Someone thinks he's in Salem in 1692

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Scooter
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Someone thinks he's in Salem in 1692

Post by Scooter »

Tennessee preacher Greg Locke says demons told him names of witches in his church

(RNS) — The offering was over and the worship team at Global Vision Bible Church had just finished singing “Oh How I Love Jesus” when the Rev. Greg Locke began telling his church about his conversations with demons.

Those demons, he said, had revealed the names of a group of “full-blown, spell-casting” witches who’d been sent to infiltrate Global Vision, a nondenominational church east of Nashville, Tennessee, where Locke is pastor.

“To God be the glory, I lie not,” he told the congregation at Global Vision on Sunday (Feb. 13), which was meeting in a packed tent on the church’s property. “We got first and last names of six witches that are in our church. And you know what’s strange, three of you are in this room right now.”

Locke told the congregation that he’d gotten the names while casting a demon out of a woman who had recently begun coming to Global Vision. The preacher, known for his sensationalist sermons about politics and COVID-19 skepticism — went on to describe the exorcism in detail, quoting a demon with scruffy voice who accused worshippers at the church of being witches.

Two of the witches were in his wife’s Bible study, said Locke, who warned the alleged witches not to make a move during his sermon. He then retold the New Testament story of Jesus casting a demon out of a man and into a herd of pigs, turning it into an extended monologue about witches in the church.

“You so much as cough wrong and I’ll expose in front of everybody under this tent, you stinking spell-casting, pharmakeia devil worshipping and mongrel,” he said, using a Greek word that sometimes describes those who practice witchcraft or sorcery. “You were sent to destroy this church.”

In recent years Locke has used his sermons to attack LGBTQ people, accuse Democratic politicians of child abuse, spread claims about election fraud, denounce vaccines and claim that the COVID-19 pandemic is a hoax. During Sunday’s sermon, he blamed witchcraft for an outbreak of illness in the church.

In recent months, vaccine skeptics have claimed that pharmaceutical companies were practicing sorcery by creating the vaccines, because of the resonance with pharmakeia. That led to a surge in searches for Bible verses in 2021, according to Christianity Today, and warnings from pastors and Christian celebrities about the spiritual dangers of the pharmaceutical industry.

An edited clip of Locke’s sermon was posted online by atheist writer Hemant Mehta.

In an email to Religion News Service, Locke said his words had been taken out of context in the edited video. He said two of the alleged witches were men and were “ALL sent here on assignment to disrupt.”

Locke, who recently held a book burning of Harry Potter novels and other “satanic” works, also said “trouble-makers” in the church had brought the witches to Global Vision to lure church members into adultery.

“WE WILL NOT TOLERATE THAT!!“ Locke wrote in his email.

In a phone interview, Mehta told RNS that he had edited clips of the video so that it could posted on Twitter, where the video has been viewed more than 900,000 times. None of Locke’s comments were taken out of context, Mehta said.

Mehta said that he’d tuned into Sunday’s sermon because he suspected Locke would be discussing the book burning. In recent weeks, he said, Locke’s sermons have turned from politics and COVID-19 to warnings about witchcraft and Freemasons. Mehta suspects Locke, who has been banned from Twitter for spreading COVID-19 misinformation, will eventually turn to some other hot-button topic.

Mehta was skeptical about Locke’s claims that outsiders were coming into the church to disrupt services.

“Which is weird,” he said, “because his church is one of those maskless unvaccinated places where the sort of people who might infiltrate his church do not want to be.”

During the sermon, Locke repeatedly told his congregants he was not lying to them, going so far as to swear on the Bible that he was telling the truth about his encounters with demons, saying that if he lied about that, “what won’t I lie to you about.”

“Hand to God,” he said. “In the name of Jesus, if I’m lying, if I’m over exaggerating what I’m trying to tell these people for the purpose of clicks and likes, may I drop dead preaching on this platform having blasphemed the power of the Holy Ghost in front of everybody.”
My take - the "witches" and "trouble makers" are church members who have in some way challenged this asshole's authority, and he is putting them on notice that he will slander them with these labels if they don't bow down and kiss the ring.
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Bicycle Bill
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Re: Someone thinks he's in Salem in 1692

Post by Bicycle Bill »

Scooter wrote:
Thu Feb 17, 2022 7:38 pm
My take - the "witches" and "trouble makers" are church members who have in some way challenged this asshole's authority, and he is putting them on notice that he will slander them with these labels if they don't bow down and kiss the ring.
Remember Occam's Razor?   You're overthinking this.
He's just as fuggin' nutz as Jim Jones or David Koresh was.
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BoSoxGal
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Re: Someone thinks he's in Salem in 1692

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He needs to be sectioned.
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
~ Carl Sagan

Burning Petard
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Re: Someone thinks he's in Salem in 1692

Post by Burning Petard »

Is 'sectioned' the same as 'drawn and quartered'? If so, I agree BSG. His words surely amount to traitorism against the teachings, particularly after singing 'Oh How I love Jesus'

snailgate

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BoSoxGal
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Re: Someone thinks he's in Salem in 1692

Post by BoSoxGal »

Sectioned means placed on an involuntary 72 hour hold to be evaluated by mental health professionals because he’s pretty clearly a danger to himself or others.

Except the religious are allowed to be dangerously mentally unstable. Anyone else blabbering about invisible sky gods and demons and witches would be tossed in a rubber room, but get behind a pulpit or in a pew and you’re good to go!
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
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Scooter
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Re: Someone thinks he's in Salem in 1692

Post by Scooter »

Bicycle Bill wrote:
Thu Feb 17, 2022 9:05 pm
Remember Occam's Razor?   You're overthinking this.
He's just as fuggin' nutz as Jim Jones or David Koresh was.
I had decades of seeing how church politics works. This is how leaders hold on to power. The guy is throwing out enough breadcrumbs to make those in question almost identifiable, but stops just short of naming them. Why? If he were really just a nutbar, and he believed he knew the identity of six witches, why wouldn't he just call them out? He doesn't, because he isn't crazy, and he is firing a warning shot.

The examples you cite are actually further proof of the point. Both Jones and Koresh made "crazy" declarations as a means of gaining and then holding onto power. And they both used allegations of wrongdoing or disloyalty to undermine the credibility of anyone who would challenge them. In the end, both led their followers to annihilation rather than living to see their power broken.

In any religious institution, the first question to ask about anything said or done is "whose power does this serve"?
"If you don't have a seat at the table, you're on the menu."

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Guinevere
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Re: Someone thinks he's in Salem in 1692

Post by Guinevere »

As in so much, cui bono?
“I ask no favor for my sex. All I ask of our brethren is that they take their feet off our necks.” ~ Ruth Bader Ginsburg, paraphrasing Sarah Moore Grimké

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Re: Someone thinks he's in Salem in 1692

Post by MajGenl.Meade »

The truly scary part would be if he actually believes his own words . . .
For Christianity, by identifying truth with faith, must teach-and, properly understood, does teach-that any interference with the truth is immoral. A Christian with faith has nothing to fear from the facts

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Gob
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Re: Someone thinks he's in Salem in 1692

Post by Gob »

More scary is if he believed his god told him to do this, and he wasn't psychotic.
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”

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Crackpot
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Re: Someone thinks he's in Salem in 1692

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Since when does a preacher trust the word of demons
Okay... There's all kinds of things wrong with what you just said.

Big RR
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Re: Someone thinks he's in Salem in 1692

Post by Big RR »

I was thinking the same thing; if there were "real" demons, wouldn't they try to get them to persecute and kill the righteous people who might impede them.

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Re: Someone thinks he's in Salem in 1692

Post by MajGenl.Meade »

Some of those demons are easy to fool! Show 'em a few shoats and they'll grass on their mothers.
For Christianity, by identifying truth with faith, must teach-and, properly understood, does teach-that any interference with the truth is immoral. A Christian with faith has nothing to fear from the facts

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Bicycle Bill
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Re: Someone thinks he's in Salem in 1692

Post by Bicycle Bill »

Didn't you know that an exorcism also includes a spiritual Lasso of Truth?  Once a demon has been cast out they no longer have power and must comply to the exorcist.

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Big RR
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Re: Someone thinks he's in Salem in 1692

Post by Big RR »

Nah, if he tried to hold that lasso, he'd be forced to tell the truth (unless it's like Thor's hammer, in which case he couldn't even lift it). That's the ast thing he'd want.

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