Chris Broughton, the man who brought an assault rifle and a handgun to the Obama event in Arizona last week, attended a fiery anti-Obama sermon the day before the event, in which Pastor Steven Anderson said he was going to “pray for Barack Obama to die and go to hell”, Anderson confirmed to TPMmuckraker today.
Anderson also said Broughton had informed the pastor about his planned show of arms-bearing, but “he planned out the AR15 thing long before he heard that sermon,” delivered Sunday August 16 at the fundamentalist Faithful Word Baptist Church in Tempe, AZ.
This is the second example of the gun-toters at the Arizona Obama event tied to the violent fringes of American life.
“I don’t obey Barack Obama. And I’d like Barack Obama to melt like a snail tonight,” Anderson said in the sermon.
The sermon, which was titled “Why I Hate Barack Obama” and also contained virulent anti-gay themes, continued:
… you’re going to tell me that I’m supposed to pray for the socialist devil, murderer, infanticide, who wants to see young children and he wants to see babies killed through abortion and partial-birth abortion and all these different things — you’re gonna tell me I’m supposed to pray for God to give him a good lunch tomorrow while he’s in Phoenix, Arizona?
Nope. I’m not gonna pray for his good. I’m going to pray that he dies and goes to hell.
Listen to the full sermon here:
Anderson told TPMmuckraker today that Broughton, who also has ties to right-wing groups, joined the church about three months ago.
The pastor said he encouraged Broughton to make sure he would not run afoul of any federal laws. And he insisted he was not encouraging acts of violence toward the president.
“No where in the sermon did I advocate vigilantism,” Anderson said today, reached at the church. “It’s a spiritual battle.”
He continued: “I’d rather have him die of natural causes anyway, that way he’s not some martyr. I’m praying for him to die just so he gets what he deserves.”
The connection between Broughton and Anderson was first pointed out by the Phoenix New Times. During an appearance on the radio show of noted conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, Broughton mentioned that Anderson was his pastor.
On his blog, Anderson posted a video of Broughton at the Obama event under the headline “Brother Chris carries an AR to Obama event ‘because he can'”.
The post contains only this text: “Good job, Chris!”
