Washington - Most African countries have laws against homosexuality. Perhaps US pastor Steven Anderson thought he would be welcomed in Botswana with open arms.
The Tempe, Arizona pastor managed to enter the country, and get on the radio there. On the air, he said the people killed at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, this summer were "disgusting homosexuals who the Bible says were worthy of death".
AFP reports that he was speaking to Gabz FM on Tuesday morning. He criticised "drunkenness and alcoholism" in Botswana, and repeated his views on homosexuality, calling a gay guest on the show "disgusting".
"He should be killed," the pastor said.
Anderson reportedly also used the interview to call for paedophiles and adulterers to be killed and to say that the Bible barred women from preaching in church. He also claimed that he had reached Botswana by way of Ethiopia.
Police then arrived at the radio station and initiated a deportation procedure.
"He was picked up at the radio station. I said they should pick him up and show him out of the country," Botswana's president, Ian Khama, said in an interview with Reuters. "We don't want hate speech in this country. Let him do it in his own country."
Ironically, Botswana criminalises homosexuality. Although the law is seldom enforced, homosexual acts can be punished with a large fine or up to seven years of imprisonment.
The full radio interview (58 minutes long)
undefinedAnderson has said that his planned Africa tour is a "soul-winning marathon" and is not focused on demonising gays and lesbians.
The Christian preacher arrived in Botswana last Thursday for a "soul-winning" event, just days after he was banned from visiting neighbouring South Africa over his characterisation of gays as "sodomites" and "paedophiles."
According to a Reuters report, Anderson denied that he was being deported. On his church's Facebook page, he said his brief visit to Botswana was a success.
Who is Steven Anderson?
Anderson leads the Faithful Word Baptist Church in Arizona. He gained notoriety after the Orlando attack in June for saying that the shootings meant "there's 50 less pedophiles in this world."
Steven Anderson's message is conveyed in his church's doctrinal statement, which says that "homosexuality is a sin and an abomination which God punishes with the death penalty."
A Holocaust denier, he prayed for the death of US President Barack Obama in 2009 over his pro-choice stance on abortion, and called the victims of the November 2015 attack on the Bataclan nightclub in Paris "devil worshippers".
Washington Post, AFP