Adam Holland: Minister who prayed for Obama's death says Andy Griffith Show causes homosexuality

Pastor Steven L. Anderson of the Faithful Word Baptist Church in Tempe, Arizona has, infamously, prayed in sermons for President Obama's death and posted the videos on the internet. He has repeatedly offered his version of a fatwa, saying that killing the president would not be a crime. (Read here and here.) One of his parishioners, Christopher Broughton, then armed himself with an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle to protest outside a town hall meeting at which President Obama spoke.

I took a look at Anderson's website to get a sense of who Anderson is and what he stands for. Here's an example that may say it all.

As is typical for fundamentalist Christians, Anderson hates homosexuality, but Anderson verges on obsessing about it, and his views on the subject are extreme. He literally advocates that gays should be put to death. As upsetting as this is, I didn't find it surprising; there are sadly many of his ilk among the Christian right. What I found more surprising is what he considers the cause of homosexuality. I found it funny at first, but upon reflection, troubling in its sheer madness. In an essay entitled "Television: the Leaven of the Pharisees" (read here), Pastor Anderson says that the Andy Griffith show and several other 1960s situation comedies are to blame.

Alternative lifestyles

"From the beginning, the producers of television have had an agenda. Even in the most “harmless” of shows, alternative lifestyles are being promoted. Consider, for example, “The Andy Griffith Show.” The show centers around a single parent who lives with his aunt. Admittedly, his wife supposedly died, and he is not divorced. However, we are still being desensitized to the idea of a single parent which is neither the norm nor God’s plan. The show also features a character, Gomer Pile, who is played by a man who is a homosexual in real life.

"Consider the show “The Odd Couple” from the 1960’s. Aside from sinful content, we are being exposed to an alternative lifestyle of two men living together as roommates. Genesis 2:24 tells us God’s normal plan, “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.” Although neither man in the show is a homosexual, this show was obviously a forerunner of the sitcoms of today which feature homosexual characters.

"Consider “The Brady Bunch.” The show is about a widowed man and a widowed woman who have three children each. Now they are married and have six children collectively. This is an extremely rare scenario but mirrors the very common scenario of divorce and remarriage. We are subliminally being exposed to the idea of stepparents and stepchildren which is far more common in divorced situations than in the rare circumstance of young widows.

"If you can see what is wrong with the above examples from forty years ago, you probably do not need me to go into what is wrong with the themes found in today’s television programming."

It's bad enough that armed followers of this guy are roaming around outside presidential speeches, especially in light of the fact that he teaches that killing the president would be a good thing. Knowing that this guy has written that Mayberry RFD was a modern Sodom and Gomorrah at first made me laugh and roll my eyes. But after reflecting on the fact that someone so obviously insane has followers who are willing to act on his words to threaten the president with violence, I'm not sure that this is very funny. Anderson and his followers are a dangerous cult. The absurdity of his beliefs only brings that into sharper focus.