‘Kill the gays’ pastor shown door by Festival Mall franchises
'I'm hiring natives to translate all of my blog posts into Afrikaans language. Take that, South Africa!'
A US pastor who made headlines for praising the mass killings of 49 people at a gay nightclub in Florida, is still coming to South Africa despite three Kempton Park businesses closing their doors to him.
“I’m hiring natives to translate all of my blog posts into Afrikaans language. Take that, South Africa! Eight articles are already up on the church website,” Pastor Steven L Anderson of the Faithful Word Baptist Church in Phoenix, Arizona, posted on the church’s Facebook page earlier this week.
Since the news of his “soul-winning marathon” broke, Spur Festival Mall, Wimpy Festival Mall and OR Tambo Protea Hotel in Rhodesfield said Anderson was not welcome there.
In two videos (one in Afrikaans and the other in English) Anderson posted on his Facebook page on Wednesday he confirmed he would still visit South Africa in September. He would have preached at OR Tambo Protea Hotel on September 18 at 7pm but is now looking for a new venue.
He planned to have breakfast at Spur and later lunch at Wimpy, both in Festivall Mall. Both fast food franchises told him they would be having none of his anti-gay preaching.
Spur Steak Ranches tweeted on Tuesday: “We, as the Spur Group, are reserving our right to prohibit this person [from] entering any Spur restaurants as his views are contrary to the non-discriminatory and openly tolerant stance of our brand.”
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• Festival Mall: Pastor will summarily be removed if he preaches here
A statement by Wimpy head office on its Facebook page, read: “Wimpy firmly endorses the South African constitution and prides itself on its non-discriminatory policy across gender, sexual orientation, race and creed. It has been brought to our attention that Pastor Steven Anderson will be visiting South Africa and plans to hold a lunch at a Wimpy restaurant.
“Anderson is widely recognised for his homophobic pronouncements and has been accused of inciting hate speech. Wimpy has advised Anderson that the business will not permit him to conduct public preaching or religious gatherings in its restaurants. Wimpy reserves the right to prohibit him from entering any Wimpy restaurant.”
Premier Hotels and Resorts also took the decision to deny him entry. In a statement the group said:
“The Premier Hotels & Resorts Group has taken the decision to decline a booking by Pastor Steven Anderson at Premier Hotel OR Tambo on the 18th of September 2016. This decision was taken when it was brought to our attention that some of the contents of his sermons contradict the Bill of Rights contained within the South African constitution.
“This particularly relates to clause 9.3 which states that “No person may unfairly discriminate directly or indirectly against anyone on one or more grounds, including…sexual orientation…”
“As a South African company, we support the democratic values of human dignity, equality and freedom laid out in this cornerstone of our country’s democracy. We reserve the right of admission to any of our properties and will be exercising this right in this instance.”
In retaliation to this, Anderson’s church, on Facebook, asked everyone to give the Premier Hotel OR Tambo a one-star review for cancelling the reservation.
“They didn’t even bother emailing us and telling us. We had to find out from their public Facebook page! We already wire transferred them about $800 and they haven’t given us our money back!”
