Pastor, go Locke your mouth up!

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.

Believe me, by the time you finish with those people -- or rather, by the time they finish with you -- you will be the one needing deliverance!

Just my .04, adjusted for inflation.

Happy New Year?

At the end of 2020, I stayed up until midnight just to make sure that 2020 went away.  I know that's superstitious, that a calendar is going to change whether I'm awake or asleep. But 2020 was one of those years where you wanted to make sure that it went away and never came back. 

However, today I read an alleged quote from the diary of Czar Nicholas II saying, "The year 1916 was cursed; 1917 will surely be better!" (I've done a quick Google search and can't verify that this was an actual quote from his diary.) But for those of you well-versed in history, 1917 was about as bad as you could get in Russia. That was the year of the Russian Revolution, and among its victims were the Czar and his family, who were deposed and placed under house arrest. They were all executed in 1918.

2020 seemed to be cursed with the arrival of COVID, racial unrest, and a hotly contested election. But at the end of 2020, we had a vaccine and we'd elected a new president. Surely 2021 would surely be better, right?

Riiiiight. 

2021 saw a riot at the US Capitol aimed at stopping Congress from certifying election results and placing Donald Trump back in power. It saw numerous dates when Donald Trump would be "reinstated" as president. I think Trump has given up on being "reinstated" and is now putting his energy into running for president again in 2024. 

Beginning in April, I heard so many reports of people getting shot that a day without a shooting was odd. 

Our country is pulling further and further apart.

And although there is a vaccine for COVID now, there's a sizable, vocal group of people refusing to take it in the name of "freedom". (This is different from those who cannot take it due to medical reasons.) 

COVID has proved to be a sneaky little virus.  It's mutated into versions from Alpha to, now, Omicron, (skipping Nu and Xi). Omicron is labeled as "mild", but if a "mild" version of COVID was anything like what I had in September, it is not something I want to go through again. Yes, I was vaccinated.  I had a breakthrough case. Both my son and I tested positive, and I'm convinced all of us were ill, even though my husband, through a mix-up, wasn't able to get the results of his first test and had to be tested again and tested negative. We are learning the Greek alphabet whether we want to or not.

We still have racial strife simmering beneath the surface, and Joe Biden has not proved to be the "problem solver" that everyone wanted. To be fair, Biden inherited a mess from his predecessor, and no one person can meet everyone's expectations. 

And the "I" word, "inflation" has entered the national discourse again, with the press screaming about "the highest inflation rates since the end of Carter's term and the beginning of Reagan's." (I notice that the press isn't commenting very much on the days in the 1970's of double-digit inflation and double-digit interest rates.) 

I'm not sure if this is a sign of the year to come, but yesterday, our church met solely online due to the sharp rise in COVID cases in GA. We plan to meet in person next week, but I will not be shocked if we end up going back to online church if COVID rates keep rising. 

And anyone who tells me that because I wear a mask and have gotten my shots that I am "living in fear," my answer is:   Taking precautions is NOT "living in fear". It is being prudent. Living by "faith, not fear" does NOT include putting God to the test. Remember, one of the temptations of Jesus was Satan telling him to jump off of the temple, because God would catch him.  Jesus' retort was that you should not put the Lord to the test! 

In November, mid-term elections will happen; and we here in Georgia are gearing up for what is predicted to be a contentious governor's race.

So will this be a happy new year?

Most of that is going to depend on my attitude, I admit. I am happily married, I have a son I am very proud of, we are able to pay our bills and we have friends. There are plenty of blessings I can count. 

But after 2020 and 2021, the fact that 2022 is pronounced "2020-too" sounds rather ominous to me.   

Let's see if I'm wrong!

Just my .04, adjusted for inflation.