Outcry over gay-bashing pastor’s visit to SA
Pastor Steven L Anderson, who advocates killing gay people, is planning to visit South Africa, leading to outrage from local LGBTI groups.
|||Johannesburg - Less than a day after 49 LGBTI people were gunned down in the Pulse nightclub massacre in Orlando, Florida, Pastor Steven L Anderson preached: “The good news is that there’s 50 less paedophiles in this world, because, you know, these homosexuals are a bunch of disgusting perverts and paedophiles.”
The pastor is coming to South Africa in September on a “soul-winning marathon”, sparking outrage among local gay rights groups.
Anderson is widely known as the pastor who, in 2014, called for gay people to be executed.
On Monday, gay lifestyle and news website MambaOnline.com revealed the pastor’s plans to visit South Africa to recruit new members for his evangelical congregation at the Faithful Word Baptist Church.
According to the website and Anderson’s Facebook page, on September 18 he will conduct a day-long event. It will include a breakfast at the Spur in Festival Mall, Kempton Park, lunch at the Wimpy and a church service at the Premier Hotel at OR Tambo International Airport, where Anderson will preach.
GaySA Radio station manager Hendrik Baird sent a letter on Tuesday asking Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba to deny Anderson access to South Africa and prevent the Arizona-based pastor from spreading “hate Christianity”.
“On behalf of the LGBTI community of South Africa, we are pleading with you to refuse this man and his group entry into the country.
“LGBTI rights are protected in our constitution and it is my belief that we cannot let a proponent of the murder of LGBTI people into our country to spread his hate,” Baird wrote.
“Please, sir, stand up for our rights and protect us from this man and his group,” Baird asked Gigaba.
The Star