April 19, 2021

"Pastor" Greg Locke is the principal preacher at Global Vision Bible Church in Tennessee. He also refuses to accept that Joe Biden is president, is an anti-vax whack, and counters his own church's mission statement by introducing politics into literally everything, even a good old fashioned tent revival.

"What God's looking for are people under this tent, people online that he wants to put in charge of some stuff," Locke preached. "There is no reason the church of the living God and the kingdom of Jesus Christ should not rule this nation."

Spinning up his energy and the level of his voice, he justified himself by claiming, "The Bible says that the Kingdom of God suffereth violence."

"And those that truly follow Jesus Christ take it by force!" he shouted with a fist in the air.

Except, that's not what Matthew 11:12 -- the verse he was quoting -- says. Here's what it says: "From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been subjected to violence, and violent people have been raiding it."

The "kingdom of heaven" is a term used throughout the New Testament, but it never, ever refers to the United States of America. And it certainly isn't a call to violence, but instead a lament against it.

This is how these fundamentalist dominionist preachers lie to their congregations. It's evil, and it begs for taxation of churches.

Right Wing Watch was kind enough to capture the video and post it to Twitter. There were thoughts.

Yes, this "pastor" is agitating for a holy war. And at some point, there should be a price for this kind of abuse of the First Amendment.

Can you help us out?

For nearly 20 years we have been exposing Washington lies and untangling media deceit, but now Facebook is drowning us in an ocean of right wing lies. Please give a one-time or recurring donation, or buy a year's subscription for an ad-free experience. Thank you.

Discussion

We welcome relevant, respectful comments. Any comments that are sexist or in any other way deemed hateful by our staff will be deleted and constitute grounds for a ban from posting on the site. Please refer to our Terms of Service for information on our posting policy.
Mastodon