There are a lot of reasons why this pandemic has lasted so long. One big reason is that a disturbing number of churches have thrown caution to the winds and refused to take even basic steps to keep their communities safe.
There have been a lot of particularly egregious offenders here. Like Rich Vera, who not only kept his Orlando church open for Easter 2020, but invited people to come if their own church closed. Or Jennifer LeClaire, who claimed that Christians need to gather in large numbers to snuff out the virus. Or Tony Spell, who famously bused in people from nearby areas to his church in Baton Rouge even in the midst of a stay-at-home order in a state suffering one of the worst outbreaks in the nation at the time. Or John MacArthur, who appears to have covered up a COVID-19 outbreak during the winter surge.
But none of them can hold a candle to Greg Locke, the so-called pastor of Global Vision Bible Church in Mount Juliet, Tennessee, a suburb of Nashville. Two weeks ago, he declared that anyone who shows up to his church with a mask will be thrown out. Now he’s gone as far as to forbid anyone in his flock from getting vaccinated.
Just days after Locke declared that he would turn away anyone who wears a mask, he took to Facebook to declare that he was posting giant signs at his church declaring Global Vision “a mask-free campus.”
Locke googled down even further this past Sunday. One of my longtime followers tipped me off to this clip snagged by Right Wing Watch.
After repeating his claim from the previous Sunday that the delta variant was “nonsense then and is nonsense now,” Locke reiterated his fatwa against wearing masks. He then took it further, yelling, “Do not get vaccinated! DO NOT GET VACCINATED!”
I had to listen to this twice in order to believe it after one of my longtime followers alerted me. But unfortunately, this isn’t snark. Watch the whole thing here; Locke’s rant starts about 58 minutes in, when he claims religious freedom is under attack.
If I’m listening to this right, Locke is saying that the First Amendment allows him to show complete and total disregard for others’ health and safety. That’s harsh, I know. But telling people not to get vaccinated in the face of overwhelming data showing nearly all major COVID cases involve unvaccinated people? That is beyond comprehension. Indeed, as I write this, over 90% of all cases, hospitalizations, and deaths in Tennessee are among unvaccinated people.
Locke better have some really good lawyers. After all, if anyone gets sick or even dies and it can be traced back to his church, he better prepare to be sued. And yes, he can absolutely be held responsible. In churches like this, whatever the pastor says is the law. After all, to these people, disobeying your pastor is tantamount to disobeying God.
I’ve seen some pretty outrageous stuff from pastors in my time, but this is one of the worst, if not the worst. It can’t be stated loudly enough—Greg Locke is killing people.