Steve Anderson was an enigma to me.  He is a well traveled and intelligent church pastor in Tempe, Arizona who speaks five or so languages.  Yet despite his qualifications he preaches a message of hate, calling for the death of President Barack Obama.  What’s worse is that he believes his message is condoned by God due to an ill-interpreted verse in the Bible.  I tried in vein to argue with Anderson on his position as did Jan-Christoph Wiechmann, the extremely intelligent and highly informed reporter I was traveling with.  After my shoot in the office park where Anderson’s church is housed in a small four-room rental space, we went to lunch with him and his wife and three kids.  I mostly listened and observed as Jan argued with facts and logic and was continually retorted to with articulate yet illogical and immovable opinions from Anderson.  After lunch, the Anderson’s were kind enough to give me a ride in their minivan back to my hotel so I could edit while Jan took the rental car to a coffee shop to write.  I smiled and shook Steve’s hand when he dropped me off, and they drove away I stood baffled as as to how these seemingly good people could house so much hate under the surface for those with differing opinions, and furthermore how they could pin all that on God.  Anderson formerly identified with the Tea Party Movement and was part of a series on the right-wing activists I photographed for Stern.  See more posts here, here and here.

Steve Anderson was an enigma to me.  He is a well traveled and intelligent church pastor in Tempe, Arizona who speaks five or so languages.  Yet despite his qualifications he preaches a message of hate, calling for the death of President Barack Obama.  What's worse is that he believes his message is condoned by ...