WARNING: This diary refers to anti-Semitic and homophobic comments by the subject which many will find offensive.
The Irish Interior Minister has signed an exclusion order against an American pastor and hate preacher. Ireland is the latest in a list of countries to do so. This is the first time Ireland has used legislation from 1999 to stop his entry.
Steven Anderson runs the Arizona based “Faithful Word Baptist Church”. He has been banned from entering Ireland by Charlie Flanagan "under my executive powers in the interests of public policy". He was banned from the UK by the Home Secretary on the grounds his presence is “unconducive to the public good". This ban came as he was in transit to Botswana to “open a church” and spread his hate there.
The level of intelligence of the man can be assessed when you consider he does not realise that European countries tell each other about this sort of thing. Did he really expect to be welcomed in a country which has voted overwhelmingly for same-sex marriage in a referendum and whose Taoiseach is openly gay?
BBC Three made a documentary in 2016 about him in their “American Hate Preachers” strand. (In the UK such programming is not intended to promote their views but to shine the disinfecting light of publicity on their hatred.) The documentary maker makes some concerning points.
In one of his [Youtube] sermons, filmed at his Fundamentalist Independent Baptist church, Steven said that the world could be AIDS-free by Christmas if only we “executed the homos like God recommends”.
Steven, who is in his mid-30s, married with nine children, also believes that women shouldn’t vote and has suggested that the victims of France's Bataclan terror attack deserved to die ("Well, you went to a death metal concert," he told his congregation. "You bought the ticket").
….
Many Americans, including most Christians, are appalled by the extremity of Steven’s views. I met people, gay and straight, that have protested against Steven’s sermons, including practicing Christians who passionately reject his interpretation of their faith. None of that discourages his supporters, though.
Steven and his followers reject modern America. They feel persecuted by the liberal majority, and this persecution galvanizes them to keep up what they see as their righteous fight against evil. The more people attack their beliefs, the angrier and more determined they become.
Rather more extraordinary is his 2018 ban from Jamaica where oppression against gay people can be so bad that the UK grants asylum to those in fear of their lives.
Jamaica has laws criminalising gay sex and rights groups have warned that LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) people face frequent discrimination.
But LGBT rights activists in Jamaica started a petition asking the Jamaican government to ban Mr Anderson and it was signed by more than 38,000 people
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In September 2016, Mr Anderson was deported from Botswana after he said on a local radio programme that homosexuals should be "stoned to death".
A week earlier, he had been banned from South Africa, and before that, from the UK.
www.bbc.co.uk/…
I am linking to his Facebook account so that people who use that platform can point out that he breaches their “community standards” in rather more egregeous ways than the likes of Alex Jones and perhaps the same measures should be taken against him. Perhaps Twitter and Youtube should do the same.
Monday, May 13, 2019 · 12:34:01 PM +00:00
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Lib Dem FoP
I have managed to find the video which may have precipitated the Irish ban. He complains about being banned by the Netherlands and therefore the entire Schengen Area (the European free movement zone which includes countries other than those in the EU). Neither the UK nor Ireland are in the Area and he states that the Dublin visit is “going ahead”.