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| Pastor Anderson of the Faithful Word Baptist Church. Preacher of hate. |
In a stunning example of the yawning chasm that has opened up between fundamentalist American Christianity and what is considered normal, civilised standards of behaviour, the Irish government has banned an American preacher from entering the country because of the hateful and socially unacceptable nature of the opinions he spouts from the pulpit.
The Irish Minister for Justice and Equality, Charlie Flanagan, signed an exclusion order to stop Pastor Steven L Anderson entering Ireland after learning that he had publicly prayed for President Obama's death, celebrated the Orlando massacre of 48 people in a gay bar and called for the death of all homosexuals.
Doctrinal Statement
We believe that the King James Bible is the word of God without error.
We believe that salvation is by grace through faith. Being born again by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ is the only requirement for salvation.
We believe in the eternal security of the believer (once saved, always saved).
We believe in baptism by immersion in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. We reject sprinkling, pouring, and "Jesus only" baptism.
We believe that the unsaved will spend eternity in torment in a literal hell.
We believe that Jesus is God, and that Jesus Christ was conceived of the Holy Ghost and born of the virgin Mary. We believe that the Godhead consists of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and that these three are one (1 John 5:7). The Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are three distinct persons (John 1:1, 1 Corinthians 15:27-28, John 8:16-18, John 17:5). This doctrine is commonly known as the trinity. We reject the heresy of modalism or so-called "oneness."
We believe only in the local church and not in a universal church.
We reject the teaching of Calvinism and believe that God wants everyone to be saved.
We believe that the rapture will take place after the tribulation but before God pours out his wrath on this earth. We reject dispensationalism.
We believe that life begins at conception (fertilization) and reject all forms of abortion including surgical abortion, "morning-after" pills, IVF (In Vitro Fertilization), birth control pills, and all other processes that end life after conception.
We believe that homosexuality is a sin and an abomination which God punishes with the death penalty.
We oppose worldliness, modernism, formalism, and liberalism.
Faithful Word Baptist Church statement of dogma
[My emphasis]
[My emphasis]
We are a local New Testament church reaching the Phoenix area with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Don't expect anything contemporary or liberal. We are an old-fashioned, independent, fundamental, King James Bible only, soul-winning Baptist church.
Faithful Word Baptist Church is a young, family-integrated church. We would love to get to know you personally at one of our services!
Forgetting to add, "unless you're gay, then we'd rather you were dead. In fact, we'd love to kill you!". The website has the customary 'Donate' button prominently displayed so like-minded bigots can help pay for these hate messages and demonization and victimization of minorities for Jesus. It also boasts that Anderson's hate messages have been translated into 116 languages.
The selection of sermons, almost all by Anderson, in addition to regular denunciations of other Christian churches which are all irredeemably evil (nothing to do with being business rivals, of course) include one on false witnessing and a selection of hate preaching such as "We are NOT Orlando" where killing gays is extolled, "Purging out the Scum", "People who are Trash", "Iceland: Nation of Bastards", "The Homo Agenda vs Reality" and "Queer Sounding Music & Skinny Jeans", and predictably, one on how to physically and mentally abuse children - "The Rod & Reproof Give Wisdom".
Anderson is also a Holocaust denier.
In his church's statement of doctrine, he regards IVF (sic) and contraception as forms of abortion, since, so he claims, they end life after conception.
Ireland is the latest civilised nation to ban Anderson who has also been banned from entering the UK, South Africa, Canada and Jamaica, and was deported from Botswana in 2016.
The Irish Justice and Equality Minister banned Anderson on the grounds of public policy, under Section 4 of the Immigration Act 1999 after a petition organized by Change.org, attracted 14,000+ signatures. He had been due to deliver a sermon in Dublin on May 26.
The chasm between Anderson's brand of Bible-based hate and the values of a civilised society can been seen in the recent rejection of Catholic teaching in Ireland, with huge majorities in referenda to legalise same-sex marriage, to decriminalise abortion and to remove the law against blasphemy from the statute books.
The scandals of abuse by Catholic priests and nuns and the complicity of the Catholic establishment in these abuses, has catapulted Ireland from a devoutly Catholic society where the church interfered freely in all aspects of public and private life, to a secular, open, inclusive society willing to embrace and celebrate alternative lifestyles and sexuality and a woman's right to control over her own body.
Ireland, like most of Europe, is leaving religion behind and moving on. The casual victimization of minorities that was once regarded as mainstream Christian dogma is now regarded as repugnant, hateful and antisocial. To the once deeply conservative Ireland, illiberal American fundamentalist Christianity is now as deeply repugnant as it is elsewhere in Europe and the rest of the civilised world. Tweet
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