The First Amendment of the United States Constitution guarantees the right to freedom of speech and freedom of religion.
On January 23, 2022, Pastor Greg Locke, preacher at the Global
Vision Bible Church in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee, abused both of those rights.
He preached a sermon, Desperate For Deliverance,
that grabbed attention because of a comment he made about autism.
After reading a transcript of that comment, I was
furious.
(Content warning: From here on out, I will be mentioning
offensive comments related to both autism and mental illness; as well as some
background information on Greg Locke. Please use appropriate self-care if you
choose to read further.)
This is not the first time Locke has been in the news.
In July of 2020, Locke stated his refusal to wear a mask, calling masks "gags."
In January, 2018, he announced
his divorce from his wife Melissa. That August, the Christian Post wrote that he'd married his church assistant.
Locke claimed that she divorced him. The Pulpit and
Pen blog paints a different picture, saying that she
withdrew divorce papers she'd filed, and then Locke filed for divorce.
Dee Parsons, writer at The Wartburg Watch blog, posted
in 2020 about an angry encounter he had with
a Dunkin Donuts employee when he refused to wear a mask inside. A YouTube video that went along with that
blog entry has since been removed for violating YouTube's terms of service.
In order to determine the context of his "autism"
comment, I found the YouTube video of that January 23 sermon. The comments on that particular video are turned off.
The sermon begins at 23:09 on the video. His main text
is Jeremiah 8:11, the King James Version: "For they have healed the hurt
of the daughter of my people slightly."
From then on, he talks mostly about spirits,
especially spirits of oppression. At 40:41, he refers to Isaiah 61:3, talks
about swapping the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, and quips,
"you don't need the pills, you need the Gos-pill."
Around 48:38, it becomes Locke's opinion that what we
think of as being possessed by a demon, as in the movie The Exorcist, is not
what the Bible teaches. He then explains that the word "possessed"
isn't in the Bible in the Greek; rather, the Greek word actually means
"demonized," and then says that yes, even Christians can be
demonized.
At 58:43, he begins the section that contains the
comments about autism. I've transcribed the next few minutes from the YouTube
video:
"We know so few people, if any, that
are totally surrendered. Why? Because
they've always got some tic about them. They've always got something about them
they just can't get over. They have a compulsory about them. You know, if you'll
study evil spirits, you'll find they compel you to do things that you would not
normally do. Not even wicked things. Here's what we say. Now don't get mad at me, I'm talking. We say
things like this: "Well, I've just
got OCD." You know why you do things
that are out of the ordinary over and over and over and it ticks you off if
it's not done? Because you have a spirit
of oppression, that's why. You ain't got OCD. I knew a chick that used to wash
her hands every five minutes all day long when she was awake until she
literally washed skin off of her hands.
Saved. Loved God. Baptized. Read the Bible. Went to church. Fasted.
Prayed. You going to tell me that's natural?
That's supernatural oppression, is what that is, and she needs deliverance.
"And a lot of times, what we call
stuff, it makes us feel better because it's the medical term, not the Bible
term. Look. I'm telling you, this is real. We've been all over this, haven't we,
baby? We've been studying it. Look. Do
not, do not jump up right now and rebuke me for what I'm about to say. But I've
read the Bible too much to worry about what you think. Did you know that on
three occasions -- we're going to go through all of them, not today, thank God. On three occasions, kids were brought to
Jesus, not of their own will or their own volition but by their parents, that
had epileptic fits. Anger issues, outbursts of emotion. And because we've
called it possession, parents refuse to deal with it. "Are you telling me
my kid's possessed?" No, I'm telling you your kid could be demonized and
attacked, but your doctor calls it autism.(emphasis mine, TAS) I don't
care if you stand or not. I don't care if
you leave or not. I'm telling you, there is deliverance in the name of Jesus
Christ for your children! And their children's children! There's deliverance in
that! Ain't no such diagnosis in the Bible! Jesus cast out that oppressive spirit
and the child was made whole that very hour, the Bible says! That very hour. That's what the Bible says. Now, I'm just
figuring all this stuff out so don't quote me on everything I'm saying. I'm
just saying, quote me on everything I'm saying.
I stopped there.
I'm offended on two points. One, I have OCD. (Mine manifests itself by
intrusive thoughts.) Two, my son is autistic.
So, Pastor Locke, you are telling me that those with
the diagnosis of autism and those with the diagnosis of OCD only need
deliverance from oppressive spirits and the "gos-pill"?
No, what you need are several hours' -- or days' --
worth of conversation with autistics, parents of autistics, and sufferers of
OCD who have heard it all; that they are crazy, they should be ashamed of themselves
for their thoughts and rituals, and that autistic children just have bad
parents who don't discipline them.
Just my .04, adjusted for inflation.
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