The Final Solution is back: Christian pastor promotes execution of homosexuals

December 5, 2014 • 10:14 am

Here’s a transcript (via the Daily Kos) of a recent sermon by Pastor Steven Anderson of the Faithful Word Baptist Church in Tempe, Arizona.  The church is in a strip mall, and the good pastor has also prayed for the death of President Obama.

Turn to Leviticus 20:13 because I actually discovered the cure for AIDS. Now this is the cure for AIDS.

And you know, everybody’s talking about “Let’s have an AIDS-free world by 2020. Look, we can have an AIDS-free world by Christmas. Okay, it wouldn’t be totally AIDS-free, but we’d be like 90-some% AIDS-free by Christmas. Okay, here’s what the bible says in 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 — and they’re out spending billions of dollars in research and testing. It’s curable — right there. Because if you executed the homos like God recommends, you wouldn’t have all this AIDS running rampant.

When I post later today about a moronic rant against New Atheists, accusing us of calling for a genocide of Muslims and, indeed, of all believers, just remember that you’ve never heard a New Atheist say anything like the rant above. And the writer of the piece I’ll discuss never mentions a single word about the perfidies of religion, one of which is amply on view in this video.

Now who is militant and strident?

h/t: Diane G

73 thoughts on “The Final Solution is back: Christian pastor promotes execution of homosexuals”

    1. The more frightening possibility is that this is not a “mentally deranged person” — if by that you mean someone who is actually mentally ill. It is instead a mentally deranged viewpoint aided and abetted and to a significant extent created by faith in supernatural truths.

    2. This person is not mentally deranged. He is religious and conservative and evil. Mentally ill people have an excuse for their destructive thoughts and actions.

      1. The riddle is: Pastor Anderson did have a brain disorder or developed one which caused him to espouse and preach twisted religious ideas, how would we know? I think being deranged versus acting deranged is a distinction without a difference. I invoke “he cannot choose otherwise” as well as “hate the belief, not the believer.” I think one’s judgment about his agency either way can’t be made, due to lack of evidence; the common thread is that the God virus is the source of too much hate and harm to ignore, and it is the source of too little social good to justify the bad. It’s uspsetting to know this pastor and others are out there spewing poison, but they appear to be losing more young adults than they are gaining. I get some small consolation from that possibility.

  3. I wonder if anyone walked out. The pastor is obviously out of his hateful mind, but are his followers on board? Or worse, does this form of vile hate-speech attract members? A pastor like this only proves that Christianity is a murderous religion just like Islam. Religion is such a sick moralistic failure.

    1. Well, not quite. This is one truly fringe lunatic. Christians have been duly tamed over the years, at least in the West.

      Now, if by “murderous religion just like Islam” you mean that both their scriptures advocate this kind of violence, then yes. Though I would argue that the Qur’an provides less of a wiggle room for do-gooders to pick and choose congenial passages.

      1. Yeah, I was pissed and using hyperbolic generalizations. I should have bent that bit of the rant more towards the scriptures. But I do think if many Christians had their way (like this a-hole) violence against perceived infidels would become pervasive. When I was young and caught in the contortions of Christianity, many fellow Christians relished the “impending” end-of-days war with Satan and his followers (like atheists, of course). There is a strange and unsettling hunger there. I’ve been out of religion for over 25 years, but people like this pastor make it seem the violent undercurrent has not been tamed enough and actually may be growing.

  4. I suggested in a Facebook post that we should start a pool guessing how many months until this guy is discovered in a “rent boy” or bathroom stall scandal.

    Any takers?

    2. If that’s where his speech is coming from, you’ve got to feel a bit sorry for him. Probably all his life he’s been subjected to people telling him that people who feel the way he does are evil abominations etc. It’s no wonder he’s so screwed up.

      If he’s not G or B, he’s one nasty SOB. Either way, it’s people like him who are the reason the suicide rate in the LGBT community is so high.

      It made me ill not just to hear his sick vitriol, but to hear his congregation laughing away in the background. What a bunch of sickos!

      Of course, they have achieved the society they want in Uganda, where the government is about to implement an even tougher anti-LGBT law than the one that was recently overturned by their Supreme Court as unconstitutional. The laws have been introduced with the encouragement and advice of US fundamentalist religious. Gay people being beaten to death by mobs is a regular occurrence. Outspoken gay people often live in exile in fear for their lives.

      2. Yeah, the titters of laughter got me, too. Many of them knew just by the verse numbers. Must feel warm and fuzzy to be a self-righteous prick like this guy.

        1. Of all the verses to remember, it was those ones. It wouldn’t be so bad if they all concentrated on the nice bits in the Bible that exemplify the kind of god Karen Armstrong insists is the real one. No, it’s the nasty, viscious, murderous bits they know off by heart.

  5. Because if you executed the homos like God recommends, you wouldn’t have all this AIDS running rampant.

    Hey, wait a minute there — did I just see what I thought I did? That’s astonishing.

    Not the part about the execution of “homos” — but that other part, right here:

    … like God recommends …

    Like God recommends? God recommends? RECOMMENDS???

    Not “like God commands” but “like God recommends.”

    And so I suppose the Ten Commandments were really the Ten Suggestions, huh? Yeah, right. Looks like we’ve got one of them liberal, wishy-washy Christians who are afraid to recognize God’s authority and think the Bible is just one of those take-it-or-leave-it-deals with God putting out some helpful, gentle little recommendations. Instead of the Word of God being filled with clear and precise orders, mister.

    Stone the heretic. Stone him, saith the Lord.

    1. “Recommendation” is really the more appropriate word here: it’s not like there are more than a handful of Christians who follow the Bible to the letter.

      1. I would suggest there are none. First of all, the Torah and the rest of the Jewish canon is not for all people, it is for the Jews. If you are not living as a Jew. You can adopt it for your own and make up your own interpretations, sure: Jews do that, too! No one can follow the letter because you can’t treat your slaves a certain way if you don’t have any, you can’t kill every Amalekite you see because they are an imaginary people, and you’re not living in Israel (and those who do live in Israel are not really living in Israel, by some interpretations, because the Jewish State was not founded by Moshiach (the Messiah)).

        BUT IT DOESN’T MATTER – at least not to me, anyway: why should I kvetch over which schmegege shegetz is inconsistent and/or hypocritical about their observance? The observance is a blight, and the path to peace is not following it more completely but ending its control over people’s lives.

        Preacher dude made me grumpy.

    3. You are right, these are mitzvot, commandments, not helpful suggestions. Whether modern Jews have re-interpretations of the language (it’s very easy to take a phrase like “will surely be put to death,” for example, either as God promising he will impose that punishment, or as a warning to the transgressor that things won’t so much be good in his life; liberal Jews deal with it as metaphor and even primitive nonsense to ignore) or ancient Jews acted on it is irrelevant: you’re in 21st Century America now, jerk, and you don’t say who lives and dies and neither does your imaginary friend.

      I kind of want to make a joke about catching him eating a cheeseburger or bacon, or touching his wife during her period, or being in close proximity to any woman not his wife (as you never know, she might be menstruating) and applying the karet of 39 lashes (not 36, because that’s a sacred number) or making him sacrifice a lamb … but I’m sick of this nonsense and it’s not funny anymore.

      If I recall, God’s punishment for hate speech is leprosy. What a lovely thought.

      1. Dudes like this are pretty much disgusted by women, they enslave one (and yes, marriage is female slavery to this guy) only because they believe they are commanded to. I’m sure he has an easy time not having sex with his wife.

        And since you brought it up, the commandments to have no contact with a woman during her period and no sex for seven days afterward actually makes a couple miss some days when sex could result in pregnancy. There are some ultra-orthodox couples with a woman who has a shorter cycle who are infertile because of these restrictions.

        1. only because they believe they are commanded to

          Or, is it that the man has the inclination and the belief provides convenient cover for the behavior?

          I’m sure he has an easy time not having sex with his wife

          LOL. As long as we’re speculating, I’ll suggest there is a good chance the feeling is mutual.

          There are some ultra-orthodox couples with a woman who has a shorter cycle who are infertile because of these restrictions

          They see it as a bug, I see it as a feature. I can’t rejoice though because I fear God and the husband are held blameless and the wife is judged inadequate. Both are victims of a power structure they did not create but they are the ones who suffer for it.

  6. This is just pretty normal stuff if you are unfortunate enough to be around many of these folks. Just as most of us tie our shoes this is reality in almost any of the fundamentalist churches if you dare stop by.

  8. No, no, he just hasn’t heard the Good News of the Ground of Being yet. Some Sophisticated Theologian should get right on that and deliver unto him a word salad.

    1. “No, no, he just hasn’t heard the Good News of the Ground of Being yet. Some Sophisticated Theologian should get right on that and deliver unto him a word salad.”

      Yes, there really should be some sort of Sophisticated Holy Intervention Team. Not sure what they’d say to him since they also won’t directly contradict the beliefs of the faithful, but I’m sure they could espouse their Sophisticated Holy Intervention Team philosophy or something…

      …and maybe some invisible dressing to go with the word salad.

    2. To their credit, the advocates of God as Ground of Being would probably not hesitate to condemn this literalism as a confused and mistaken understanding of God the inscrutable, the ineffable word salad of superlatives and vagueness wedded to dubious analogies.

      To their combined credit and discredit, though, they would probably go on to explain that a proper understanding of God would lead to acknowledging homosexuality as a manifestation of the divine love. To be consistent they ought to just insist that we can’t know anything at all either way.

  10. Karen Armstrong will be along shortly to reassure us that this incitement to mass murder is in no way motivated by religion.

  13. I’m sure the good pastor was speaking metaphorically. From a certain point of view anyway. Like the point of view Reza Aslan has regarding Islam.

    It is interesting how real a metaphor can be when wielded by an expert.

  15. To a man (and it’s pretty much always a man), this bile is spewed by a preacher, at least when it’s captured in a YouTube video making the rounds of lefty and atheist websites, FaceySpaceys and TweetyBooks.

    My question is this: does the frock offer some kind of extra protection, legally, for hate speech? Sure, there’s the fifth amendment and all, but do lay civilians get any kind of heat from the authorities, maybe a howdy from the state police of the FBI? I assume not absent evidence of actual conspiracy or whatever, I just wonder.

  16. When I posted this on Facebook, I had several of my Christian friends rush to inform me that this pastor is simply misinterpreting Leviticus 20:13 or taking it out of context and that he isn’t a true Christian. Their primary argument? God says “Thou Shalt Not Kill” in the 10 commandments.

    1. “When I posted this on Facebook, I had several of my Christian friends rush to inform me that this pastor is simply misinterpreting Leviticus 20:13 or taking it out of context and that he isn’t a true Christian. Their primary argument? God says “Thou Shalt Not Kill” in the 10 commandments.”

      I’ve seen Christians make similar arguments, even though the KJV (and a few others) mistranslates do not murder as do not kill. Clearing killing is fine given that it is directly commanded by god in the OT over and over again.

      1. Shortly after dropping the 10 commandments including “do not kill”, of course, God gave the Israelites title to the holy land, but only on condition that they kill all the Midianites and other current residents. With narrow exceptions like sexual enslavement of young virgin women.

        All the old testament woes were God’s displeasure that various details of the “recommended” ethnic cleansing weren’t thorough enough.

        Well, that’s my take.

        Karen? Reza? Your response?

    2. Their primary argument? God says “Thou Shalt Not Kill” in the 10 commandments.

      Have you tried asking them how they feel about the abomination part and what metaphorical meaning this passage might have?

      Not that facebook necessarily is the best place to discuss such matters with friends. 🙂

      1. Correct me if I’m wrong, but my understanding is that “abomination” is an incorrect translation anyway. The Hebrew word used meant, at the time, “not customary”. Of course, given that probably less than 10% of the population is gay, gay relationships aren’t customary. Read that way, there’s no judgment. And the dying thing then is easily interpreted as the genealogical line dying out, which is a far more likely thing for the “go forth and multiply” so you’ll be the dominant people meme.

        1. If only we could correct their mistake then although we’d have to add the bit about “Thou shalt not kill” immediately after the “they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.” part

          I wonder when the bible is due for an update? 🙂

    3. Seems pretty darned clear to me:

      New International Version
      “‘If a man has sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They are to be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.

      New Living Translation
      “If a man practices homosexuality, having sex with another man as with a woman, both men have committed a detestable act. They must both be put to death, for they are guilty of a capital offense.

      English Standard Version
      If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.

      New American Standard Bible
      If there is a man who lies with a male as those who lie with a woman, both of them have committed a detestable act; they shall surely be put to death. Their bloodguiltiness is upon them.

      King James Bible
      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.

      Not too much word-mincing there.

      Do these same friends disagree with all the other capital offenses in the bible too? How do they know this one is to be specially interpreted?

      1. Jewish Publication Service translation to modern idiom from traditional Hebrew
        And a man who lies with a man as one would with a woman have both committed an abhorrent act; they shall be put to death – their bloodguilt is upon them.

        Pretty airtight, and that is the version used by Reform and Conservative synagogues throughout the U.S., arguably the most LGBT-inclusive major religious sect ever.

        Evidently, the inerrant and absolute Word of God is really just a cafeteria where you pick and choose what you like but you have to tell one other you eat all of it. Meh. That cafeteria sucks anyway.

        1. I once read a letter to the editor from a gay man who insisted that the Bible does not condemn homosexuality (God loves everybody, don’t you know). He explained that this verse is actually a misquotation–it is actually saying that two men should not share a bed that a woman has lain in. Why God would object to that, he didn’t say. And we’re supposed to believe that everyone has been misinterpreting this verse for 3,000 years? Pathetic, the lengths people will go to to cling to their faith.

  17. On the positive side, though… this fine pastor hasn’t quite figured it out yet, but he has also found the cure for all cancers, heart disease, lupus, the common cold… old age… pretty much everything.

  18. For what it’s worth, his Congressional Representative — and mine, for I’m ashamed to admit I live in the same city as this fuckwit — is the only openly bisexual member of Congress.

    Perhaps the Secret Service should be alerted to what could very well be interpreted as a call for Krysten Synema’s murder?

    b&

    1. I’m pretty sure the pastor is only concerned with male on male buttsex. I think his hatred is bound tightly with hatred of women. For him, women are approved objects that can be penetrated by dicks. Sure, it’s distasteful that he should do such a thing with with a quasi-subhuman, but God commands it and his own sin-nature makes it tolerable. For those given over more to sin, it is often quite pleasant. But our pastor is purer than that.

      Their hatred of male homosexuality is that one of the imago dei overlords can be made akin to the subhumans by having a dick in him. The dudes are totally obsessed over dicks. More so than any gay man.

      Their worries about lesbians and bisexual women are derivative. They don’t directly hate them by first principles, they are just extremely angry that might never or sometimes not take their proper dick-input role.

  19. Apparently, the bad pastor forgot to consider the incidence of HIV infections among heterosexual women and men.

    1. He also forgot to mention that the lowest number of HIV cases occurs among lesbian women.

  20. I sometimes wish I was a pastor. I could speak whatever I want, and as long as I support my claims using faith, I can’t be held accountable for what I’m saying.

    1. Yes, a total lack of accountability. But not quite so awesome as being a cop in Ferguson or Staten Island.

      Yeah, I went there. Someone had to.

  21. I skim read that at first and assumed it was in Nigeria or Uganda or somewhere else with a terrible record regarding homosexuality. Then I scrolled back up to check and saw it was Arizona and my jaw dropped. Scary.

  23. I’m thinking it might be possible for this bozo to be arrested for inciting violence and murder. Are there any attorneys out there who could speak to this?

  24. absolutely not a shred of biological knowledge obviously. What a doctrine of hate.. The same this same Pastor had a similar sermon stating that women should not be heard. Same usual crap from the religious nut jobs.

  25. Obviously not a shred of biological knowledge and how the transmission of HIV takes place. This same pastor posted a video telling women that they should not be heard in church.just more hate and intolerance as expected from the religious nut jobs.

  26. As hateful as Anderson is I find it more frightening that no one in the audience got up and walked out.

      1. See what happens when you start being clever? I think there’s some law about such things.

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