Arizona pastor calls for execution of gay people, says it will wipe out AIDS

An Arizona Baptist pastor has claimed that the solution to the AIDS pandemic is the execution of all homosexuals.

Rev Steven Anderson, pastor of Faithful Word Baptist Church in Tempe, Arizona. FWBC

In an astonishing sermon preached the day before World Aids Day entitled AIDS: The Judgment of God, Rev Stephen Anderson, pastor of Faithful Word Baptist Church in Tempe, said that it was possible to achieve achieve an "AIDS-free Christmas".

In remarks that have caused widespread outrage, Anderson said: "Turn to Leviticus 20:13 because I actually discovered the cure for AIDS. This is the cure for AIDS. Everyone is talking about 'let's have an AIDS free world by 2020.' Look, we can have an AIDS free world by Christmas. OK, it wouldn't be totally AIDS-free, but we'd be 90-something per cent AIDS-free by Christmas if we follow this."

Reading the Leviticus passage, he said: "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. And that, my friend, is the cure for AIDS," he said. "It was right there in the Bible all along — and they're out spending billions of dollars in research and testing. It's curable — right there. Because if you executed the homos like God recommends, you wouldn't have all this AIDS running rampant."

He also describes President Obama in the sermon as a "bastard", explaining that the expression was "not a cuss-word" but referred to the child of an unwed mother (in fact Obama's parents were married when he was born).

He reportedly received a visit from the Secret Service after openly praying in 2009 and again this year for the death of President Barack Obama. He has also preached on "the lying, evil ways of Jewish people".

News
Druze convert and family killed in Syrian violence
Druze convert and family killed in Syrian violence

He was killed for being a Druze, rather than for his Christian faith, according to an Open Doors partner.

Will the Church of England save the Tories?
Will the Church of England save the Tories?

The Church of England has often been described as "the Tory Party at prayer".

Age verification on pornography websites welcomed
Age verification on pornography websites welcomed

The average child in the UK will first see online pornography at age 13.

Bishop of Sheffield to head Orgreave inquiry
Bishop of Sheffield to head Orgreave inquiry

Bishop Wilcox acknowledged the “weight of expectation” surrounding the inquiry.