The first person to be banned from entering the country of Ireland is an Arizona far-right pastor who’s known for some of the most vicious anti-gay rhetoric to ever emanate from an evangelical figure.
According to The Irish Times, the country’s Minister for Justice, Charlie Flanagan, signed an order to block the entry of Pastor Steven Anderson of the Faithful Word Baptist Church in Tempe, Arizona.
Anderson has reportedly scheduled a trip to Dublin for May 26 and planned to preach to a congregation there.
The order was signed under the country’s 1999 Immigration Act and has been implemented for the first time ever in order to block Anderson.
He also blamed the victims of the massacre at the Bataclan concert hall in Paris, France, back in 2015.
Anderson has also been banned from other counties, which include the U.K., South Africa, Canada, Jamaica, and all countries within the European Union.
Before the order was signed, 14,000 people signed a petition calling for him to be banned. »