US ‘death to gays’ preacher Steven Anderson banned from Ireland
US anti-gay preacher Steven Anderson has been banned from Ireland ahead of a planned appearance this month (YouTube)
US preacher Steven Anderson, who once called for gay people to be stoned to death, has been banned from entering the Republic of Ireland ahead of a planned appearance later this month.
Anderson—who has gained a reputation for his extreme anti-gay and anti-Semitic views—was scheduled to preach in Dublin later this month. However, the country’s justice minister Charlie Flanagan announced yesterday that his department has taken measures to ban him through an exclusion order “in the interests of public policy.”
Under exclusion legislation in Ireland, the Minister for Justice can ban somebody from entering the country if they consider it “necessary in the interest of national security or public policy.”
A petition calling on Steven Anderson to be banned from Ireland was signed by more than 14,000 people
The ban makes Anderson the first person banned from entering the Republic of Ireland by exclusion powers that were first introduced in 1999, according to The Irish Times.
Anderson’s ban comes after weeks of pressure from LGBT+ activists. A Change.org petition calling on the Irish government to ban him from entering the country has been signed by more than 14,000 people.
The anti-gay pastor was banned from 29 European countries earlier this month, and was banned from entering the UK in 2016.
“The good news is that there’s 50 less paedophiles in this world, because, you know, these homosexuals are a bunch of disgusting perverts and paedophiles.”
– Steven Anderson praised the Orlando massacre in which 49 people were killed in a gay nightclub
Anderson—who is from Arizona—has made headlines for various sermons over the years.
In one sermon, Anderson called for gay people to be executed by stoning, claiming: “If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death. Their blood shall be upon them. That, my friends, is the cure for AIDS. It was right there in the Bible all along.”
Steven Anderson preaching in Arizona (YouTube)
Anderson also openly celebrated the Orlando massacre at the Pulse gay club, telling his congregation: “The good news is that there’s 50 less paedophiles in this world, because, you know, these homosexuals are a bunch of disgusting perverts and paedophiles.”
Ireland is ‘aligning themselves with wickedness’
Anderson responded to the news that he had been banned from Ireland in a sermon yesterday which was posted to his YouTube channel.
“I just got banned from Ireland today,” Anderson said in the video.
“They didn’t inform me, I just saw a YouTube comment directing me to some article somewhere, a news article. I heard it through the grapevine. They could have told me themselves,” he added.
“I’m not discouraged about it. It’s just another country that’s chosen to align themselves with wickedness and reject the man of God coming to preach to them, preaching the gospel, preaching the truth of god’s word, so it’s really on them.”
