The Notebook

Not the good "The Notebook" but my notes taken in the last few years writing about Steven Anderson and the New Independent Fundamentalist Baptist.

These are all notes from my reporter’s notebooks involving the Andersons, Zsuzsanna, Steven and assorted children. I will not be saying anything to do with the kids because I have no wish to make things harder for any of them.

Once John Anderson gave Dead Domain his interview, and Miriam added hers I decided to go back over my notebooks and see if there was anything I’d written about or did the research on to write about in my notebooks.

Years ago when I was writing in local publications I’d been trained by an old hard-boiled newsroom veteran to keep copious notes and hold on to my notebooks. I wish I still had my notebooks from before my move to Costa Rica because I am sure they had all sorts of weird tidbits on the Andersons within. Sadly when I shipped my entire household of possessions down here the Realtor handling the packing of the shipping container bolloxed up the bill of lading, and we had a lengthy strike here that prevented me from fixing the paperwork in a timely fashion. The Aduana folks (import taxation people) seized a certain percentage of our things, including the box with my notebooks from Patheos. C’est la vie!

Anything you see in Italics is my interjection right now, information you need to know to understand the why.

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These came from when “Shiny Happy People” was released in June 2023 and dealt with the inaccuracies surrounding that!

“Lumped Aaron Thompson (NIFB) and Gil Bates together. The IBLP and NIFB are not the same thing and not churches. IBLP is a curriculum and conference machine headed by Bill Gothard. NIFB is a denomination/hate group founded and run by Steven Anderson in much the same way that mob bosses operate. Anderson started his group because his own masculinity is so fragile that he cannot take criticism, or any authority by another male.

Aaron Thompson is the pastor of Sure Foundation Church in Spokane, Washington. He is not a Calvinist, he is not IBLP adjacent!

The NIFB thinks that Josh Duggar (from TLC’s “19 Kids & Counting” and convicted of possessing lots of child pornography) is a Reprobate! Reprobate is their favorite word they trot out towards anyone not NIFB. They claimed to be not worldly enough to watch the Duggar show.

Oddly enough they do not believe in praying for forgiveness, which is in contrast to just about everyone else calling themselves “Christian” They only believe in hellfire for any sin. How very sad!

The thing about the cult-esque nature of the NIFB is that they only exist because this cult leader (Steven Anderson) has managed to manifest his own crazy way of viewing the world through a poisonous cracked lens.

January 2019 – Notes on the murder of Todd Ferguson of The Reason Files on YouTube. Skipping all of this because it involves names of the detectives investigating the suspicious death and details about what I told them in the wake of the suspected murder. Just know that the copious notes exist on what happened back then.

Notes from the December 2018 – January 2019 mess involving Johnathan Shelly, Donnie Romero and a cast of others.

Jonathan Shelly apparently said that there’s a gay ring that deliberately spreads AIDS to straight folks. Make that make some sort of sense!

9-14-2014 Donnie Romero filed non-profit incorporation with the state of Texas for what became Stedfast Baptist Dallas. There were 3 directors, Romero, his wife (unable to make out her name my handwriting was so garbled, Leslie, Lyslee?) and Robert Starnes. Donnie Romero was the original agent in filing.

Romero resigned recently (2019), Starnes was voted out and replaced by Seth Bookout and Gallagle (sic?) and Ryan. These three are now the only ones legally entitled to make decisions about Stedfast Baptist Dallas, but we know who the real controller is – Steven Anderson.

Johnathan Shelly is an employee only of Stedfast and does not sit on the board.

Bear with me because the next bit makes zero sense. Perhaps it will to someone. I didn’t have Kevin in my notes as a board member at that time.

Resigned authorized agent role from Kevin Edelman to Johnathan Shelly.

Steven Anderson apparently picked Johnathan Shelly, there was no vote taken of the board and what pushback Anderson got was shut down through intimidation and manipulation. Since the directors on the board has the final say Anderson illegally installed Shelly bypassing the board and their own bylaws.

It came out that Aaron Thompson of Sure Foundation Baptist NIFB in Vancouver, Washington was using church funds/credit/debit cards at fast food locations and bong shops! This is illegal just based on the rules the IRS attaches to non-profit organizations.

Johnathan Shelly said that those people angry over Thompson’s decisions “Need to go kill themselves.” Can you not just feel the love of Christ oozing from him?

January 2021 -

First Words Baptist NIFB bombed in El Monte, California. Bruce Mejia is the pastor.

Anderson supposedly said recently that only Christians were God’s chosen people, not Jews or Jesus! This lines up with the odd theology I see here and there that believe Christ went to hell for a stretch.

Last bit in these notebooks filled with research on all the high demand religious organizations I write about. It’s after this last bit so I’m not entirely sure the when, but that places it later than January 2021.

Anderson still ensconced as the “Pope of the NIFB” Right now he’s angry that his weird little group is being talked about yet again. An assortment of his weird threats.

“Venomous worst people”

“Eye of bees” – I think it says bees, but my notebook looks like beers and I can hardly believe beers is the right word. I need a beer if I have to keep parsing this nonsense and I’m a non-drinker!

“Praying for the deaths of ex-wives”

The reason that they are in the eyes of media again is due to one of their pastors, a Grayson Fritts, who is also a homicide detective in Tennessee. His church is All Scripture Baptist NIFB and he’s echoed all the horrid things said by Steven Anderson about the LGBTQ community. He has called for the murder of members of that community.

In a rare moral stance Cracker Barrel in Cleveland, Tennessee turned away Fritts and his congregation. They cited their zero tolerance policy for discriminatory treatment or harassment.

It seems like Fritts and others in the NIFB use “soul winning” as a crutch for avoiding doing the things Jesus told believers to do, visit the widows, the sick and the incarcerated and to help others. Fritts also claims that the IFB is prideful with bad spirits and bad attitudes. Called those opposed to him “Very nasty people.”

Jonathan Shelly apparently threatened to cut off his wife’s hands during a recent sermon.

Bruce Mejia is ordering all church members to cut off any contact with former NIFB pastor Tommy McMutry.

Dear heavenly Father I am sick of the drama of these toxic people!

And I’m there again, sick of their dramas and doings! I hope they stay as silent and undergrounds as they seem to be right now.