Introducing Rev. Anderson

I want to pause the recollections of my transition from evangelicalism to Methodism for a bit. My partner today alerted me to this CNN headline regarding the Rev. Steven Anderson, pastor of Faithful Word Baptist Church of Tempe, Arizona. The gist of the video report is that Pastor Anderson and his church have come under fire from local progressive (i.e., liberal-left) activists for a recent sermon of his, "Why I Hate Barack Obama," in which Anderson clarifies his literal hatred for President Obama as a person, asking that God bring the president to ruin.

Why so much attention for a minor story about an out-of-the-way pastor and his storefront congregation? For CNN, Anderson's statements and the reaction to it (a "Who would Jesus hate?" rally by liberal-leaning activists held across from the church) serve as proof of the far right's animosity toward all things Barak Obama. I do not disagree, but the story catches my attention for a different reason. You see, I have a confession: Steven Anderson has long been my favorite fundamentalist pastor.

As part of my research into conservative evangelicalism, I've downloaded hundreds of hours of evangelical and fundamentalist sermons and radio shows to listen to. Thanks to Itunes and Sermonaudio.com, I'm able to search for conservative sermons from pastors across the country by theme. Pastor Anderson appears often in Sermonaudio's archive, for--small as his ministry may be--he's one of the most thoroughly web-ified fundamentalist ministers out there. Practically all of his sermons are available via podcast from Itunes or from the church's own website (linked above). He has several Youtube videos out, as well as a whole other site (not directly run by him) dedicated to out-of-town listeners.

I call Pastor Anderson fundamentalist not as an insult. He identifies explicitly as fundamentalist; specifically, he and his church affiliate with the Independent Fundamental Baptist Churches, a loose association of autonomous churches who share a few common beliefs. Moving beyond even the classical Bible-believers' movements, IFB churches typically affirm a "King James Only" doctrine, viewing all other translations of the Bible--and all other scholarly work on source material--as heretical. Their literal interpretation of the KJV leads them to espouse especially conservative norms of gender roles, dress, and worship (Pastor Anderson sings only hymns whose doctrine he can affirm in full). Joined to this conservative lifestyle and super-strict Bible-believing is the emphasis on evangelism--specifically, door-to-door, face-to-face evangelism ("soul-winning," in the church's parlance). I should stress that, since IFB Churches resist denominationalism, each church is unique in its articulation of basic IFB tenets.

The life of Faithful Word Baptist Church consists mainly of sermons/Bible studies three times a week, all handled by Pastor Anderson, and many, many hours of going door-to-door throughout the Tempe area to win souls to God. The basic evangelistic strategy (illustrated in this Youtube by Pastor Anderson) is fairly similar in form to that of the Way of the Master, but the exact soteriological climax--how to get saved--diverges doctrinally. Where the WotM tends to stress the need for the convert to repent of their sins and belief, Pastor Anderson strongly maintains that belief in Christ alone--and not repentance--is sufficient for salvation. Indeed, as I've mentioned, Pastor Anderson maintains a list of ministers and ministries he views as heretical for preaching a doctrine of repentance as necessary to salvation.

Pastor Anderson's sermons attracted my attention early in my studies for a number of reasons. First, they're so widely available thanks to his careful digitizing and archiving efforts. Second, they're excellent examples of a fundamentalist hermeneutic: the Bible--the King James Bible, that is--is as complete and coherent as any singularly written thesis. It delivers propositional truth statements on just about any subject imaginable. What the Bible says about any particular topic may be discovered by examining every mention of that topic in scripture and interpreting those disparate verses as if they were elements of one unified argument. This is a practice dating back to the first "Bible believers" in the late 19th century, who held "Bible readings" consisting of a Bible and a good concordance of terms. With those two tools, went the theory, anyone who could read could easily discover what God says about any issue.

Pastor Anderson, however, seems to rely not on a concordance but mainly on his own extensive memory of scripture. Memorizing scripture is a central element of his ministry, and he has learned a great deal by heart. There is in fact a kind of genius in how he can squeeze doctrinal significance out of the most passing mention of a topic in scripture. He represents a belief in the inerrancy of scripture to a degree that would put most Southern Baptists to shame.

A third reason Pastor Anderson attracted my attention, however, is--how to say it?--his flair for the dramatic. Pastor Anderson's sermon titles often catch the eye, e.g., "The Cup of Devils," "The Sin of Day Care," "The Sorcery of Television," "Why Billy Graham Will Go to Hell," "Barack Obama Melting as a Snail," and of course "Why I Hate Barack Obama."

His delivery challenges stereotypes of the boring, droning minister. A fairly young man by ministerial standards (late 20s, I believe), Pastor Anderson does not immediately strike one as an imposing speaker. His voice is high and rather tight, and he peppers his half-written, half-improvisatory sermons with Midwestern-sounding colloquialisms. "Good night!" is his favorite exclamation of surprise/disbelief: "It says it right here in the Bible! I mean, good night!" "Wicked as the devil" is another, as in "Of course, Abraham had more than one wife, which is wicked as the devil."

But what his voice and rhetoric lack in gravitas, he makes up for in, well, flamboyance. His tone ranges from conversational, breaking-character in-jokes with his congregation to semi-stentorian reading of scripture to high-pitched character voices (complete with lisp, if he's quoting a person for whom he has disdain). His sermons--particularly ones about cultural issues such as feminism, homosexuality, or Barak Obama--often crescendo to a shouting, half-screaming declamation, raising answering "amens" from the men in his audience.

It is in just such a declamation, I don't doubt, that Pastor Anderson delivered the now-infamous lines about wishing Barak Obama harm. Beyond the apparent violence of this statement, though, is the main reason that Pastor Anderson attracts my attention: his doctrine of holy hatred.

More tomorrow,

JF