Radical Baptist church preaches LGBTQ hate just miles from California's Capitol

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Pastor Roger Jimenez implored his congregation at Verity Baptist Church to separate themselves from the ways of a modern, wicked world.

Burn your Harry Potter books. Trash your rock 'n' roll CDs. Don't vaccinate your babies. Stay away from gay people.

"The United States of America is on a rainbow-colored boat, and we've gotta shake that boat up," Jimenez said.

Speaking to some 400 people in an overflow crowd that included dozens of young children staring intently at Bibles and giggling when pastors yelled, Jimenez was met with shouts of "Amen!" and "Let 'er rip!"

Here in the capital of the state that is the vanguard for the so-called liberal resistance, parishioners gathered last month for the Red Hot Preaching Conference, featuring some of the most virulently anti-gay pastors in the country. Jimenez started the conference in 2016 after gaining national notoriety for praising the mass shooting of 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla.

The conference's seven preachers are part of a network of about 30 churches called