Over the years, Christian hate-pastor Steven Anderson, an independent fundamental Baptist whose church operates without any oversight from a larger body, has said all sorts of over-the-top extreme things about gay people. Anderson celebrated the deaths of dozens of people at Pulse nightclub in Orlando by saying, “The good news [about the massacre] is that there’s 50 less pedophiles in this world.” He also said the U.S. government should execute homosexuals by way of a firing squad because that’s what the Bible commands.
A real follower of Jesus, this one.
His gleeful bigotry has frequently been a problem, though, when he attempts to visit foreign countries to win over converts. He’s been banned from Botswana, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and Canada.
We can now add Jamaica to that list.
“The decision was made by the chief immigration officer because the pastor’s statements are not conducive to the current climate,” said spokesperson for the Ministry of National Security on Monday.
The University of the West Indies, where Anderson was slated to speak, also rescinded its invitation.
The rejection comes on the heels of a citizen-created petition urging the government not to let him spread his faith-based hate in their country.
What’s especially telling about this ban is that Jamaica isn’t some haven for LGBTQ rights. A man having sex with another man is a crime punishable by life imprisonment. Hate crimes rates against LGBTQ people are incredibly high. The U.S. State Department said “homophobia was widespread in the country” as recently as 2012.
How hateful must you be when a country known for its homophobia says you’re too anti-gay?
Even Anderson was surprised since he thought he was entering friendly territory.
… I’m pretty surprised because I’ve seen a lot of stuff online that said Jamaica is “the most homophobic country in the world.” So it’s pretty weird that I would be banned from Jamaica because of my views on homosexuality. But to me, it just goes to show that we’re heading into a One World government where individual nations, they don’t really have any say in what they want to do…
He then blamed “outside influence” for the decision, as if the U.S. told Jamaica to ban him. (There’s no evidence of that.) He also said this was a form of Christian persecution because Jamaica surely didn’t want him spreading the Gospel… Even though 62% of the people are Protestants.
Anderson then said he was heading to a “different Caribbean country,” implying that the lack of specificity would prevent any organized opposition. We don’t know where he is yet, but satellites should be on the lookout for a tiny dark cloud hovering near Jamaica.