Wimpy comes to the party – also bans gay hate pastor

Wimpy has taken a more forceful stance against Steven Anderson, the gay hate pastor planning to visit Johannesburg in September.

In a new statement issued on Wednesday, the restaurant chain said that it “firmly endorses the South African constitution and prides itself on its non-discriminatory policy across gender, sexual orientation, race and creed”.

Marketing Manager Luise Peters commented that, “Wimpy has advised Anderson that the business will not permit him to conduct public preaching or religious gatherings in its restaurants.”

Peters added: “Wimpy reserves the right to prohibit him from entering any Wimpy restaurant.”

The company appears to have hardened its position towards Anderson; it had previously stated that “unfortunately we are unable to refuse him entry”.

Meanwhile, Anderson has lashed out on Facebook at the Premier Hotel OR Tambo which has cancelled his reservation in response to a growing campaign against his visit.

“Everyone, please give the Premier Hotel OR Tambo a 1 star review for cancelling our reservation,” he fumed. “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!”

Anderson has convinced a South African to translate a number of his blog posts into Afrikaans. It’s unclear why he chose Afrikaans instead of one of the more widely spoken languages in the country.

The pastor has at least one other supporter in South Africa. A Chaz Nielsen in Edenvale, who ranted on Facebook:

“I think it’s disgusting how you people attack this man and go out of your way to stop his ministry from spreading the gospel to countries that clearly need it. Yes, SA desperately needs some Hard Preaching on sin – look at what this country has become: with Aids, Abortion, Corruption and Sodomy running wild here like never before!”

There has been no word from the government on a petition, which now has almost 3,000 signatories, for it to not allow Anderson into the country.

The event page promoting Anderson’s 18 September “Soulwinning Marathon” in Johannesburg has been inundated by outraged posts from members of the LGBT community and its supporters.

The community has also responded with plans to hold a Gay Day Shopping and Dining protest at Festival Mall, or wherever the pastor ends up preaching his twisted beliefs.

“Dress as Gay as you can and join us for a day of dining and shopping at Festival Mall in peaceful protest at this hate monger spreading his homophobic message in SA,” said the organisers.

Anderson, who heads up Tempe’s Faithful Word Baptist Church, has stated that killing gay people would free the world from the AIDS epidemic. “…if you executed the homos like God recommends, you wouldn’t have all this AIDS running rampant,” he said in 2014.

Most recently, Anderson praised the slaughter of 49 (at first thought to be 50) people at the Pulse gay nightclub in Orlando. “The good news is that there’s 50 less paedophiles in this world, because, you know, these homosexuals are a bunch of disgusting perverts and paedophiles,” he proclaimed in a YouTube video the day after the massacre.

You can sign the petition to keep Anderson out of South African here.