Activists in Botswana are calling on
the government to bar Pastor Steven Anderson from entering the
country.
More than 2,300 people have signed a
Change.org petition calling on the government to deny entry to
Anderson, who ministers at the Faithful Word Baptist Church in Tempe,
Arizona.
“By calling for the killing of gay
people, Pastor Anderson's messages are homophobic and condone
violence against fellow human beings and a group that is already
marginalized,” reads the petition.
Anderson gained national headlines in
2014 when he posted video of a sermon he gave in which he claimed to
have discovered “the cure for AIDS.”
“[W]e can have an AIDS-free world by
Christmas,” he said. “Because if you execute the homos like God
recommends, you wouldn't have all this AIDS running rampant.”
More recently, Anderson cheered the
June mass shooting in an Orlando gay nightclub that left 49 people
dead and wounded dozens.
(Related: Anti-gay
pastor Steven Anderson prays for God to rip out Caitlyn Jenner's
heart.)
South Africa, which borders Botswana,
announced earlier this week that Anderson would not be allowed to
attend a “soul-winning marathon” being held by a local church in
Johannesburg. The government said that it acted because Anderson and
members of his church promote hate speech and “social violence.”
According to Anderson's Facebook page,
he arrived in Botswana on Thursday. But other reports indicate a
September 23 arrival.