Gays, Steven Anderson, and Fred Phelps

Why, if the Rev. Steven Anderson espouses such an overtly hateful message, do I bother listening to hour after hour of his sermons? I use hateful in a technical sense--Anderson himself claims divine hatred of reprobate evildoers as an intrinsic characteristic of God. It is only an act of love, Pastor Anderson says, for him to point out the truth that God does not love everyone. God delights in the suffering of the evil, a group that for Anderson includes (but is not limited to) serial killers, child rapists, abortionists, and homosexuals.

In fact, it was Anderson's particular fixation on homosexuals ("queers," as he often likes to refer to us) that first drew me to him. His sermons popped up on my iTunes as I searched for anti-gay preaching. And there in one of his many sermons that mention homosexuals was a version of his take on reprobation. Reading Romans 1 literally (and in the King James Version), Anderson notes that such people began not as people with an erotic attraction to the same sex but as apostates, people pridefully turned away from God. As punishment for their apostasy, God gives them up to sinful, beastial desires, i.e., homosexuality.

Thus, in stark contrast to most conservative evangelical stances on homosexuality, Anderson defines gay people (and lesbians) in terms of the list of evils outlined in Romans 1:29-31: "Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful." In other words, Anderson argues that scripture "proves" that anyone who is homosexual is effectively an antisocial, anti-God, lying, merciless murderer. He has proudly claimed the label "homophobic." Who wouldn't, he asks, be frightened of such psychopaths? Gays are for Anderson the reprobates par excellence.

This hard-line stance seems to link him to another infamous anti-gay pastor, the Rev. Fred Phelps of Westboro Baptist Church, known for his congregation's high-visibility protests of funerals of AIDS victims and Iraqi war veterans (among others) and for their central motto, "God Hates Fags." I have written about Phelps's particular brand of anti-gay rhetoric elsewhere. Phelps shares with Anderson a theology of reprobation. Like Anderson, Phelps views homosexuals ("fags" is his preferred term) as lower than animals and worthy of the death penalty. All of his church's actions against members of the military (e.g., "Thank God for 9-11" signs at war veterans' funerals) are motivated from his conviction that God is punishing the USA, that God in fact hates the USA, chiefly though not exclusively for refusing to apply the death penalty to homosexuals. Again like Anderson, Phelps repudiates any vigilantism. Indeed, his congregation is scrupulously law-abiding, knowing local, state, and federal free speech codes backwards and forwards.

Despite their similarities, however, it would be a mistake to lump Anderson and Phelps into the same theological basket. Unlike Anderson, Phelps subscribes to a kind of hyper-Calvinism in which God loves only the Elect (mainly: Phelps and the members of his church), hating with a holy hatred everyone else. He and his crew call on sinners to repent, which Anderson considers heretical (repentance not being for Anderson a part of the salvific process).

Most importantly however, Phelps and his congregation are simply not interested in the efficacy of their demonstrations, if by efficacy you mean winning converts to Christ. Drawing again on his strict interpretation of Calvinist doctrine, Phelps views salvation as entirely the work of Christ. The elect have already been chosen and have already been saved. They and they alone will repent of their sins and believe on Christ, and they will do so regardless of what Phelps and his followers do. Evangelism as such is a nonstarter with them. Their demonstrations aren't interested in winning converts; they are instead God's finger of accusation, pointing toward a world that has in its reprobation rejected God.

Anderson, as I've noted, rejects Calvinism as an extra-Biblical (and therefore evil) doctrine. He and his church devote nearly all of their resources to evangelistic outreach, knocking on doors and spreading the gospel systematically. Unlike Phelps, Anderson is passionately interested in winning souls. When soul-winning, he exchanges his fire-breathing rhetoric for a calm, friendly demeanor. The church services and Bible studies in which he waxes theological are not themselves evangelical instruments aimed at the unsaved. Church is meant primarily for the faithful, to help them grow and become more well-equipped as disciples.

It is most likely that Anderson and Phelps would, if made aware of each other, find deep fault with each others' theologies even as they share a strikingly anti-gay stance. I am fascinated, however, by how these two pastors in different ways live into the doctrine of Biblical inerrancy.

More tomorrow,

JF