The sermon is being assessed by a regulator as the church said it taught ‘the historic Christian position on gender and sexuality’Dan Haygarth Liverpool Daily Post Editor and Regeneration Reporter
04:00, 02 Aug 2025
Speke Baptist Church at the Noah’s Centre in Speke, Liverpool(Image: Liverpool Echo)
The Charity Commission is assessing the contents of a sermon delivered at a Liverpool church. Speke Baptist Church, based at Noah’s Ark Centre on Ganworth Road, was reported to the regulator after Pastor Stephen Casey delivered a sermon called “The World’s Biggest Problem”, in which he appeared to say homosexuality was a “degrading perversion”.
Speke Baptist Church is a registered charity and Mr Casey is listed among its trustees. The sermon was uploaded to YouTube in September – and remains online at the time of writing – but appears to have been delivered in person to an audience including children. The church told the ECHO the sermon was given nine years ago, and that it teaches the “historic Christian position on gender and sexuality.”
In the sermon, Mr Casey referred to “sexual brokenness” and read Bible passages which appeared to describe homosexuality as a sin. He said that accepting a liberal attitude towards homosexuality was in contrast to the Bible’s messages and encouraged those listening to reject such a view, adding: “you choose to suffer, you choose to sin.”
Regarding the nature of the sermon, the church told the ECHO in a statement: “Like all Bible-believing churches, Speke Baptist Church teaches the historic Christian position on gender and sexuality which churches have believed for 2,000 years. These convictions are held by thousands of churches across the country, through our shared hope that the love of Jesus welcomes all who want to come to Him.”
In the sermon, Mr Casey said: “What we’ve done is we’ve got ourselves in a situation over the last 25 years, through a relentless campaign in the media to reject the biblical understanding of homosexuality. This campaign has started, number one by trying to say homosexuality is natural – it’s natural despite the glaring anatomical evidence to the contrary.
“Second of all, it’s decent – so there’s no sordidness that goes with it. Third, it is normal, despite the fact there are such tiny proportions, despite what some of the cooked up in the ‘60s figures and twisted studies demonstrate. The proportions are tiny in all societies and at all times in the world.
“It’s interesting here isn’t it, these verses focus on the fact to say it’s not natural, it’s not decent and it’s not normal.
“Here’s the problem if you’re anything like me – if we want to immediately embrace the narrative of our society, if we want to lovingly say ‘hold on, we’ve understood that people feel very crushed by this temptation they face’.
“The answer isn’t to say it’s natural, it’s decent, it’s normal, the answer is to say this is a picture no better or worse, this is a big signpost to all of us that we desperately need Jesus. If we say that in the public domain, we will be viewed and declared homophobic, ignorant and evil.”
Mr Casey claimed that young people have been made to feel “ignorant and evil” if they do not accept homosexuality. He went on to say that gay people are choosing to “suffer” and “sin”.
Appearing to address young people, he said: “In fact some of you in your classrooms, and I feel for you youngsters here, when this has come up as a debate in class, have been made to feel ignorant and evil – haven’t you?
“Because you won’t agree with the cultural narrative that we’ve been given in the last 25 years or so. The painful part is that, well it’s the end of verse 27 there, ‘and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion’.”
He continued: “The punishment for sin is found in the sin. We’ve said it this way before: you choose to suffer, you choose to sin, which is to go against God’s pattern and to shake in his face and to say ‘I’ll do it my way’.
“You chose to sin, you are choosing to suffer. People sometimes through good motives and compassion have said it – pretend it’s not a sin. Pretend it’s not a sin, tell people it’s not a sin, get in the face of anybody who says it’s a sin and it’ll all be alright and you’ll take away the emotional trauma, the mental pain, the torturous effects of pursuing those things, those addictions, those sexual addictions, you’ll take it away and everything will be alright.
“Although we’ve now got legally sanctioned gay marriage, the reality is that there are so many people in our country who don’t feel any peace about this.
“They’re still struggling because diving into a sin and saying it’s ok doesn’t remove the internal damage that that does. In the same way that anger messes the angry person up and greed messes the greedy person up.
“Sexual perversion, like all addiction, messes the person up. God has given us over to sexual brokenness, he’s given us over to degrading perversions, despite the fact they’re so against nature, and then he’s given us over finally, to relational explosion.”
Regarding the sermon, National Secular Society spokesperson Alejandro Sanchez said: “This is just the latest example of a religious charity spreading vicious homophobia. Any suggestion it is acting in the public benefit is utterly farcical.”
A Charity Commission spokesperson told the ECHO: “We are assessing concerns raised about a sermon at Speke Baptist Church to determine if there is a regulatory role for us.”
Speke Baptist Church’s trustees told the ECHO: “Thanks for being in touch with us at Speke Baptist Church. The sermon highlighted by the National Secular Society was preached nine years ago, not in September 2024. We have been a registered charity for decades and simply amended our Governance structure in May.
“We have never had any failures in our charity reporting and fulfil all our objectives as laid down in Charity Commission legislation. In terms of public benefit, our inclusive welcome is lauded in our community by the countless people who have been helped through our provision of addiction support groups, a food bank, a community café, space for various community groups, community activities for all stages of life, as well as welfare advice for housing and benefit claimants.
“Like all Bible-believing churches, Speke Baptist Church teaches the historic Christian position on gender and sexuality which churches have believed for 2,000 years. These convictions are held by thousands of churches across the country, through our shared hope that the love of Jesus welcomes all who want to come to Him.
“Hence, we extend a warm welcome to all to bring their own beliefs and questions, and join us to explore for themselves the Christian hope we offer to our community.”