A Tempe church has been labeled a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, and after speaking with the church's pastor this morning, we have a pretty good idea why.
Pastor Steven Anderson, the leader of the Faithful Word Baptist Church, is no stranger to controversy. He recently made headlines for saying he was praying for the death of President Barack Obama, and, just this morning, told New Times he thinks the government should put homosexuals to death.
"I don't think I'm a hateful person -- I'm a happy, positive person," Anderson tells New Times."I hate certain people."
At the top of Anderson's list of hate seems to be homosexuals.
After rambling off a passage from Leviticus, Anderson told us he thinks "the government should put [homosexuals] to death."
He says the bible dictates that homosexuals should be killed, but, he's too much of a pussy to do it himself as
a law abiding citizen, he isn't about to practice any biblical
vigilantism by doing it himself.
As for his church's new classification, he says, "I think the Southern
Poverty Law Center is a hate group because they hate and demonize
Christians... am I going to go around and say I love every child
molester, rapist, and homosexual? Of course not."
Anderson says any "hate" he preaches comes from the bible, not him.
Way to pass the buck, brah.
He says he preaches the literal interpretations of the bible, which many consider to be hateful.
"We're not like a lot of churches that pass over a lot of the stuff
that's in the bible. We preach the whole thing," he says. "It's not that
I'm standing up there three times a week preaching nothing but hate."
Who knows, he may be right -- but wishing cancer on a sitting American
president and proposing that the government murder homosexuals seems
to overshadow any message of "peace, love, and charity" his sermons may contain. Not to mention, he's a raving fucking lunatic.
