Steve Doty

September 9, 2009
Speech Story

Despite the negative attention Pastor Steven Anderson and his Faithful Word

Baptist Church have received in recent days, his sermons continued as scheduled Sunday

night.

Preaching from the King James Bible, Steven Anderson addressed over twenty

members Sunday night at the Faithful Word Baptist Church in Tempe.

Anderson’s message Sunday night was to let his members know that when they

live a Godly life and preach the word of God they will eventually be persecuted. Pastor

Anderson cited the crucifixion of Jesus as an example of living a Godly life and being

persecuted.

“If you follow Christ and you live according to the Bible you’re going to be

persecuted,” Brett Riley said when asked what the general idea of Sunday night’s sermon

was.

Brett has been attending the Faithful Word Baptist Church in Tempe for one year.

“The main thing that caught my attention was all the soul-winning,” Brett said.

Members of the Faithful Word Baptist Church go door-to-door weekly in search of

adding new members to their church and Brett said this was something that was very

interesting to him.

Matt Stucky had the same interpretation as Brett Riley when asked about the

sermon. Matt said the righteous are persecuted because they follow God. Matt moved to

Arizona from West Virginia after college so he could become a member of the Faithful

Word Baptist Church.

 Pastor Anderson’s sermon was filled with enormous amounts of emotion. The

crowd was shouting in agreement with Anderson’s words and at times Anderson would

escalate his voice to near shouting while pacing back and forth in front of the crowd.

Anderson even received praise and an ‘amen’ from a small child in the front row.

Anderson encouraged his members to read the Bible cover to cover and to

become rooted. Anderson told his members that if they become rooted in the ground

faithfully then they will be able to withstand the fight and persecution.

Pastor Anderson has been in the news recently for his remarks during a sermon on

August 16, 2009. During this sermon entitled, “Why I Hate Barack Obama”, Pastor

Anderson tells his members that he prays for President Obama’s death.

“The devil is running our country,” Pastor Anderson said while making another

negative reference to President Obama.

Despite the negative attention thrown on the church, members are staying faithful

to the Pastor and his beliefs.

“I agree with him, everything he preached,” Brett Riley said referring to the “Why

I Hate Barack Obama” sermon Pastor Anderson gave.

Although fireworks were exploding inside the church during Pastor Anderson’s

sermon, the real fireworks went off after the sermon. Pastor Anderson and a news

reporter got into an argument in which both men were yelling back and forth at each

other outside of the Faithful Word Baptist Church. The argument lasted nearly ten

minutes until Pastor Anderson walked back into the church and locked the door.