Steven Anderson and the Right to be Wrong
Pastor Anderson Preaches About his Hate for President Obama
Sep 10, 2009
The recently infamous Pastor Steven Anderson of the Faithful Word Baptist Church in Tempe, Arizona joins an ever-increasing line of preachers of hate. Styling himself after such notable purveyors of hate speech as Fred Phelps, or Aryan Nation Pastor Richard G. Butler, Anderson is making a name for himself as the pastor who hates President Obama and prays for his death.
The Right to be Wrong
No one denies Pastor Anderson his right to express his opinion on matters of politics and religion. However, while his political views are his alone, when it comes to his Christian theology, other pastors, teachers and Christian theologians have the right to say whether he is correctly teaching Christian theology and doctrine. Most Christian theologians will agree that Pastor Anderson is dead wrong. In fact, the majority of the preachers of hate and many Fundamentalist preachers, as well, make the same theological blunder as Pastor Anderson. They forget about the doctrine of “continuing revelation.”
Continuing revelation is a foundational concept in Christian theology. It means that God has continued to reveal aspects about Himself to humankind throughout history, moving from the general to the more refined. Time, human intelligence, and developing human societies have allowed God to reveal more about Himself as the ages have passed.
Continuing Revelation in the Old Testament
The Jewish Bible, called by Christians the Old Testament, contains this continuing revelation couched in the history of the Jewish people. It is clear from the Old Testament that what the Prophets of the seventh and eighth century BCE understood about God was very different from what the Judges (fourteenth through eleventh centuries BCE) or the priests of the United Kingdom (tenth Century BCE) era believed.
Continuing revelation for Christians means that Jesus revealed aspects about God that were new to Judaism. In many cases, Jesus’ teachings were not entirely new but contained new emphasis, meaning, and application.
For Christians, accepting Jesus as Savior and Lord, means accepting the continuing revelation that Jesus brought in his teachings. Jesus’ person, work, and continuing revelation came as a complete package, if one accepts Jesus as “Savior and Lord,” they must also accept the new revelations he gave his followers.
Jesus’ New Revelations
What exactly are Jesus’ new revelations? They are contained most systematically in what is called the “Sermon on the Mount”. Found in the Gospel of Matthew chapters five through seven, the Sermon on the Mount contains new information on what the attitudes and actions of a follower of Jesus should be like.
In the beginning of chapter five, we have the Beatitudes, delineating the characteristics of a follower of Jesus. Among the follower’s attributes is being “poor in spirit,” “meek,” having a “hunger and thirst after righteousness,” also, “merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers,” and being willing to stand up to persecution for living like this. (Matt. 5: 2-12)
The Sermon on the Mount Teaches Love
From the Sermon on the Mount, it is clear that Jesus was completely aware that he was offering continuing revelation. Verses 21 through 48 in chapter five are known as the “…but I say unto you…” passages, verses where Jesus openly expands their meaning for a new age.
In these verses, Jesus takes a teaching common in the Judaism of his day, and gives to it a new or amplified meaning. For example in verses 21- 26, he explains that the new understanding of God’s commandment not to murder includes injunctions against anger and hatred. Jesus teaches that being angry at, and/or hating someone is the same as having killed them and the punishment is the same.
Likewise, in the rest of these verses Jesus makes the same new revelations about adultery, divorce, swearing oaths, revenge, and treatment of one’s enemies. These last two are of most importance when dealing with the modern hate preachers. In verses 38-42 Jesus clearly expands the teaching of his day on justice and revenge by saying that “…an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth…” is replaced with an attitude of forgiveness, service, and rejecting revenge.
In verses 43-48 Jesus tells those who would be his followers that loving their neighbor is not enough. His new teaching, his continuing revelation, is that we are to also love our enemies and pray for them, not that they will die, but that God in heaven bless them and send good things their way.
Rejecting the Continuing Revelation
This is where the preachers of hate fall down in their commitment to Jesus: They refuse to follow his teachings on the subjects of justice, revenge, and treatment of their enemies.
Pastor Anderson can disagree with President Obama politically, yet his behavior is wrong in a Christian sense since to pray for his death is to ignore Jesus’ clear teaching.
Also, some Christians may argue that preachers and fundamentalist proponents of judgment and violence against homosexuals (like Fred Phelps), pro-choice advocates and clinics, and non-white races, all disregard Jesus’ continuing revelation, and go back to specifically chosen laws from ancient Judaism for the justification of their attitudes and actions.
When Pastor Anderson preaches, that God hates some people (and therefore he can hate them also) his commitment to Jesus Christ can be questioned because as a Christian pastor, he is looking back to laws that no longer apply to Christians in order to justify the hatred and violence within his own heart.
It is here that Pastor Steven Anderson, as a Christian, is dead wrong in many minds and most Christians would argue that he needs to correct his teachings. His attitudes are wrong in a Christian sense, and to hold onto them and to teach them to others is rejecting Jesus and his teaching.
Some would also argue that he is also rejecting the continuing revelation of the New Testament that teaches “…God is love…” (1 John 4:16-21), and that Christians are to love as God loves. Rather, Pastor Anderson prefers a God of judgment and condemnation, as God was understood, in times past, by some in ancient Judaism.
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