Pastor calls for killing gays to end AIDS
Tram Mai, KPNX-TV, Phoenix6:24 a.m. EST December
5, 2014
A
pastor in Tempe, Arizona preached that if all "gays" were killed, the
AIDS epidemic would be fixed. VPC
(Photo: 12 News)
PHOENIX — A recent
anti-homosexual Sunday sermon by Pastor Steven Anderson of Faithful Word
Baptist Church in Tempe has gotten tens of thousands of views on YouTube. In
it, Anderson declares that no "queers" or "homos" are
allowed in the church, and never will be as long
as he's pastor.
He goes on to say
killing gays is the way to an AIDS-free world by Christmas.
Two Phoenix-area
pastors who were familiar with Anderson, say what they saw in the video was
more hate than anything.
"I see a lot of
drama," said Pastor Vernon Meyer with Sun Lakes United Church of Christ.
"That's very offensive when he says 'homo'."
Anderson does more
than use the disparaging term. In his sermon, he stated: "All homos are
pedophiles. There, I said it, they're all pedophiles."
"He's a
liar," Meyer said.
"I do not view
him as a pastor," said Jeffrey Dirrim of Rebel & Divine United Church
of Christ. "That's not what he's doing." In the video, Anderson cites
a Bible passage he says is the "cure" for AIDS:
"Here's what the Bible says, Leviticus 20:13, 'If
a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have
committed an abomination. They shall surely be put to death. Their blood shall
be upon them.' And that, my friend, is the cure for AIDS. It was right there in
the Bible all along."
His message is that killing gays is a divinely
sanctioned way to rid the world of AIDS.
"Because if you executed the homos, like God
recommends, you wouldn't have all this AIDS running rampant," Anderson
said on the video.
Meyer says Anderson is misinterpreting the Bible and
compares Anderson to a terrorist leader.
"That's no different than what ISIS is doing in
Iraq and Syria," Meyer said. "God tells them to go kill anybody who's
different from them."
This isn't the first time Anderson has created
controversy. Five years ago, when President Obama visited Phoenix, the Baptist
pastor said a Bible passage about how King David prayed against his enemies
(Psalms 109:9-10) tells him he should hate the president.
"It's very difficult to listen to," Dirrim
said. "I cannot identify with him whatsoever as a minister."
As an openly gay pastor himself, Dirrim works with
lesbian, gay, transgender and bisexual youths who have been suicidal, homeless
and hungry, rejected simply because they're gay.
"Words are powerful, and I have no doubt those
words are going to kill someone," he said of Anderson's sermon.
Dirrim's message to those Anderson is targeting:
"Someone cares about them, and that they're loved and they shouldn't listen
to this hateful rhetoric. This is not church."
Anderson did not return calls seeking comment.
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