A fiery Tennessee pastor told mask-wearing worshippers they should go pray somewhere else as he railed against the “buckwild demon-possessed government” in a politically-charged sermon.
“If they go through round two and you start showing up, all these mask and all this nonsense, I will ask you to leave,” Greg Locke of the Global Vision Bible Church told followers on Sunday.
“I am not playing these Democrat games up in this church,” he went on, telling congregants to go instead to the First Baptist Church if they want to social distance.
“I’m done with it. I said I’m done with it. I ain’t playing these stupid games.”
A video of the mass, posted to his Facebook page, shows the pastor getting worked up over the possibility of renewed restrictions amid a spike in coronavirus cases due to the Delta strain of the virus – which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said now accounts for over 80 percent of all cases.
“Don’t believe this Delta variant nonsense,” he says, the video shows. He then yells “Stop it! Stop it!”
The pastor is known locally for his outspoken stances, referring to the COVID-19 pandemic as “a fake pandemic” and calling vaccines “sugar water,” WZTV reported. Last year, he had said he’d go to jail before closing his church, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader.
He said during his sermon that he wouldn’t follow any further restrictions.
“They talk about shutting down this nation for round two, talk about masking everybody back up, shutting down churches,” he said. “Hey – my hind leg if they think they gonna shut this church down. I’m gonna go ahead and let you know that right now in the name of God.”
“They will be serving Frosties in hell ‘fore we shut this place down just cause a buckwild demon-possessed government tells us to,” he goes on.
“Knock on my door, ask me if I got a vaccine … Don’t let the door hit you where the good Lord split you.”
The CDC on Tuesday renewed recommendations to mask up in places where case numbers are high – even for people who’ve been vaccinated.
