Steven Anderson

Anderson has created numerous videos on YouTube to promote his beliefs. J.D. Hall of Pulpit & Pen has suggested that Anderson's online presence may be a major contributing factor to the pastor's notoriety, while noting that "Anderson’s “success” is not due merely to the phenomenon of social media influence."

Anderson was scheduled to preach in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, on March 23, 2019. The Dutch government began looking into banning Anderson from entering the Netherlands on April 24, leading to the factual ban from the Netherlands, and the rest of the European Union's Schengen area on May 1. According to the Dutch state secretary, there is "no space for discrimination or the encouragement of hate, intolerance or violence in a democratic rechtsstaat like ours".

As of early May 2019, Anderson is banned from both the European Union's Schengen Area and most recently the Republic of Ireland, which banned him on May 12.

On July 23, 2019, Anderson was denied entry to Australia.

On August 7, 2019, Anderson was denied entry to New Zealand.

On January 29, 2018, Anderson was banned from entering Jamaica.

Anderson was denied entry to Canada on November 10, 2017.

Anderson has been banned from numerous countries and he has been arrested. Despite advocating criminalization of homosexuality and abortion, the Southern Poverty Law Center has referred to Anderson's promotion of strong libertarian views, operating a website titled True Sons of Liberty where he recommends elimination of the Internal Revenue Service, the Federal Reserve Bank, the Social Security Administration, and child protective services. Anderson has appeared on InfoWars on numerous occasions, and the InfoWars store used to offer for sale video productions by Anderson. In a 2016 video, Anderson explained that he used to be a supporter of Alex Jones but now denounces him.

Anderson has been banned from dozens of countries, including every English-speaking developed country (other than the United States, his home country) and most English-speaking African countries. In September 2016, after Anderson had announced his intention to travel to South Africa, Malusi Gigaba, the Minister for Home Affairs banned Anderson and his followers, citing the Constitution of South Africa and stating "I have identified Steven Anderson as an undesirable person to travel to South Africa".

Anderson was also banned from entering the United Kingdom, leading him to change his travel route to Botswana by flying via Ethiopia. On September 20, 2016, Anderson was banned and deported from Botswana.

In March 2015, Anderson produced a documentary titled Marching to Zion, in which he argued that the anticipated Jewish messiah is the Antichrist, the Star of David is, in fact, the Star of Remphan, and the Talmud is blasphemous. In May 2015, Anderson posted a YouTube video, titled The Holocaust Hoax Exposed, promoting Holocaust denial.

At his arraignment on April 2009, Anderson pleaded not guilty to two misdemeanor counts of resisting a lawful order. He was acquitted of the two charges by a jury in August 2010. In 2015, Anderson created a documentary style video about the 2009 incident titled Failure to Obey and published it on YouTube.

The church received national attention in the United States in August 2009, when Anderson was reported to have delivered a sermon—entitled "Why I Hate Barack Obama"—in which he said he prayed for the death of the president.

Anderson established Faithful Word Baptist Church as a fundamentalist Independent Baptist church in Tempe, Arizona, on Christmas Day in December 2005 and remains its pastor. The church describes itself as "an old-fashioned, independent, fundamental, King James Bible–only, soul-winning Baptist church." Members of the church meet in an office space that is located inside a strip mall.

Anderson met his wife Zsuzsanna in Munich, Bavaria, by presenting her with a gospel tract. Prior to meeting Anderson, she had been raised Catholic and had become an agnostic as a young adult. After converting Zsuzsanna to fundamentalist Protestant Christianity, the couple married in 2000 and they currently have eleven children whom they homeschool.

Steven Anderson (born July 24, 1981) is an American pastor of the Faithful Word Baptist Church in Tempe, Arizona. Anderson is known as the founder of the controversial New Independent Fundamental Baptist movement, and has received international notoriety and condemnation for praying for the death of certain public figures including former U.S. president Barack Obama and Caitlyn Jenner, and advocating the death penalty for homosexuals. Anderson has also received media attention for publishing a documentary titled Marching to Zion, which the Anti-Defamation League described as being anti-semitic. Anderson has been banned from many countries, including Jamaica, Canada, the Schengen Area which is made up of 22 of the 27 European Union countries, the Republic of Ireland Australia, and New Zealand.

Steven L. Anderson was born in 1981 in Sacramento, California, and attended Woodcreek High School, a public school in Roseville. Anderson has been involved in Independent Baptist ministry since age 18, when he travelled to Europe to proselytize.