Jamaica has banned homophobic pastor
Steven Anderson from the Faithful Word Baptist Church in Tempe,
Arizona.
Anderson said in a video posted on
YouTube that he was told of the decision to bar him from entry as he
was about to board a flight in Atlanta to Kingston.
LGBT activists had called on the
government to deny Anderson entry. He has previously been denied
entry to South Africa, Canada, the United Kingdom and Botswana.
“The decision was made by the chief
immigration officer because the pastor's statements are not conducive
to the current climate,” a spokesperson for the Ministry of
National Security is quoted as saying by The
Guardian.
Anderson was initially invited to speak
at the University of West Indies, but that invitation was also
rescinded.
Anderson first made headlines in 2014
when he told his congregation that an AIDS-free world is possible “if
you execute the homos like God recommends.” In various interviews
he added that the Bible commands the government to execute gays.
The following year, he cheered the
deaths of 49 people who died in a mass shooting in a gay nightclub in
Orlando, Florida. “The good news is that at least fifty of these
pedophiles are not going to be harming children anymore,” he said
in a video. “The bad news is that a lot of the homos in the bar
are still alive, so they’re going to continue to molest children
and recruit people into their filthy homosexual lifestyle.”
Anderson said in a video this week that
he was surprised that Jamaica had denied him entry because it's “the
most homophobic nation” on the planet. He also blamed the U.S. and
U.K. for pressuring the Jamaican government to act. “The people of
Jamaica are not pro-homosexual at all, but apparently that agenda is
just going to be crammed down their throat, whether they like it or
not,” he said.