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Pastor Steven L. Anderson
It is not all that uncommon to hear about how some fundamentalist Muslim group has called for the death of someone. In fact, there are quite a few people who are forced to live with security details because they said or did something that some Muslim cleric considered worthy of death. We hear of these types of “Fatwas” all the time in the Muslim world; but what about in the Christian world?
As it turns out, Pastor Steven Anderson of Faithful Word Baptist Church in Arizona is calling for kind of Fatwa of his own. In a sermon delivered on Sunday, August 16th, Pastor Anderson claimed to “hate Barack Obama.” He clarified that he doesn’t just hate his politics, or what he stands for, but that he hates the man himself and that “God hates Barack Obama” too. He goes on to say that because Obama is pro-choice, he deserves the death penalty. He claimed that Obama needs to be “punished.” Pastor Anderson even went as far to say that “Obama ought to be aborted.”
Now some people may claim that this is just hate speech and not actually a call to violence, but Pastor Steven Anderson would disagree. According to him, the purpose of his sermon was not to just “tickle your ears but to give you a swift kick in the pants.” He goes on to say that “God is a god of wrath and vengeance” and that he, Steven Anderson, is going to “pray for Barack Obama to die and go to Hell.”
“I’m a preacher, and so I am preaching to you what the Bible says, tonight.” He closes his sermon with a prayer that Barack Obama “melt like a snail,” a reference to a theme he hit on throughout his hour long sermon in which he claimed that the Bible says that evil people should melt like a snail. He also used that reference in relation to abortion.
In fairness, Anderson also said that he viewed former President Bush in the same way. But it should be noted that he never gave an hour long sermon calling for Bush’s death. If he had, there is little doubt that the then Vice-President would have had him be arrested and water-boarded.
Anderson’s sermon wouldn’t have made any headlines except that the day after he delivered his fiery sermon, one of his parishioners showed up at an Obama town hall event with an assault rifle and a pistol. Chris Broughton claimed that he was not planning on using the weapons, but was simply exercising his right to bear arms. Is that kind of excuse something we should take seriously? What if someone put a gun to your head and said that they hated you, thought you were working for the devil, and think that you deserve death. But when the police came, he told them, “Officer, I wasn’t going to use my loaded weapon, I was just exercising my right to bear arms.”
The fact that Pastor Anderson is inciting this type of behavior and violence is appalling. But is it criminal? That I don’t know. But I do know that Pastor Anderson will claim that he is just preaching the divine word of God right out of the Bible… and he isn’t far off with that claim. While the Bible obviously doesn’t mention our President by name, Anderson makes a compelling Biblical case in his sermon. As much as we want to label him as some extreme radical who is distorting the Bible, I am not sure we can just dismiss his sermon so easily. I would like to hear what some other pastors have to say about Anderson’s interpretation without simply labeling him a wacko. While Pastor Steven Anderson has incited Chris Broughton to bring loaded weapons to the President’s speech, the Bible is what has incited Pastor Anderson.
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Comments
Can't church's loose their tax exempt status for this type of thing?
As the father of time i'd stay that there is a force between good and evil.,. Ignorance
Please have some other pastor/priest speak out against this guy. Any one of them who claims they can't be blamed for their religion is full of it if they think he's "reading the bible wrong" or whatever their pathetic excuse is. It's the least they can do, especially if they don't like being lumped in the same group as the hate mongers.
"He makes a compelling Biblical case..." Compelling?! To whom???
He wasn't compelling to me when he called for the execution of gays. You should be ashamed.
Nelson, I don't believe in the Bible, so of course I don't think gays should be executed. But if someone did believe in the Bible, how would they argue against this Pastor's interpretation? I am not sure they would have a BIBLICAL case. Many pastors would of course have a moral case and they should, but not a biblical case. From a Biblical case, this man makes a compelling argument. I reject the Bible, so it isn't compelling to me either.
AtheistBill: he isn't breaking the tax exempt law because he said that he doesn't support Bush either. He is non-partisan.
There is no right to 'bare' arms. However, there is a right to bear arms. I would have thought that one who is such an ardent proponent of free speech would know about and defend our other liberties with equal zeal.
There is also a massive qualitative difference between carrying arms, which the second amendment to the U.S. Constitution clearly affords, and holding a gun to someone's head. They are not equal situations and therefore you cannot disqualify this man's second amendment rights because of this slippery slope situation you’ve invented.
Nor can his second amendment rights be denied because he exercised his right to assemble and he heard someone speak. He may be targeted for surveillance, and should he make any movement seen as threatening the police certainly may take any step necessary to prevent harm to the general public.
Threatening someone is illegal. Carrying a weapon is constitutional.
Myles, I am afraid you are a sloppy reader. You should read the Second Amendment more carefully. If this guy was organizing a well regulated militia, than I would agree that he has the right to bear arms. But instead, he was taking an assault rifle into a crowd in close proximity to the President. You are aware of course that when Bush was President he had people arrested for wearing the wrong t-shirts in close proximity to his speaking engagements, right? Could you imagine if some left wing liberal came to a Bush speech with an assault rifle wearing a t-shirt that said, "The tree of liberty needs to be watered with the blood of tyrants" on it? Cheney would have that commie water-boarded so fast it wouldn't even make the news.
You repeatedly commit the fallacy that viewpoints which do not agree with you are necessarily those of the opposite camp. As if you can only think in binaries. If I need to put my credentials out on the laundry line for you, it might interest you to know that I am not a supporter of President Bush or Vice-President Cheney. With argument and writing skills such as that, it’s no surprise you write for examiner.com.
That being said - “A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”
There is no compelling grammatical evidence making the second clause dependent on the first clause.
In general, the letter, spirit, and intent of the U.S. Bill of Rights is oriented for more restriction of government, not more restriction of private citizens, and interpretations should follow that guideline.
Finally, the phrase “the right of the People” is used in three places in the Bill of Rights: the first, second, and fourth. This phrase clearly marks these as extremely important restrictions on the federal government, and rights which are extended to the entire population as fundamental and irrevocable.
You'll find an excellent book-length biblical response to Anderson's thinking in Gary North's book, Lone Gunners for Jesus, available online. Google "lone gunners for Jesus tyler texas" without quote marks.
"While Pastor Steven Anderson has incited Chris Broughton to bring loaded weapons to the President’s speech, the Bible is what has incited Pastor Anderson." How do you know Broughton was incited by Pastor Anderson? You don't! This is how "journalist" today spread falsehoods as truths.
I'm no lawyer, nor have I taken the time to look this up. (If I'm just be repeating an urban legend, please correct me.) I thought it was treason to seriously talk about killing the President. If so, wouldn't that put this pastor on shaky ground (religious freedom vs. committing treason)? Or does it only cross the line to treason once planning and/or execution (no pun intended) of a specific course of action start (thus keeping the 'talk about it' part under 1st amendment protection)?
I seriously hope the Secret Service is keeping an eye on this "pastor" and his followers.
And this is Christianity? This minister needs to go on a long sabbatical. I will give him credit for not wearing a hood and a white sheet when he gave his sermon?
This is getting scary, the hate and disrespect for our "BLACK PRESIDENT" I believe in God, my god is loving and forgiving. I'm white and I'm so ashame
Minister's Daughter & Ashamed: That is great to hear that you both disagree with this man, but Biblically speaking, is he wrong? If so, how so? It is too easy to just write him off because we disagree, but I am looking to know why we disagree.
We can't just call racism either, since he said the same thing about Bush (who is white) and he has a black parishioner who brought an ASSAULT RIFLE to the President's town hall meeting.
I am a Christian as well as ashamed and Minister's daughter. I know that God is both a peaceful God, and a very vengeful one as well. However, God specifically and repeatedly calls killing a sin and forbids it. Yes, He does allow it, but only when it is neccessary in order to preserve Christianity. He does NOT approve of any other form of killing, and forbids it in several verses such as Exodus 20:13; Deuteronomy 5:17; and 1 Timothy 1:9. He also deems premeditated murder and murder out of hatred as a sin (Exodus 21:14 and Numbers 35:20-21 respectively). What Anderson has done is a disgrace in the name of Christianity. The Bible teaches that we should not hate, but love, and Anderson seems to be doing a lot of hating for no particular reason that i see. He even went as far as to have the audacity to say that God hates Barrack Obama Himself. While not everything Obama has done has been beneficial to America, the man is still trying to do his best, something that God would deem agreeable.
As to how Anderson's sermon got a follower to walk into a crowd of people at the President's speech with loaded weaponry, anyone can get a follower to do that. Catholic priests drew hundreds of Christian's into killing Muslim's and other non-believing nations in the Crusade's all the time: and all by twisting the word of God to make it acceptable. Now, while i did say that God deemed it appropriate to kill the enemies of Christianity when it was neccessary (like the Catholics and Protestants believed during the Crusade's) what Anderson is suggesting is in NO WAY appropriate in GOd's standards. It embarasses me as a Christian to think that this man wants our president dead because of petty hatred. This is why many people turn from Christianity and mock it today because of people who abuse the Word of God in instances like this. I can only hope that other people, pastors and theologians and other Christians with more expereiance than a teenager like myself, will be able to redeem our religion after this flop.
Thanks so much for mentioning this. I am getting increasingly scared about these people and you presented the material in a completely fair manner. Props.
This Paster is seriously need help, He is crazy
Jesus is all about love and kindness. This Paster is all about hate and to have him teaching Bible the book of love and faith is totally wrong.
Bare arms - skin. Bear arms - with weapon.
This man is a very sick individual..He is not a true christian.The bible teaches us to love not hate...Talk about taking scriptures out of context.He really needs help
The pro-lifers, christians, stevie: based on their belief of hatred for those who believe in abortion wouldn't mind a little girl being raped and forced to produce two children by a captor and forced to raise the product of her innocents all under the guise that god forbids abortion.
J - I don't know why you think that the Bible is all about love, but this guy has quoted several verses and talked about their context. So if he is biblically wrong, please present your reasoning. Just because you don't like what he says (and neither do I) that doesn't mean we can just dismiss his reasoning which as I said incited him to give this sermon.
I like how you tagged this article under the "Religious Right." This guy clearly stated that he thought Bush was a socialist. This preacher is NOT a Republican or conservative: he is crazy. But do I really expect an article by a Godless writer to be impartial? No, of course not.
This preacher sounds exactly like Obama's preacher: Rev Wright. Both are hateful, crazy, and heavily misinformed about the Bible.
stak, everything comes from my heart and its not only him its all of them...the republican party, the hate is so strong for PRESIDENT OBAMA and like I said "I"M WHITE AND ASHAME" I believe in a loving and forgiving GOD.
Sean & Trish - It seems that everyone is claiming that this Preacher is crazy and leaving it at that. While he maybe crazy, that is not a reason to dismiss his Biblical interpretation. It is easy to claim that the Bible is about love, but Pastor Anderson has bible verses to back up his claim of the opposite. If he is distorting the meaning of those verses, show me how? He lays out a pretty strong "biblical" case for his views. You have not. How is he wrong Biblically????
Sean - just because this man isn't a Republican doesn't mean that he is not Right Wing. In fact, he is more Right Wing than most Republicans. Pastor Anderson is certainly religious too. So logically, he is Religious Right.
there are people that are very foolish, so far hes reading from the old texts, god love all he my not love there ways which is sin,in the old text there was alot of war king david was a man of war, god himself help the hebrews in war,but god hated there sinful ways. the ways of sin is death. but we as a people need jesus and jesus is love, and to have that love you must be born again act 2:38. now thats the turth. we need the holyghost the power god, tongue talking holy walk.
A Pastor? I say Satan! With the followers he has he can easily create a cult. I ask that the law watches this man very closely. He is a very bad man and I know God will agree with me.
That is not the Spirit Of God.
I have to point out I could only stomach 1/2 of this. It is very easy to pull Bible verses out of context and preach messages of hate. Does God hate sin? Without a doubt. When you look at the Bible as a whole, it's message is one of love and redemption. Did David pray for the destruction of evil and evil men in the Psalms? Certainly. In the 33 minutes I listened, not once did I hear anything about Jesus and His purpose for dying on the cross. Or how Christ said about those who crucified Him "Father forgive them, they know not what they do." I never heard Romans 13 brought up which tells us to respect our government because God has established them for His purpose. 1 Timothy tells us to pray for kings and those in high places. Yet this man says we should not. He mentioned there are those who don't have a chance for redemption because they have gone too far. He probably would have said that about the greatest writer of the new testament, Paul, who killed Christians before his conversion.
it was mentioned about the assault rifle. There are a few states that do allow public carrying of guns, so that is a right given by the state, there were other town hall meetings where guns were brought because people want to be noticed and heard and fear we may have legislation against the 2nd amendment. You asked for Biblical arguments against what this man said, I mentioned a couple in a previous post. It is easy in a country like ours to say "I'm a Christian" since we have a Christian heritage, but just saying it doesn't make one so. People were first called Christians by others because they were so Christ-like. I wish we went back to that and established who Christians were by other's opinions, not what we think of ourselves. I do identify myself as a follower of Christ and I hope my life reflects one worthy of being called a Christian, but I'll let others decide that for me, thanks for the opportunity to respond. Peace to all of you reading this
Anderson is a really horrible man. He is indicative of everything that is wrong with this country. Sadly, though, he is only going where religion naturally ends up - with hatred. Religion ruins everything it touches.
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