listed by the Southern Poverty Law Center as an anti-LGBT hate group. Klingenschmitt himself is perhaps best-known for his attempts to exorcise demons out of various people (including President Obama), as well as his numerous false claims and bizarre statements about homosexuality.
They include:
- Alleging that he performed an exorcism on a lesbian soldier who was a rape victim who had come to him for counseling after the assault. According to Klingenschmitt, “…I looked into her eyes as she began to weep and I said ‘you foul spirit of lesbianism, this woman has renounced you, come out of her in Jesus' name’ and she began to wrestle with that and suddenly her eyes began to bug out and then she began to weep, and weep, and weep as the Holy Spirit forgave her sins.”
- Claiming that LGBT people may sexually abuse their own children and “crave” to adopt the children of heterosexual people for “recruitment” into homosexuality.
- Stating that LGBT people “have something nonhuman inside of them.”
- Defending Russia’s draconian anti-LGBT laws, saying, “I think it should be illegal to recruit minors into homosexual sin.” He went on to say, “If you’re recruiting children into sin, Jesus says you should have the death penalty.”
- Suggesting that Christian photographers should print anti-LGBT scripture verses on the backs of their business cards and, if they photograph a same-sex wedding, the backs of photographs, including Romans 1:32, which he claims says that LGBT people are “worthy of death."
- Sending out an email in which he asserted that “Democrats like [openly gay Colorado congressman Jared] Polis want to bankrupt Christians who refuse to worship and endorse his sodomy. Next he’ll join ISIS in beheading Christians, but not just in Syria, right here in America.” He was denounced roundly by both Democratic and Republican leaders, including former house minority leader Mark Waller, whose seat Klingenschmitt sought in the election.
- Claiming that the Obama administration is trying to drive all Christians out of the military and is stockpiling armored personnel carriers and ammunition to use against them.
- Writing a book in which he says President Obama is ruled by at least fifty different evil spirits.
“In my opinion,” retired Republican state senator Andy McElhany told the Colorado Springs Independent, “Klingenschmitt has no business in public office because he’s more than extreme.”
The voters of Colorado's House District 15, however, appear to think differently.
