Christian Pastor Asks Cross-Dresser to Leave Church

A Christian minister earned both praise and criticism for asking a cross-dressing member of the congregation to go home and change clothes.

Pastor Antonio Rocquemore of Power House International Ministries in Chicago, Illinois, stopped halfway through his sermon to ask a male attendee, who had come to church dressed as a woman, to leave and come back dressed as a man.

The incident, captured on a parishioner’s cell phone, was posted on Facebook and quickly went viral.

Some people have taken Pastor Rocquemore’s action as an affront to the LBGTQ community; others see it as a matter of upholding the rules of the Christian faith, as understood in the Power House International Ministries church, and by the congregation of that church.

Comments made by other worshippers captured on the video clip suggest that the congregation supported the pastor’s actions.

Rocquemore explained that the man was asked to leave simply because he refused to follow agreed-upon rules of the congregation.

The incident happened during evening services at Power House International Ministries, at 7040 S. Western Avenue in Chicago, on Nov. 11.

Rocquemore stopped half an hour into the service and asked the cross-dressing man to step into the aisle. The pastor then calmly but firmly asked “Can you leave my church and go put on man clothes? And don’t come here like that no more.”

“I hold a standard in here,” Rocquemore continued. “Whatever you do on the outside, that’s your business. But I will not let drag queens come in here.”

“When you come in this house if you’re a man, dress like a man. If you’re a woman, you dress like a woman. I’m not going to allow it. My salvation is more important and God is holding me accountable.”

Nothing Personal

Rocquemore again made it clear that he was not concerned with how the man dressed at any other time.

“Now, whatever you do outside these doors, I don’t bash, I don’t judge,” Rocquemore stated. “But when you come in here, you will not be a drag queen.

“The Holy Ghost tells me in my spirit, if there’s drag queens sitting here with wigs on, I am going to ask you to be removed from the sanctuary. I will not play this game.”

Several parishioners responded “Amen.”

“If you don’t like it, don’t come here,” the pastor continued. “You will not be wearing weaves and heels and fooling people up in here. Whatever you do on the outside is between you and God. You can dress drag, all day. But you’ve gotta respect the rule of the house.”

Rocquemore said explicitly that he didn’t personally condemn homosexuals.

“I don’t do no bashing, because everybody is struggling with something,” the pastor said. “But what I’m not going to do is allow you to disrespect the House of God.”

The person who posted the video on Facebook, Christian James Lhuillier, strongly criticized the pastor.

“In a place that is supposed to be a place of change, a place of deliverance, whatever you want to call it, why would you destroy someone in front of a room full of people?” Lhuillier wrote.

The video brought about lively debate on whether the pastor was within his right to expel the man. Many said he should not have been outed in a public setting.

“I think a lot of people on here should take the time to read their Bibles,” said one Facebook user. “But don’t get me wrong I don’t believe that it was necessary to kick the Young man out of church especially the way he went about it because the Bible also says that we are to love our fellow brother maybe he could have put him to the side and talked to him about it.”

Agreed-Upon Standards

In a one-hour Facebook Live broadcast on Nov.12, Rocquemore explained that the parishioner in question, elsewhere identified as Antwan Haywood, was a full member of Powerhouse International Ministries who had been attending for some time.

Further, the pastor explained, he had asked Hayward not to dress in drag in church several times already.

“This young man was told several times, in private,” not to come to church in drag, Rocquemore said in the live video.

“I told him, ‘Whatever you do outside the church, all I can do pray for you outside the church,’” the pastor said. “’But when you come into the House of God, there’s certain things we just don’t allow. It’s a rule. [As a male,] you cannot dress like a female.’”

Rocquemore said in the Facebook broadcast, that although Haywood had agreed, he kept coming back to church in drag.

The pastor said that the rules of the church were clearly explained to every member of the church when they joined, and every member, having joined voluntarily, was expected to uphold those rules voluntarily.

“You are not going to break the rules at your job,” Rocquemore said. “Why would you break them in the House of God?”

In his speech in the church on Nov. 11, Rocquemore mentioned that many churches had different rules, that many of them would readily accept transvestite worshippers. Powerhouse International Ministries, he said, do not.

He pointed out that this was not a matter of political correctness or social acceptance—he had to uphold the understanding of Christian faith that he held, and his congregation expected no less of him.

The pastor also explained that there was a dress code for all members of the church—men and women—and all members were expected to comply. Other members had been asked to leave in the past, the pastor explained, for not dressing appropriately.

Rocquemore also said that if the man in question returned to church dressed in men’s clothing, he would be welcome.