KevOnStage Says He Won’t Use Faith as a Reason to Judge LGBTQ+ Community

Comedian KevOnStage is a proud Christian. Many of his fans first discovered him decades ago, performing stand-up routines in churches around the country. But while he may have close ties with many of the principles of the church, he has taken a different position when it comes to the LGBTQ+ community.

Over the weekend, Kev’s stance came under fire after a new interview clip of him went viral. During an appearance on former NFL star Cam Newton’s “Funky Friday” podcast, Kev discussed his efforts to support other up-and-coming comics, his TV projects, and more. But he also explained why he wouldn’t allow his faith to make him hate gay people. Instead, he said he felt it was his responsibility as a believer to lead with love and let that curiosity inspire people to explore his faith.

To make his point, he explained how, at one of his old churches, he witnessed his brother slowly move from the back row to the front, eventually becoming a deacon due to the love and acceptance he received from the members there. Kev explained that his brother did what most believers would describe as sinful behavior, sleeping around and having children out of wedlock. Despite all of that, the love from the churchgoers helped him get his life on the right track.

“Eventually, my brother was the Superintendent of the Sunday School, because people loved him from the back of the church to the front—in the midst of sinning this whole time…over years! Sinning this whole time, loved him, made him feel welcomed from the back of the church to the front of the church to eventually the pulpit,” Kev explained.

He then juxtaposed that story of love with a different one, which centered around a “masculine-presenting woman” who most of the members assumed was gay. Unlike the same churchgoers who embraced his brother, they did the exact opposite in this instance, pushing her from the front to the back until she eventually left the church and never came back.

Kev later shared another experience of when he was a youth pastor, and a kid decided to bring one of her openly gay school friends to church. The “Churchy” star shared that the kid came for almost the entire summer until he had one run-in with an elder deacon of the church who openly chastised him for being gay. Kev said the deacon told the child he didn’t need to be there and that he needed to go to the altar for prayer. That experience, coupled with what happened to his brother, led Kev to believe that leading with love and acceptance above all was the more powerful way to live.

“In my life I’ve seen how love and acceptance versus making people feel unaccepted and unloved—that brought one person in and pushed two people out,” Kev said.

Kev stressed that while he wasn’t attacking the church as an institution, his experience has taught him that practicing love and acceptance is the best approach.

He continued: “So for me, in practice with my own eyes—I’m not admonishing the whole church, I’m talking ’bout my churches that I went to with my community. I saw what that was and I’m like ‘I’m going to lead with love because I seen what love can do, right? And if you don’t like that, that’s OK. That’s a ‘you’ thing.”

Kev later broke down what the word “Christian” means, saying: “The word ‘Christian,’ the ‘ian’ in Latin means ‘to be like.’ So ‘Christian’ is ‘to be like Christ.’ To me, my understanding of the Bible…Jesus led with love at every point. At all points.”

He later added, “I think a lot of times, we—we meaning Christians—we want to be the chastisers and the correctors of people. I don’t choose that path. I choose love over and over, partly because the main reason was very personal to me.”

Sadly, once his comments began making the rounds on social media, many believers were taken aback and disappointed in his stance.

“F*ck love in the tense y’all use it. That’s y’all excuse to IGNORE the bible and its principles. Stop calling yourselves Christians, y’all lukewarm cherrypickers. That’s my point,” wrote one user on X/Twitter.

“God didn’t say HATE LGBTQ people/ God doesn’t like sin, the act. He loves the person. Christians are meant to hold one another ACCOUNTABLE. People confuse this with judging. Just like we want others ot be accountable for us. This is also a true act of love. You can lead with love and still hold accountability,” said another on Instagram.

Some even shared their disappointment in the comedian, suggesting that fame had gotten the best of him.

“As soon as they get ‘celebrity’ status this is how they answer to be accepted. Really disappointed in this,” one other user wrote on Instagram.

Added another user in part on IG: The real conversation is about affirmation vs. non-affirmation with Scripture. That’s the actual discussion. That’s the part I’d like to hear @kevonstage speak to more directly.”

That user got exactly what they wanted when Kev decided to respond in a follow-up video in which he says he has no right to judge the actions of others when he’s done things that could be considered questionable himself. But just like his previous words, we’re sure his new response won’t satisfy everyone.

“Let me tell you my approach to Christianity, and this has always been my approach. I don’t correct NOBODY! On nothing!…I don’t correct nobody, I never have,” he said. Even when I was with y’all, 30 years, ‘the gays is wrong, they going to Hell!’ I gave y’all 30 years of condemnation, judgement and persecution…But I never called nobody out. Young Kev, I ain’t call nobody out because I was doing my own sin, I felt guilty, I was out here having the sex! I ain’t feel right calling nobody out knowing good and well, I was doing it in.”

He continued to say that he would rather let his light shine, hoping that people would see it and want to learn more about his faith. Kev added that he doesn’t correct people on things because he’s not as sure that certain things he once believed were sins are sins anymore, including getting tattoos and drinking alcohol. He pointed out in his post that he has two tattoos now and drank the night before.

“I used to be so sure about stuff and plus a lot of people I interact with aren’t even Christians. So I’mma apply something they don’t even profess to believe? Imagine if every other religion, Muslim, Mormon, whatever was like ‘here’s what we believe and you doing wrong if you don’t believe that! ‘Well I never said I was with y’all!’ So I just let me light shine, aight?” he concluded.