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US Christian pastor says Orlando shooting has left ’50 fewer paedophiles in this world’

By Anthony Lorenzo

A Christian fundamentalist pastor has released a video saying the 49 victims killed by gunman Omar Mateen at an Orlando gay club on Sunday deserved death – and that he wishes more had been killed in the atrocity.

Steven Anderson, a pastor in Arizona who is known for inciting hatred against the LGBT community, said: “The good news is that there’re 50 fewer paedophiles in this world… these homosexuals are a bunch of disgusting perverts and paedophiles.

“‘The Bible says that homosexuals should be put to death… obviously, it’s not right for somebody to just shoot up the place because that’s not going through the proper channels.

“But these people should have been killed anyway but killed through the proper channels… they should have been executed by a righteous government.”

Sunday's  atrocity at Pulse club left 49 people dead.

Chillingly, he then expressed a wish that more had died: “The bad news is that a lot of the homos in the bar are still alive, so they’re going to continue to molest children and recruit children into their filthy homosexual lifestyle.”

He finished by saying he was looking on the ‘bright side’- “at least they’re off the streets”.

Youtube removed the video for violating hate speech rules, but other hate-filled videos remain.

The video sparks discussion over whether Islam has a problem with homosexuality, or whether in fact, large organised religions in general have. Anderson’s comments incited murder, which potentially galvanises disturbed people such as Omar Mateen to act on their murderous impulses.

Watch Anderson’s left-field take on homosexuality here:

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Orlando gay club shooting: The victims