Episcopalian Leopold Frade had some strong words for the president during a recent speech about immigration — “stop being a sodomite,” to be specific.
WLRN reported Friday that Frade, bishop of southeast Florida, uttered the phrase during a speech condemning American immigration policy.
“It is horrible to see the people being deported, being separated from their children, being separated from the people that they love because we have insisted on not doing what we need to do as a country,” he said, speaking outside Trinity Cathedral in Miami.
“He has been the president that has deported more people than even Bush did!” Frade continued. “And I am asking President Obama to stop being a sodomite! I want him to stop being a sodomite!”
Frade explained that he was referencing the Old Testament Book of Ezekiel. “This was the sin of your sister Sodom,” he read. “She and her towns, they felt very proud of all the abundance that they had, all the food they have, enjoying all their comfort. But they never help the poor and needy. They became proud and they committed things that I detest.” (RELATED: Catholic Bishops Encourage Obama’s Executive Action)
Frade, who was born in Cuba and previously served as bishop of Honduras, is progressive even by Episcopalian standards. In 2012 he decided to allow priests in his diocese to bless same-sex couples, having campaigned against Florida’s Amendment 2, a state constitutional amendment defining marriage as between one man and one woman, a few years prior. He also backed the consecration of the Episcopal Church’s first openly gay bishop, Gene Robinson, in 2003.
Sodomy is typically understood to refer to anal sex.