179 thoughts on “Steven Anderson: The Cure for AIDS (Hint: It’s Mass Murder)”

  3. Let him who is without sin cast the first…. ahh, I’m too tired to even finish. What’s that one song that says, “Why do we think that hate’s gonna change the world?”

    Y’all know how I feel about homosexual lifestyles, that hasn’t changed. But I am feeling more convicted all the time of loving people. Who am I to judge the servant of another? I can love though.

    1. God’s love is truely astounding. It extends to you, me, the good person, the bad petson, the “homo” even – and this is most amazing of all – even people like Steven Anderson. Wow, that is quite a thought. Jesus commands us to love our enemies, even if we think they may never change. I would find it much easier to love even the most rabid Gay-Rights activist than to love the likes of Anderson. But Jesus commands it. He commands that we pray for our enemies. Even anderson. That is hard. Very hard. Only with the help of the Holy Spirit can we do such a thing. But we have to decided if we want to let the Spirit do it.

  4. I stumbled across this statement a day or two ago and it’s absolutely fitting: “You can safely assume you’ve created God in your image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.” Anne Lamott

  5. Frankly, I would rather have AIDS and live in a free democratic society than be AIDS-free in a theocratic monarchy where people might stone you for getting your jollies on.

    2. Would Anderson advocate the stoning or otherwise putting to death of anyone who commits adultery? That’s what the Bible commands, in the same chapter in Leviticus

  6. Did he really say around the 1:40 mark, “let’s see what science says” and then reference the Washington Post?

    I read the Buffalo News everyday. I guess that makes me a rocket engineer.

    1. Science and Stephen Anderson don’t belong in the same sentence or universe for that matter :^)

    2. *Science proves something something homos are bad*

      “See? Science shows that what I’m saying is true!”

      *Science proves that something something in the Bible is inaccurate”

      “Don’t believe what the scientists say! They’re all atheists! You shouldn’t be relying on science for anything anyway.”

      1. But…but…but…according to the pastor bio on their website THOUSANDS have been saved at this church.

    1. I think there is a difference between being mentally I’ll and sick in the head. Anderson is sick in the head.

      1. It’s kind of like the difference between brain damage and dain bramage; it assumes there was something there to be damaged. I have reason to believe there was never anything close to mental fitness in Stephen’s case to become ill.

    3. Apparently, until relatively recently there were still people who believe that the “Aids” that “Gays” suffer from and the “aids” that is ravaging much of the developing world are actually two completely different things and that “gay aids” is caused by “The Gay Lifestyle” and that the belief that it is caused by a virus called HIV is a lie spread by those evil scientists. Maybe Anderson still believes that

        1. BG – Where did you find this nut job? It’s like Don King gets religion and psychosis at the same time.

        2. It makes my heart hurt even more, even without thinking about it too much 🙁
          No wonder so many people make fun of Christians and Christianity.

        3. Scorpio: Oh, I got a million of ’em.
          Now, if you want preachers who give thoughtful, fact-based commentaries … they do exist, but it will take a little longer to find them.

        4. BG – I forgot that since you are on the SFL payroll it is your job to unearth treasures like this.

        9. I was at a Starbucks today. Somehow, though, I missed the orgy.
          Oh, and I had a green tea.

        10. When I am at Starbucks, I get coffee with room for half-and-half.

          Funny, though. No one does anything there but drink, eat their treats, read or use their computers. From what Manning said, I’d have expected orgies with a cover charge. No one even holds hands!

          I guess not being antagonistic to LGBT people makes going to Starbucks a sin? Add it to the ever-growing list! These ever-expanding lists of sins are too much to handle! Not that it makes Manning’s accusations any less scurrilous. What does he think sanctifies his lie?

        13. Here’s another wacko conspiracy. I’m an avid collector of body art andy attention was recently drawn to an article about tattoos, written by a fundy. In it he claimed that most tattoo artists are practicing Satanists who chant evil spells over their tattoo equipment so that demons enter into the person being inked. So you can call be legion. I’ll see if I can find the article and post a link. If I ever get another tattoo, I’ll ask the artist how long he had to be a Satanist before hr was allowed to learn how to tattoo.

        15. Sorry, that doesnt seem to work. But IG you Google the phrase “most of the tattoo artists are satanists” you will get several sites saying exactly the same thing, or slight variations.

        16. Still, the link you had provided a significant WTF moment. Seeing the racks of clothing, Bible Prophesy links and all. Until I noticed that the domain was for sale. Then it made an ironic kind of sense.

          Could someone have prophesied the looney site would go under?

  9. He should execute all the children with Aids too, just to be sure it’s eradicated by Christmas. What’s with the nature scene painted behind the pastor? Our fundy church had that too…

    1. Our dear pastor Anderson is a proponent of men pissething against the wall, after all it is in the Bible and therefore “Biblical”, so having a nature scene painted on the wall just helps men relax so they can go.

    2. Knock off all the kiddies too, before Christmas?

      But the Feast of the Holy Innocents occurs on December 28, except this year, when it’s bumped over to the next day.

    1. Yes.
      Shall we also kill all the people with heart disease, asthma, diabetes, cancer, pneumonia, or influenza?
      According to Andersons’ version of “science,” they must have sinned somehow to have those illnesses.

    2. There was at least 1 US congress critter suggesting summary execution as a solution to Ebola within the last 120 days.

      2. “Critter” is the right term, since someone who says that hardly qualifies as a grown man or woman.

  11. Many times in my life , I have had a bad attitude towards other people’s sin. While trying to separating from sinfulness, I crossed the thin line into self righteousness also. I am now trying daily to address my sin and I am left little time to worry about other’s sin. I don’t think much is accomplished by hateful ranting and name calling. A bad attitude is not” righteous anger”.

    1. Steven Anderson has done a whole lot more than “cross the thin line into self righteousness”. He called for the mass murder of an entire segment of society.

      1. Yes I know he is crazy. I wasn’t trying to defend him. I have said stupid things before too but i wasn’t dumb enough to post on youetube.

        1. This isn’t Steven Anderson’s first ( (internet) rodeo. He is crazy enough to mean what he says. Also, he uses his videos to try to radicalize those with zeal and no real knowledge and recruit other extremists.

    2. You can carry that line so far that your brain turns to mush.

      The fact is that if we allow the attitudes of Andersons of the world to be without criticism, without challenge, they will some day be free to act on them. I don’t condone mass murder, even in the name of God.

      Pay attention to your own attitude at the same time and don’t devolve to his level. But call him out for what he says and does. Out of the abundance of his heart his lips flap.

  13. Anderson here is laboring under a notion that science/medicine did away with by the mid-1980s: that HIV/Aids is a disease of gay men.
    Many of the early cases in the U.S. were of gay men, but that turns out to have been a historical happenstance.
    Most of the people getting the HIV virus now are in poor countries, and are not getting it through homosexual acts.
    It was never at all confined to gays in Africa, where HIV/AIDS originated.

    1. There’s a great podcast from Radio Lab about “Patient 0” in the AIDS epidemic and the perfect storm that brought what otherwise would have been another obscure African malady into the mainstream.

    3. Even in the West, the *percentage* of heterosexual s with Aids is increasing. Anderson completely ignores the sotiayipm I’m the greater part of the world that lies outside the West. Apparently that doesnt matter, even to God

      2. I’m wondering if there’s a “heterosexual t” to go along with that “heterosexual s”.

    4. Obviously God has cursed Africa with aids because
      1. They are black.
      2. They are poor.
      3. They don’t wear skirts and hose with closed-toe shoes.
      4. The women have sinned by being raped (because of #3 above).
      5. They are not Republicans.
      If the Yewnited States of Amerrka had kept her God-ordained borders closed to Africans, we would not also be cursed with homos, I mean aids.

  14. I love love love that this video is on the front page of HuffPo today. He’s being skewered in the comments (of course) and someone posted the phone number to the church.

    1. Me too. The comments on the Huffington Post article are scathing. However, many are asserting that Anderson is representative of all of Christianity, which is simply untrue. Anderson is batcrap crazy. Like The Next Waco Compound type crazy.

      1. It will be interesting to see how many of his fellow fundies will wholeheartedlu condemn his comments without qualifying their condemnation. I suspect we will hear a deafenng silence. Anderson may be batshit crazy, but hit is a craziness that a lot of fundies are comfortable with.

        1. Fundies will pull their standard “we’re not a network” bit by declaring they are independent and have no formal affiliation with Anderson, although they sure do have a whole bunch of history, beliefs, doctrine, tactics, etc. in common…

        2. If he said he wanted to start doing a lot more interfaith activities with the local mosque, the other fundies would probably be in a much bigger hurry to distance themselves from him.

      2. It makes my heart hurt to realize that a lot of the LGBT community sees all Christians in light of these crazy hateful churches. How is the love of Jesus supposed to be heard from the true Christians when the hate of these phonies is so loud?

        1. Which is why I keep saying that you cannot separate the message from the messenger. If the messenger is corrupt, his message must be as well. And if the message of salvation cannot save the messenger from his own evil, of what power is the message?

          If salvation has no real power to change lives for the better now, what guarantee have we of the future? To state the complement of Paul’s affirmation, if in the afterlife only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.

        2. rtgmath wrote:

          “Which is why I keep saying that you cannot separate the message from the messenger. If the messenger is corrupt, his message must be as well. ”

          That is an ad hominem fallacy. The message must be judged on its own merits, regardless of the person presenting it. There are plenty of things wrong with Spamerson’s messages. For example, I question the validity of a salvation void of repentance.

          The fallacy I personally find difficult to avoid when discussing Christianity is the No True Scotsman one.

        3. Well, Jesus used it. A bad tree cannot bring forth good fruit. I will admit that perhaps a bad person can tell the truth. But if you tell me that you have a remedy, and have used it yourself, and while you claim it works, it clearly hasn’t …. well, am I to believe your words or my lying eyes?

          And, by the way, I wasn’t saying he isn’t “saved.” But if he is, his “salvation” isn’t worth a damn. And the same can be said of so many, many other fundy leaders.

          So, what is salvation, anyway? We fling the word around carelessly. We seem to think that the message they have about salvation is unconnected to their behavior or their messages about other things.

          Seems to me this is unbalanced. Something is off. Christians are ambassadors for Jesus? One of the first things an ambassador learns is that what he says and what he does are direct reflections on the country he is from. In fact, his behavior is the message.

          I know this makes people uncomfortable. After all, we believed the same message. Many of us suffered hell in those churches and have come out still believing the same message. We are told that as you think you will do.

          I just want to understand where and why things go wrong. If they are saved, why do they practice such wickedness? How can they? Why can’t people see what they are? And what does salvation do if it can’t save these men from their sinning?

        4. “And what does salvation do if it can’t save these men from their sinning?”
          It gives them eternal life. They talk about Catholics and the ease with which they can sin because all they have to do is confess but they have something better. Get saved, get eternal life that can never be taken away from you, relax, you can never sin too badly to lose your eternal life.

        5. Yep. And this bothers me. Along with salvation is supposed to come “growing in Chist,” godliness, christlikeness, fruit of the Spirit, the in dwelling of the Holy Spirit, a heart of compassion and a host of other behavioral benefits for the here and now.

          It is like ordering a product and getting a construction manual without getting any of the promised pieces to put together!

          “I got this cool model airplane in the mail!”

          “Great! Let’s see it!”

          “Here’s the instruction manual!”

          “Nice. But where’s the plane?”

          “Uhhhh, they didn’t send any parts. Just this neat instruction manual!”

          “So they didn’t actually send you anything you could build the plane with?”

        6. Like I said, I keep falling into the No True Scotsman fallacy when wrestling with these issues.

          No real Christian would….
          Yet, there they are.

          Are they all actors feigning piety and salvation?

          Does the Holy Spirit have enough influence in a believer’s life to keep him from hideous behavior?

          I have more questions than answers.

        8. Jesus came to save His people from their sins. If someone is not being saved from their sins, the saving job isn’t being done.

          For Anderson to claim that he is saved and spout this type of unChristlike hatred is, at the very least, sweet water and bitter.

          If a man say I love God and hateth his brother, how dwelleth the love of God in Him? If a man loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?

          Saying that a vast swath of the population ought to be slaughtered is absolutely from the spirit of Jesus. “Ye have heard that it hath been said, “Love your neighbor but hate your enemy. But *I* say unto you, Love your enemies.”

          Jesus set aside the hatred and vengeance of the Old Testament. Anyone who cannot see that is still clinging to the Old Covenant.

          Jesus never condoned sin. But “this man receiveth sinful men and eateth with them!” And anyone who doesn’t follow his example in spirit does not know him.

        9. I guess, to me, the No True Scotsman fallacy does not apply when discussing Christianity.

          Christian means “little Christ.” By implication, a small copy of Christ.

          Jesus taught love, acceptance, forgiveness. A Christian is one who follows his example and loves and forgives.

          No Christian can willfully say those terrible things and hold those terrible passions against others. If he does, he is by definition NOT a “little Christ.”

          He can call himself that. He can do Christian activities and sing Christian songs, and say Christian things. But he is NOT a Christian, anymore than a shape with four sides is a triangle.

        10. My problem is that I actually can’t just say such people aren’t Christians. While I would like to, I find myself increasingly thinking that what we call Christianity and faith is little more than a subculture. Its members get to believe they are better than everyone else, “elect,” chosen by God, righteous without effort, and on their way to heaven while God throws everyone else in the incinerator, effectively considering His Creation worth trashing and torturing.

          This is not all of Christianity, I admit. But all too many. The Gospel message of the liberal groups is unhistorically soft, acknowledging Christ’s death and resurrection, but leaving room for individual doubt as long as the person is in community. I am attracted to them and am now Episcopal — with a lot of questions. They retain many of the old doctrines without much emphasis, as if they are ashamed of them yet unable to discard them.

          And while there are, no doubt, individuals who fake it, I think most fundamentalists would seriously and honestly profess that they believe.

          My problem is that it makes no difference. I know atheists who are more moral and upright. Christians seem no different from unbelievers on matters of greed or hardheartedness, except that they may be worse than others. They are just as unfaithful to their spouses as unbelievers. They are more vicious, couching their hatred of others in “moral” terms.

          I tend to think that a good person who believes and a good person who doesn’t believe are about equal, except that the believer has someone else to blame other than himself when he behaves badly. A bad person who believes may think he is a good person, following God’s will as he has support for his intrinsic evil. It may be that Faith makes it easier to be evil while thinking of yourself as good.

          Try as I have, I find no real evidence that there is a Holy Spirit working in the hearts of believers in a way that unbelievers do not experience. The absence is notable.

        11. I have met real Christians, who I have no doubt are filled with the Spirit. I see the difference in their lives, as opposed to “the average person.”

          With that said, I see where you’re coming from. And I suffer from the same frustration. I guess the way I deal with it is that many Christians are simply wrong about God.

          God’s plan is to redeem the world.

          Although I would still identify myself as a very conservative and Christian, I have very strong doubts that such a thing as eternal punishment exists.

          God’s plan is to redeem the world.

          I believe that the wicked will suffer punishment for their sins and that the good will be rewarded. But I’m not sure how it will all work out.

          One thing is certain, I vigorously deny and oppose the idea that believing a particular set of ideas automatically frees you from retribution for your misdeeds.

          I believe the Steve Anderson’s and Jack Schaap’s of this world are in for a big shock on the day of judgment.
          “[God] will render to every man according to his deeds.” I don’t think it matters what you profess. Only whether you have sent your deeds ahead to be judged in Christ.

          A person who professes Christ, but has not repented of and forsaken sin will taste the wrath of God.

          So there is no elite class. There is no us vs. them. God will judge based on our treatment of others, not on what we say we believe or on the doctrinal statements we hold.

          Salvation begins in this life with salvation from our own ugliness and nastiness and hatred and greed and spite. And if your saving grace hasn’t saved you from that, I really don’t see the point. And I’m not sure God does either.

        12. Rtgmath wrote, “And while there are, no doubt, individuals who fake it, I think most fundamentalists would seriously and honestly profess that they believe.”

          This is where, IMHO, the denial of repentance as a part of salvation becomes an issue. Many Fundies deny a person has to repent of their sins, but merely “make a decision”. They argue that a person can not remember every little sin they ever committed, so repentance is impossible. Perhaps it is this lack of repentance that is the defining part between those who fake it and those who have Christ’s salvation.

          I have been told that all morality comes from God (every good and perfect gift), yet I know some moral atheists who I would trust more than many Christians I have attended church with. My most recent pastor has said that even the unjust do God’s bidding, just without acknowledging or loving Him (Romans 9). But that just opens the door to another slew of questions from me.

  15. This blew up on my Facebook last night both people for and against. I promptly blocked the ones that were for it.

    1. He also spoke with an American accent. And wore a suit and tie. In fact he looked and sounded just like Steven Amser

        1. Sorry. I was wrong about Jesus speaking with an american accent. He speaketh in 17th century English.

      3. ” In fact he looked and sounded just like Steven Amser”

        Wrong-o!
        Jesus obviously looked like John Wayne. This error implies you must be unsaved and are headed for the fire…

        😉

    1. At 2:40 on this video you can see his interaction with the Border Patrol and subsequent tazing.

        1. I’ll be the first to admit that Anderson sounds like a jackass, but in this particular instance he was perfectly within his legal 4th Amendment rights resisting a warrantless search and demanding to know on what charges was he being placed under arrest. No one deserves to be treated this way by any government agency, federal, state or local. And it should be noted that some of the charges were dismissed with prejudice because the district attorney and Border Patrol did not turn over the information the court requested. And when he did go to trial his was acquitted of the two additional misdemeanors. Let me be clear, I have little to no respect for Anderson, and as much as it pains me to say this, this is perhaps the ONE instance where he was right.

        2. Nothing like 50,000 volts to take the starch out of someone. I wish they’d have zapped him twice.

        4. I’m with thlipsis.
          It makes me very nervous to agree with Steven Anderson about something, but the Border Patrol has no Constitutional authority to interrogate and search people who are doing nothing illegal.
          I live at the US-Mexico border, and we deal with such intrusions every day. People in the rest of the country have no idea what a “Constitution-free zone” my home area has become.

          If Anderson didn’t look so white and speak English fluently, he would have been as likely to be shot dead as tazed.

        5. Wait a minute. Forget all this talk about his rights and 4th amendment blah blah blah. I live near a foreign border and have crossed it many times. Granted it is the Canadian border and not the Mexican border. I have been asked to pull over for further inspection. I have been asked for additional information. If you have nothing to hide, you answer the questions honestly and you move along. He was being an asshole. And when you start being an asshole to border patrol, or any law enforcement official, you deserve any thing coming your way. It’s called common sense. Of which I think we can all agree on that our dear pastor has very little of. He deserved to get tazed.

        6. Scorpio I couldn’t disagree more. Just because he was being a jackass he still does not forfeit his constitutional rights. And the Border Patrol, like any law enforcement agency, should have a basic knowledge of the Constitution and/or laws they are sworn to uphold. He has every right to know exactly what he is being placed under arrest for. Also note that he was NOT crossing the border. This was at a check point well within the United States. If they wanted to search his car because they had probably cause the could have easily secured a search warrant. As much as I abhor Anderson and his twisted theology, no one deserves this kind of treatment at the hands of the U.S. government, citizen or non-citizen.

        7. Would Anderson have extended the same rights to someone else who was in the same position and acted in the same way? Especially if that person was suspected of being a “hoomo” or sympathetic to “homos”. You should treat others the way you would like to be treated, and not be surprised if others sometimes treat you the same way as you would treat them.

      2. If he would excercise his rights without being an arrogant asshole, or better yet, try to be more like Christ and not prioritize his rights so much, it would be easier to empathize. He is such a jerk.
        Mark

        1. Mark,

          I totally agree with him coming across as a jerk, but also keep in mind that we are viewing an edited version of what actually took place. I think I read somewhere that this entire ordeal went on for 40 minutes and I wouldn’t doubt what we are seeing is after a period of time and things had escalated. I think I also read somewhere that the Border Patrol had put spikes in front of his tires so if he tried to move his vehicle as he had originally been instructed he’d have four flats. I have no doubt that working as a Border Patrol agent is a thankless job, especially with everything that is going on over the past few months, but the framers of the Constitution and Bill of Rights wanted to protect the citizens of this nation from exactly this sort of abuse of power. As I said, I really don’t have respect for Anderson and his tortured exegesis, but he clearly didn’t deserve to be treated this way.

        2. Having to make a moral choice between Steven Anderson and abusive cops? What a dilemma!

          Sigh. Biblically speaking, that’s like having to choose between the wicked Israelites and the Babylonians who took them into captivity. When two bad guys fight, who do you root for?

        3. I think it would be impossible for Steven Anderson to *not* be an arrogant jerk whether or not his “Rights” get exercised….

  19. Steven Anderson = Islamic State – the weapons, land, money and army. Actually, they’re a little more modern because they know how to use social media to their advantage.

  20. That was the only time I ever expect to enjoy watching someone get tazered.
    I talked to my pyjama wearing 5 year old niece about how unkind it was to hector a little visitor to her house about wearing pants. I pointed out that she was wearing pants albeit pj pants. She angrily and self-righteously pointed out to me that they were pjs not pants also that her bottom was covered by an extra long shirt. And so it begins. At 5.

  21. This breaks my heart. I actually got nauseaus when I heard the congregation laugh.
    1. How is AIDS funny?
    2. How is people dying/being murdered funny?
    3. As a Christian, how do you think lost people dying is funny?
    (I know not all gays are lost, I’m speaking from their perspective)
    I wish I was there to just point blank as them that. How?

  22. Just based off his comment about praying that Obama dies and goes to hell I am going to say that Steven Anderson displays a spirit directly opposed to Christ. Thus, that would make Steven Anderson under the influence of the anti-Christ (which he, no doubt, would adamantly deny). Christ taught to pray for those who spitefully use us, Christ taught to love our enemies, Christ taught to pray for all men, etc.

    But I did not enjoy hearing his cries of pain as he was tazered.

    2. I’m pretty sure Anderson would laugh with glee and the cries of a “homo” as he is stoned to death, the way the Bible commands

  23. When loyalty to a translation of Scripture is more important than loyalty to the God who became flesh, then you get Steven Anderson.
    To him, following the Psalmist’s plea against the wicked justifies his view and attitude above the teachings of Christ. As long as the King James says hate the wicked in the Psalms, it doesn’t matter that King Jesus said to love your enemies.

    1. Nice! Thank you – just the thing to look at when you’re about to have something to eat
      ….

  25. If Steven Anderson gets tasered by Birder Patrol and there is no one there to record it, did it even happen?

  26. So apparently Steven Anderson was sent out to start a church by some IFB in Sacramento. Anyone know which church did the evil deed?

    1. As much as I sympathize with their desire for him to leave Sacramento, I still can’t approve of that.

    1. Oh wow! That really was Anderson. I thought you were just making a joke. Kudos for posting that. Made my day!

    1. Why give Anderson free coal? Send it to some impoverished person up north who needs the heat.

      1. Agreed. Pet poop would have been a better idea, but the USPS would probably consider that bio-hazardous and and refuse delivery.

        1. If you dry it out enough it probably wouldn’t be a problem. On the declaration you can just say it’s potting soil or something.

  29. So so many people are so quick to give additional power to government to force people to abide by their beliefs. Yet this jackhole goes out of his way to demand these man-made “rights”.
    Why go through the trouble only to give government more power to remove rights? That stoning power is coming back on you Steve-o. Take a look at Waco if you want to see what happens when you think freedom of speech and freedom of religion means you can press an unapproved religion.

      1. “I” before “e” except after “c” or when sounded like “a” as in “neighbor” and “weigh”. No rhyme I know about putting “k” after “c”.

      2. I think he is building up to being a Waco Wacko. Lots and lots of guns; HUGE distrust of gov’t; super-duper crazy restrictive religion; oppressive views toward women and children; extremist followers who look to him for direction.

        If Anderson’s abuses of power cross some lines a Waco situation could totally happen.

  30. I don’t condone violence. But when this guy gets his church burned down, he will have had it coming.

  31. Chutzpah, thy name is Steven Anderson. I would hate to be in his shoes explaining to God how these nonsensical rantings (which is most of what his “sermons” are) had given so many whose hearts were receptive to the Gospel coming in deciding to write off Christianity.

    1. Which, in the spirit of my question about the difficulty of separating the message from the messenger, requires me to ask if it is “just” for God to condemn those turned off from the gospel by Steve Anderson and others like him.

      Should “Christians” have the power to condemn people to hell by their bad behavior?

      1. “Just”? What is just about the Christian message? What about people who lived and died, native americans for example, and never heard how to live a Christian life or be “saved” ? I find the whole thing just too full of holes that need explaining away.

        1. Miriam, I am not as far along as you are. Yet. I find myself unable to not believe, steeped in it as long and deep as I was.

          But the more I study, the less reasonable the doctrine of hell becomes. The more unreasonable a whole host of doctrines become.

          At this point I worship, wishing for a God that is not tribal, territorial, and terror-inspiring, but a God Who is loving, willing and able to help, Who values His creation whether they know and understand Him or not, One Who would enable good and disable the bad. I begin to fear He may not exist except in principle.

        2. rtgmath, the loss of belief happened pretty quickly for me. I was ”in” for 48 years and have been out 3. I was terrified of being “outside” afraid of judgement, physical manifestation of God’s anger but it slips away. The lost of faith has left a hole but once lost, it no longer seems possible to ‘re-believe’ if that is a word.

        3. Miriam, I’ve taken comfort in my belief that all will ultimately be reconciled to God through Christ. I believe that His redemptive work was all-encompassing for all humans who have ever lived.

      2. Unfortunately, as someone else has pointed out ma ny people see “preachers” like Steven Anderson as being representative of “The True Christian” and the Message of Christianity. Have any self-professed Fundamentalists actually spoken out against him yet? Maybe I’ve missed that. What about others who are not officially Fundy? Anderson may be a whacko but his views, on this issue, are well-intrenched in the Fundamentalist mindset and and may not be as far removed from mainstream American Evangelical Christian thought as many of us would like to think.

        1. I can think of at least one well-known preacher/pastor here in Northern Ireland who would probably be willing to support what Anderson says. Certainly he would not argue with him. I can think of a few others who might not openly support Anderson’s views but would not argue against him either. 🙁

        2. Yup. Heard Ian’s fiery rhetoric years ago at BJU. People were surprised he agreed to the cease-fire. Then they weren’t surprised when he tried to undermine it.

          Bob Jones Jr. used to pray imprecatory prayers against government officials he thought were doing wrong — right from the chapel pulpit. That God never answered those prayers never seemed to faze him or make him realize he wasn’t praying for the right things. At least he never said it publicly.

          As I look back on it, anger and violence have in some way always been associated with the fundamentalism I have been around. Peace was only possible with vast bloodshed at the hand of God and His people.

        3. In the fundamentalism I was in, it seemed that the most time and effort was spent criticizing and attacking evangelicals, then Pentecostals. Of course, Catholics were always criticized. Very little criticism was extended to the “whack-jobs.” This left the impression on many in the congregation that the worst a Christian could do was go to a church that used modern versions or a praise band. How warped is that, ignoring violations of Biblical principles while stressing dress codes and other extra-Biblical standards?

      3. The more I study the more I am finding the American understanding of hell is not the understanding the original audience would have had.
        I do not find any scriptural evidence that Christians have the right to condemn anyone. The only commandments given were to love God and love neighbor.

    2. I listened to the sermon in question in its entirety at his church’s website, and it was DEFINITELY a string of nonsensical ranting, with a heaping helping of hate. He’s so fixated on cruel scriptural passages that he ignores the passages urging compassion and unity. Dude’s got issues.

      1. Every Anderson sermon is a string of nonsensical ranting. He never has a point that is within the context or from the context of scripture. He forces scripture to fit his world view and his anger.

  32. I’ve read this preachers website. He flatly rejects Calvinism/Reformed Theology. In this sermon he is “exegiting” a old testament passage written to Israel and applying it to his church. Well then, which is it Steve? Is Israel the church or not?

    Also if his conviction is true and the Bible demands their eradication, how many homosexuals has HE killed? Oh I see, he thinks it’s alright for YOU to do it but he’s not going to. Wow…so many inconsistencies.

    Doubtlessly this man believes he was “persecuted for the Lords sake.” Reality is he was/is persecuted for being an asshole.

    1. Somehow, I can’t see jesus wearing combat fatigues and toting a semiautomatic. Maybe some christians can.

        1. Yeah, he’s kind of amazing.
          It’s what happens when profoundly ignorant people become convinced they understand everything.

  35. Anderson does not believe in repentance as part of salvation, so he actually started a website listing all the “false teachers” who don’t agree with him.

    Charles Spurgeon – bad
    Jack Hyles – good

    No surprise there. When it comes to Spamerson and his whacked beliefs, being on his blacklist is a good thing.

    http://www.repentanceblacklist.com/blacklist.html

    .

    1. Per the Christianity Today article:

      “Anderson allegedly approached a number of Jewish leaders and scholars, describing himself as “an interested layperson” making a documentary explaining elements of the Jewish faith.

      Rabbi Irwin Wiener, one of the men interviewed, said: “The subterfuge that he used to get these interviews from us is beyond belief.”

      Anderson had said the documentary he was making was for the television network PBS. “When he used the words PBS to me, it sounded legitimate and I didn’t pursue it any further,” Wiener said.”

      1. Rabbi Wiener didn’t know that when Anderson says “PBS” the letters stand for “Puerile Baptist Shenanigans.”

    1. There is a weird kind if irony in the thinking of many christians. They claim that AIDS is Gid’s Holy Judgement on Gays but what about Lesbians? Think about it – lesbian sexual acts are less likely to pass on aids than heterosexual acts…. Due to the mechanics of it… But then again, it might come as a suprise to many christians how many people , even Christians, think that two women having sex together is nowhere near as bad as two men, and how many straight men – including Christians – are excited by the thought of two women in bed together….

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