LGBTQ+ · Sacramento

What Sacramento’s connection is to pastor Steven Anderson

A backgrounder on Steven Anderson, the Sacramento-born preacher whose anti-LGBTQ advocacy became part of his public profile.

By KLGBT News Desk · October 4, 2026

Contextual Wikimedia Commons photograph: West Sacramento (also known as West Sac) is a city in Yolo County, California. The city is separated from Sacramento by the Sacramento River which also separates Sacramento and Yolo counties. It is a fast-growing community; the population was 48,744 at the 2010 census, up from 31,615 at the 2000 census. The traditional industrial center of the region since the Gold Rush era, West Sacramento is hom Ken Lund from Reno, Nevada, USA — CC BY-SA 2.0

Steven Lee Anderson is a preacher, filmmaker and religious movement founder who was born in Sacramento, according to the supplied biographical material. He later became pastor of Faithful Word Baptist Church in Phoenix, Arizona, and founded the New Independent Fundamental Baptist movement. His Sacramento connection is therefore biographical rather than institutional: the extract identifies the city as his birthplace, while locating his church and ministry in Arizona.

Anderson’s public record, as summarized in the source, includes advocacy for the death penalty for homosexual people. He also prayed for the deaths of former President Barack Obama and media personality Caitlyn Jenner. Those positions place hostility toward LGBTQ+ people at the center of how his public work has been described, particularly for readers tracking the spread and reach of anti-LGBTQ+ religious rhetoric.

The extract also describes Anderson as a critic of the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church and other Christian denominations. That broader opposition to other faith traditions is presented alongside his LGBTQ-related views, rather than as a separate part of his public identity. He produced a documentary called *Marching to Zion*. Matthew H. Brittingham of Emory University characterized that film as promoting a broad set of antisemitic stereotypes, according to the source material.

Anderson and his supporters are described as adherents of Young Earth creationism. The extract says Anderson uses his own calculations for the age of the Earth, placing creation at 4234 B.C., rather than following the Ussher chronology commonly associated with a 4004 B.C. date.

His activities have also drawn international restrictions. The source lists bans or exclusions involving South Africa, the United Kingdom, Botswana, Canada, Jamaica, the Schengen Area, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. The extract does not provide the dates, legal mechanisms or individual reasons for each country or region’s action, so those details should not be inferred from this summary.

For Sacramento readers, the key local point is the link between the city and a nationally and internationally known religious figure whose stated position on homosexuality has been explicitly punitive. The available material does not identify a Sacramento church, organization or event connected to Anderson. It supports a concise background profile of a Sacramento-born pastor and the anti-LGBTQ+ views associated with his public ministry, but not claims about his current presence or activity in the city.

Source and reuse information This automatically generated backgrounder adapts text from “Steven Anderson (pastor)” on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Anderson_(pastor) The adapted text is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license (CC BY-SA 4.0): https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/. The source article’s linked references are provided below where available. This story has not been independently reviewed or fact-checked.

Further links listed by the Wikipedia page (not independently checked): - https://www.adl.org/news/press-releases/adl-deeply-troubled-at-upcoming-documentary-film-denigrating-jews-and-judaism - https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/anti-gay-preacher-is-first-ever-banned-from-ireland-under-exclusion-powers-1.3889848 - https://web.archive.org/web/20190723204607/https://www.premier.org.uk/News/World/Australia-becomes-33rd-country-to-ban-entry-to-pastor-who-said-gay-people-should-die - https://www.premier.org.uk/News/World/Australia-becomes-33rd-country-to-ban-entry-to-pastor-who-said-gay-people-should-die - https://www.adl.org/blog/anti-semitic-pastor-steve-anderson-promotes-holocaust-denial - https://web.archive.org/web/20090907070635/http://www.bet.com/WebApplications/betRoot/shared/templates/ArticleCols-2.aspx?NRMODE=Published&NRORIGINALURL=/News/National_Phoenixs_Messenger_of_Hate.htm&NRNODEGUID=%7B3A08B4EB-4A5E-4507-B64B-BEB3F3E7E221%7D&NRCACHEHINT=Guest Image rights Photograph description: West Sacramento (also known as West Sac) is a city in Yolo County, California. The city is separated from Sacramento by the Sacramento River which also separates Sacramento and Yolo counties. It is a fast-growing community; the population was 48,744 at the 2010 census, up from 31,615 at the 2000 census. The traditional industrial center of the region since the Gold Rush era, West Sacramento is hom Creator: Ken Lund from Reno, Nevada, USA. License: CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0). Original image page: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AEntering_West_Sacramento%2C_California%2C_Interstate_80_(26101132156).jpg. The image was resized for display; no other changes were made.