Worse than Westboro

I’ve found a new horrible church. It’s called Faithful Word Baptist Church, and the preacher is Steven L. Anderson. I went to the church’s website (that I’m not linking to) and Anderson makes it clear (over and over) that he thinks gay people are by definition pedophiles and rapists.

The violence, both spiritual and physical, that Anderson spews is surprisingly blunt. I’m listening to a sermon from two years ago called “A Time to Hate” in which Anderson says:

When some pervert comes through that door, I won’t even think twice about it. I’ll blow his stinkin’ head off. Cause I hate his guts. [...]

[mocking] “God loves the homos.” No He doesn’t, He hates ‘em. Show me in the Bible, my friend, where God loves the homos. Show me where God loves the predator that wants to prey on my children. They’re not reproducers, my friend, they’re recruiters. They don’t reproduce, they, they…They do have children though. They don’t reproduce children, they recruit children. That’s what they do. And I’m gonna tell you somethin’, they’re not gonna get my kids. That’s why I don’t let my kids out of my sight. And if you’re smart you won’t let your kids out of your sight either. [...]

If you haven’t put together the correlation between the homosexuals and the child molesters, you need to just, uh, slap yourself and wake up. And you know, the world will try to downplay that. They’ll try to downplay the fact that the pedophiles that you read about every week in the newspaper are preying on boys primarily. Okay, because they’re homos. See, they don’t want you to know that they’re violent, as the Bible calls them. They’re unmerciful. They are predators, they are recruiters.

All three instances in the Bible where God tells a story involving homosexuals, they are always violating a person. Whether it be Sodom and Gomorrah, where they’re trying to violate Lot. First they try to violate the two angels, then they’re trying to violate Lot. In the book of Judges, they’re violating. In Genesis 9, they’re violating. It’s always, always the pattern. [...]

I want to stop here because Anderson (he’s a splendid fellow, isn’t he?) hit on something and misinterpreted its meaning. All three instances that he cites have to do specifically with a form of sexual abuse, of rape. The Bible’s response to rape is clear from word one. It’s consistent with these citations. But it does not indicate a specific condemnation of homosexuality any more than a passage about rape of a woman condemns heterosexuality. It’s an important point that a lot of people like Anderson miss.

Oh, it gets better.

I’m gonna tell you something. A person who is a homosexual cannot be saved. … Sorry, nice try, queer-lover. Sorry, nice try, lover of those that hate God. Sorry, nice try, uh…and I’ll just close with this one statement: If you don’t like that and you have a soft spot for The Queers? I don’t want you around my kids, period. That’s how I feel about it.

Every guy I’ve ever had that defended The Gays to me and told me “Oh, we ought to love ‘em, and they’re not that bad, and it’s not their fault…” I say “Wooooah. Why don’t you stay away from me. Because you make me nervous.” Because any normal man is repulsed and repelled and considers it vile.

Charming.

But what led to this post is a discussion thread on the church’s ning site about Westboro Baptist Church and how hateful the group is. From the original post, “Although I agree, God has rejected the queers, the way in which this church conducts themselves is outrageous.”

Okay, so I don’t like that, but it’s kind of the default position for this church, so it doesn’t surprise me. What does surprise me is the response by Anderson this past Monday. “What is ironic is that they actually believe that homos can be saved if they repent of their homosexuality. Therefore, they actually have nothing in common with us.”