Hate preacher defends unhinged colleague’s alleged wife-beating in shocking video

A notorious anti-LGBTQ+ Independent Fundamental Baptist (IFB) hate pastor has been caught on tape defending the domestic violence of a fellow hate-mongering preacher in a recently posted covert recording.

In the video recording of a phone conversation between John Anderson — the estranged son of Pastor Steven Anderson of Faithful Word Baptist Church in Tempe, Arizona — and Pastor Jonathan Shelley (a fellow anti-LGBTQ+ IFB leader), Shelley bends over backward to excuse John Anderson’s accusations his father beat his mother with an electrical cord countless times, slapped her hard across the face repeatedly, and left her bloodied on numerous occasions.

Related:

Hate preacher says he’d rather eat his own vomit than be gay in unhinged sermon

He then pretended to eat his own vomit in front of his congregation to show how serious he was.

In the call, John Anderson notes the hypocrisy and deceit his father has displayed, publicly denying accusations by him and his sibling (admitted Nazi Issac Anderson) that Steven Anderson “punched” his wife with a closed fist.

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“My dad’s been meeting with his church members and said, ‘I have never hit my wife, physically laid hands on her,’ which is something that is blatantly not true, because I saw him hit her on a regular basis for years. That’s something my other siblings can attest to. You can ask any of them.”

“It’s important to kind of identify what we’re talking about,” Shelley advises him. “I just want to know from your perspective, you’re saying that you witnessed your dad with a closed fist punch your mom, and you saw that?

“No, I never said that. He slapped her,” John says after detailing the electrical cord beatings and other violent abuse that both he, his siblings and his mother endured.

“I have spoken with your dad about some intimate details. Frankly speaking, he told me that he never closed-fist hit your mom.”

Shelley uses the distinction to justify Steven Anderson’s behavior as “consensual discipline” of a wife by her husband. That distinction, according to Shelley, justifies Steven Anderson’s public denials of his children’s allegations, and the alternative abuse itself.

“Here’s the thing, John,” Shelley says. “I’m not going to disqualify a pastor over domestic abuse because the Bible is silent on that.”

“I asked him if he used physical discipline on your mom,” Shelley continued, “and he told me that whatever he had done between him and your mom was consensual, and that it was behind closed doors, you know, and that whatever his kids were aware of were an exaggeration of what happened.”

Shelley added that wife-beating “in America — that was legal for hundreds of years and exercised by many people regularly.”

John Anderson countered, “Being gay is legal in America right now, and you don’t think that’s okay.”

In response to the audio recording post, Steven Anderson denied the allegations.

Steven Anderson has responded to this video, saying :

"just because I'm a pastor, it doesn't mean that people have the right to know everything that's going on between me and my wife behind the closed doors of our bedroom. It's inappropriate to discuss those things publicly, and…

— Protestia (@Protestia) September 25, 2024

Both Shelley and Steven Anderson preach that homosexuality is a perversion punishable by death.

In 2021, Shelley asked his congregants, “‘Are you sad when f*gs die?’ No. I think it’s great! I hope they all die! I would love it if every f*g would die right now.”

In another sermon, Shelley observed, “If someone walks into a homo bar and shoots ’em all, shoots a bunch of homos and kills all of them, you know how many tears I’d shed for that? Zero,” he said, adding that he doesn’t “care how many of them die” because they “worship the devil.”

Steven Anderson has said we would rather eat his own vomit than be gay in one unhinged sermon. Like his enabler Shelley, violent hatred of gay people is a recurring theme in his theology and church leadership.  

Quoted one Christian commenter in reply to the audio recording post, “Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife… that your prayers be not hindered. It sounds like Stephen Anderson has an uncertain eternity.”

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