When Pastor Greg Locke held a book burning recently, some joked, “Next thing you know is that he will be starting a witch hunt“.
Well hey, guess what happened during his Sunday sermon on Feb 13?
Yes, some said it as a joke. One can only wonder if he saw that and thought, “Oh, what a great idea”. Hemant has tweeted out the following 2 min composite of what he said …
Here is a Transcript of it
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 … (audience reacts as Greg does a mini-Jig) … three of you in the room right now.
You better look in my eyeballs, we ain’t afraid of you, you stinking witch, you devil worshiping satanist witch, we cast you out in the name of Jesus Christ. We break your spells, we break your curse, we got your first name, we got your last name, we even got an address for one of ya …
You so much as cough wrong and I’ll expose ya in front of everybody in this tent you stinking witch …
You were sent to this church to destroy us, you were sent to this church to lure us in, you were sent to this church to cast spells, listen, some of you been sick because you befriended that witch …
Two of ya in my wife’s bible study and you know who you are, and we gonna ask you to GET OUT OR I”LL EXPOSE YOU IN FRONT OF EVERYBODY …
We got all six of their names, all six of them, two of them had already been confirmed, well (mumbles) … first and last name, this chick is new to our church, and don’t know none of you. So you’ve got a choice, you can leave with your spells all by yourself, or I show up next Sunday with a stage full of brooms, and I’ll give you one and I’ll fly your tail up out of this place in the name of Jesus, but we ain’t playing your spell casting witchcraft nonsense sage burning games …
Everybody OK?
Ha, the witches are like, “Nope”
And your little dog too, your out … witch
Immediate Impressions
If you wanted to do a parody, a literal Month Python sketch, then this would be it. This is an act. Make no mistake, this really is just an act, it is raw religious theatre designed to poke emotional buttons, attract attention, and manipulate. It creates a climate of fear. Anybody within his church who does not fully adhere to everything Greg now says faces the distinct possibility of being literally labelled as a witch.
Every stereotypical movie trope is played … brooms, flying, casting spells, devil worshiping, sage burning, etc…
He got one trope wrong. The line “and your little dog too” was said by the witch to Dorothy and not by Dorothy to the witch. The fact that Greg deployed this line is simply hilarious. This is a trope said by the movie villain within the Wizard of Oz to show how evil they are.
Thanks Greg for that reveal.
If indeed his pretend paranoia regarding witches was actually real within his mind, and he had the actual names of witches that were right there within his meeting for nefarious magical reasons as he claimed, he would not simply carry on. Instead, he would have them tossed out. Remember, this is the Pastor who will toss you out of his church if you dare to wear a mask.
He simply suggested that they should not come next week. Was that perhaps the point at which the lady at the back of his meeting with the pointy hat and green grease paint nods and makes notes.
How exactly did he identify these witches.
We could speculate.
Was it perhaps his secret “Gazpacho” police? Did some within his church kept a copy of twilight and not toss that book on the fire during his recent book burning? Are the six a group that objected when he recently claimed that demons caused autism?
Actually, we don’t need to speculate.
This next bit is a deeply bizarre reveal for his source. Via the Religious News Service who reached out to him, we discover that he claims that he was told the names of the witches by demons. Apparently, while conduction an exorcism, “a demon with scruffy voice” gave him the names.
Let that bit sink in.
A Christian Fundamentalist pastor is advising that he is taking guidance and instructions from a demon.
Side note – demons are not real. His “source” is simply the delusional babbling of one member of his congregation who might actually have a bit of an axe to grind regarding several others.
Despite this claim, some do still speculate that Locke may also have had a far darker motive (see next section below).
What is also clear is that he has basically gone full medieval with the suggestion that the cause of some of his very gullible congregation becoming ill is down to them befriending a witch. I’m sure his anti-mask mandate and anti-vaccine stance played not part in the actual cause of any illness, it was instead a witch.
So yes, he is handing out the torches and pitchforks to the mob as he stirs up a paranoid frenzy and climate of fear with his literal witch hunt.
Reactions from Others on Twitter
There has been a great deal of speculation that he is about to get six accusations of sexual assault and so he is playing this card to discredit them in advance. It is just speculation, there is no evidence for this.
What is true now is that if anybody attempted to speak out against him, they would be in real danger.
What is also true of Greg is that he loves attention. Playing the witchcraft card is getting even more attention than his previous book burning stunt.
There has also been some speculation that Omicron is running rampant through his church because of his anti-mask and anti-vaccine stance and so he needs to explain why Jesus has failed them, hence deploying a bit of paranoia regarding “witches” as the real problem has been put into the game he plays.
A reporter at Vice has also asked anybody being targeted as a witch to reach out in confidence.
Then of course there was also this observation …
Do People Really Practise Witchcraft?
There are of course people who do practise what is known as Wicca. Generally you will find them to be lovely people and I promise you, none of them, not one, would have any interest in going anywhere near Greg or his gullible band of delusional fools.
They don’t “worship the devil”, that claim is utter BS. It is actually a life-affirming expression of belief.
If curious to find out more, you can read the very comprehensive Wikipedia article that lays out the vast diversity of thinking that Wicca encompasses.
So who is Greg Locke?
He is your classic right-wing Trump supporting fundamentalist QAnon nutter and has a long established reputation for spreading batty conspiracy claims. He also of course had a go at being a “prophet” and predicted that Trump would win in 2020.
We all know how well that worked out for him.
Guess who was also there on Jan 6. Yep, our Greg was in that mix as well, and fanned the flames of violence leading up to it all.
The essence of Greg’s latest bit of shenanigans is this – He appears to be a guy who is now strongly advocating the thought that the Harry Potter movies were documentaries.
This is a deliberate choice, a means to instil a climate of fear within his congregation. It is designed to motivate them to obey what he says and keep donating.
What can one say to any of this except to perhaps observe that there was once somebody rather famous who said something about being wary of wolves dressed as sheep. The speaker of that quote is somebody Pastor Greg is wholly unfamiliar with.
“Das war ein Vorspiel nur, dort wo man Bucher verbrennt man auch am Ende Menschen” – “That was but a prelude; where they burn books, they will ultimately burn people also”.
Heinrich Heine