Thread by @RightWingWatch

Lots of people have watched our video of screaming pastor Greg Locke declaring that the military found children, dead and alive, in child-trafficking tunnels beneath the Capitol and White House. A thread on why it matters:

https://twitter.com/RightWingWatch/status/1409209984735449090

Locke is not just an online angry man. The performance from Global Vision Bible Church in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee, is the latest in a slew of extremist speeches the influential Trump-loving right-wing pastor has made. His YouTube channel has nearly 60,000 subscribers.

As an adviser to Evangelicals for Trump, Locke strengthened ties between religious-right extremists and Trump. After a Sept. 2019 meeting at the White House, Locke told followers Trump “has come into the kingdom for such a time as this.”

https://twitter.com/pastorlocke/status/1176922679657545728

Locke was invited back to the White House for Trump’s August 2020 speech accepting the Republican Party nomination.

https://www.facebook.com/PastorLocke/videos/788852201865611https://twitter.com/pastorlocke/status/1176922679657545728

Since Trump’s defeat, Locke has consistently promoted stolen-election propaganda. He refuses to acknowledge that people prophesying Trump’s victory were wrong.

https://twitter.com/RightWingWatch/status/1400871663642808325

Locke himself has repeatedly refused to recognize that Biden is president, maybe because he spent so much time promising his followers that Biden would never become president.

https://twitter.com/RightWingWatch/status/1351938238978666497

Locke took part in the Jan. 5 rally that fired up protesters on the eve of the Capitol Insurrection. He thanked God for the opportunity to “lock shields” with the Proud Boys and prayed, “help us to fight.”

https://twitter.com/RightWingWatch/status/1346940816472891395

Locke was on the Capitol grounds on Jan. 6 but insists that the insurrection was a “fake” and “diabolical scheme to shut down the election fraud investigations and to vilify the President in order to block him from ever reclaiming his office.” friendlyatheist.patheos.com/2021/06/05/in-…

In Jan., just after the Capitol insurrection, Locke preached that a “satanic death cult” runs the world, claiming that globalists keep Mitch McConnell in line by having someone on the Senate floor give him the “Illuminati hand signal of authoritarianism”

https://twitter.com/RightWingWatch/status/1348692216508805127

Locke is a bit of a problem for conservatives who claim that Christian nationalism isn’t a thing.

https://twitter.com/RightWingWatch/status/1384193261539979267

Locke’s extremism ranges widely. He is old school religious-right when it comes to LGBTQ people, denouncing Pride Month and marriage equality, saying, “It’s always been about these pedophiles!”

https://twitter.com/RightWingWatch/status/1403397684233392130

Locke has no problem attacking other Christians. In his Mother’s Day service, he called Pope Francis “the biggest pedophile on the planet.”

https://twitter.com/RightWingWatch/status/1391444199699095559

Locke was among those urging people not to get the COVID-19 vaccination.

https://twitter.com/RightWingWatch/status/1396521263565262854

Locke slammed Franklin Graham for encouraging people to take the vaccination.

Locke’s extremism has endeared him to other Trumpist leaders. Last summer, Locke invited Roger Stone to speak at his church, where Stone described the upcoming presidential election as a struggle between good and evil, the “godly and the ungodly.” tennessean.com/story/news/202…

Locke invited Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, who has increasingly embraced Christian nationalism, to speak at his church just a few weeks before the election. tennessean.com/story/news/loc…

Locke is celebrated by increasingly extreme religious-right author and pundit and Stop the Steal supporter Eric Metaxas, who recently had Locke as a guest on his radio show. rightwingwatch.org/post/eric-meta…

Complaining that Big Tech was silencing conservatives and COVID restrictions were closing churches, Locke pledged that “when they impede upon our First Amendment right, we’ll meet them at the door of the tent with our Second Amendment right.”

https://twitter.com/RightWingWatch/status/1406977968480690179

In his sermon on Memorial Day weekend, Locke declared once again that Trump won, adding, “This is our 1776 moment, church!”

https://twitter.com/RightWingWatch/status/1288838007055888386

Oops. Link for that last tweet:

https://twitter.com/RightWingWatch/status/1399057902774669316