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HARVARD'S REPUBLICAN PIT BULL

Anderson, meanwhile, responded with a devil-may-care attitude: "If the administration doesn't like us, if gay groups don't like us, tough luck."

NOW While Anderson's immediate plans these days are to finish his thesis on wealth and to equality in Jamaica and work towards a post-graduation career in the Navy, he has not abandoned his politics.

His position on homosexuality was clearer than ever after The Rev. Peter J. Gomes, who is minister of Memorial Church, identified himself as gay at a public event in November.

"I was utterly shocked," Anderson says. "He's a brilliant speaker and a personable man, but when it comes to central issues of faith, you can't ignore his blatant disregard for Christian teaching."

Anderson strongly condemns Gomes and has repeatedly urged that he resign as minister "unless he professes homosexuality to be a sin within the Christian religion."

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"It's not the fact that he's a homosexual...it's that he won't admit that homosexuality is sinful," Anderson says.

Anderson says he attended Memorial Church for three years before discovering that Gomes was gay.

Anderson has not toned down his views in the last several years, although his current presidency of the campus Conservative Club places him in a lower profile position than he had two years ago.

"The Conservative Club is a much more intellectually-based group," Anderson says, adding that members spend a great deal of time discussing political doctrines.

If you don't understand the underpinnings of your arguments," he says, "you won't be able to espouse them as effectively."

This semester, the Conservative Club will send members to New Hampshire campaigning for Republican Presidential Candidate Pat Buchanan and President Bush.

In addition, Anderson says that a coalition of campus conservatives will launch full-scale campaign against Gomes.

Like the writers of Peninsula, Anderson continues to emphasize Harvard's origins as a Christian university.

"Harvard is a landmark for Christians in this country. When they hear the minister is gay, they're disillusioned."

And though he is criticized for his views, he maintains--as he always has--that he is in line with the bulk of American conservatives.

"All I've ever tried to do," he says, "is espouse mainstream, conservative values that I feel are essential for America's growth and prosperity."

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