MaGa Candidate at Christian Conference Shares Pulpit W/Anti Gay Pastors and A Child Rapist
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| Illinois gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey (R). | YouTube screenshot |
Anti-LGBTQ+ and MAGA Illinois gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey (R) spoke at the recent Signs & Wonders Christian conference alongside homophobic pastors and a self-described ex-gay man who raped two 15-year-old boys.
Bailey — who said in a 2025 interview that schoolchildren should only be taught that marriage is between a man and a woman, previously said that AIDS results from “immoral choices,” and runs a Christian private school that uses curriculum that states “Gay people have no more claims to special rights than child molesters and rapists” — spoke at the conference alongside MAGA pastor and self-proclaimed “prophet” Hank Kunneman of One Voice Ministries.
In December 2025, he claimed that Jesus would approve of using anti-gay slurs. He claimed Jesus referred to the historic King Herod Antipas of Galilee and Perea (the area where Jesus was active during his lifetime) as a “fox,” which Kunneman said was slang for bisexuals.
“I’ve heard some people use the word ‘fag**t,’ that it literally meant to call out Herod’s sexual immorality and lifestyle as a bisexual human being. Jesus involved himself. He was not afraid to speak up!” Kunneman claimed.
Kunneman also made headlines in 2024 when he pushed the right-wing, transphobic lie that students are identifying as cats and using litter boxes in schools. Not only is there absolutely no proof of such a thing ever happening in any school anywhere, but such stories are meant to bias people against transgender individuals and against transgender-inclusive school policies, since they mock the idea of living as one’s authentic self and accommodating trans people’s gender identities. These stories have also led to threats against school officials, adding more to their stress and responsibilities.
Bailey also spoke at the conference alongside Richard Jones, a registered child sex offender who was charged with two counts of sexual assault against 15-year-old male victims in 1990 and 1997, according to the Missouri State Highway Patrol. In 1997, a court sentenced him to be imprisoned for six years over the charge.
Jones’ website now says that he walked away “from sexual addiction and homosexuality,” stating, “Richard also conducts ministry and teaches principles that redeem and restore those struggling in addictive bondage. Much of what Richard has learned in his walk away from sexual addiction and homosexuality has now become an asset in his ministry to others.”
The conference also features Stephen Strader, a pastor who defended President Donald Trump’s June 1, 2020 photograph in front of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C., where he stood and held up a Bible after the area was cleared of protestors with tear gas and other riot control measures. The incident was criticized for the alleged use of excessive force.
“To be honest with you, I’m just glad that the president held up a Bible,” Strader said. “He didn’t hold up a gun. And he did not light up the White House in the rainbow colors [like former President Barack Obama did in June 2015 to commemorate the US Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide] — that is anti-Christian.”
Bailey himself has refused to say whether he supports Trump’s baseless claim that the 2020 presidential election was “stolen” from him by an unprecedented national vote rigging conspiracy. Trump and Republicans filed 60 court cases making such allegations in an attempt to overturn the election’s results. Still, all of the cases were thrown out (some by judges whom Trump appointed) due to lack of evidence or lack of legal standing.
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