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Ep. 139 – “You’re a Christ-Hating Demon, but I Guess I Could’ve Said That Nicer” -Greg Locke Apologizes
145 Plays2 years ago
This week we’re talking about the adulterous Alex Jones of apostolic Christian infamy, Greg Locke. If you’re not familiar with Ol’ Greg, he’s the pastor of Global Vision Bible Church in Mount Juliet, TN. It’s a fairly small church that Locke has whittled down into a core group of followers that have stuck by his side in spite of his public affair and subsequent marriage to his administrative assistant and ex-wife’s best friend, his frequent, literal witch hunts within the congregation (oh yeah, he believes in witches and warlocks), and his shameless self-promotion as he ascends through the ranks of Evangelical internet firebrands. Greg has garnered national attention over the years for his angry, ugly, and outright insane sermons, but in the past few months, he’s made a few public statements that seem out of character. He recently issued an apology (if you want to call it that) for his “meanness,” and deleted most of his sermons and vlogs that have attracted so much attention to him. In addition, he recently released a documentary called “Come Out in Jesus Name,” which follows himself and a group of pastors as they cast demons out of other Christians. Everything involving this guy is nuts, and we had to talk about him!
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Transcript
Fiery Sermon Opening
00:00:00
Speaker
Drag him out of here. We'll stay just like we do on Sunday night. Get out in Jesus' name! Get out in Jesus' name! Get out in Jesus' name, you demons! Get out! Drag him out. Drag him out. Anybody else want to play games before I get to preaching? Huh? You better go ahead and do it right now.
00:00:25
Speaker
Cause it's gonna be twice as bad here in a few minutes. You do it while I'm preaching. I'll take this microphone and bust you in a mouth with it in the name of God. Cause we ain't playing your stupid Democrat games up in this church. You hear me? If you're gonna play games, you might as well pull your shirt off and be a big boy and do it right now. Huh? Go ahead, big girl. Come up here right now. If you're gonna do it, you might as well do it right now. If I'm making you nervous, there's a door. You can get out. Don't let the door hit you with a good large split chip. You can get up out of this house right now. We ain't playing your games in this house. Get out!
Podcast Introduction and Mishaps
00:01:13
Speaker
Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Growing Up Christian. I'm Sam. I'm Casey. And Casey, I have... Okay, so actually first, we may have Jeremiah joining us shortly. He's technically on the call, but after he joined the call, he had to go handle flooding in his basement for the second time in the past hour.
00:01:35
Speaker
They're getting a lot of rain out by his way and he is having to handle cleaning up a flooded basement so he's not here. All he has is communion cups. He's not here right now but you may just hear his voice 15 minutes later or so.
00:01:55
Speaker
Something happened to me the other night that I was dying to tell you about because it threw me off so bad and was a very strange experience, but I figured I'd save it for now. Two nights ago, I was sitting outside. I've been drinking less. That's my whole thing. I talk about that plenty of times and I'm not always successful.
00:02:20
Speaker
because it's just fun to, you know, I'm on summer vacation. It's really hard to just not act like every night is like a Friday night. I don't wake up. My kids sleep in dude. Like I don't wake up. My daughter, she is seven and she set an alarm to get up at nine.
00:02:42
Speaker
this morning. So like, and that's when she woke up, she woke up at nine and came into our room and woke us up like, so time is just like kind of an illusion at this point. And
00:02:58
Speaker
Anyway, so I'm like, so two nights ago, I'm like, sitting outside, because I'm trying to drink less, I've just altered substances. So I was getting, smoking some weed outside, getting high and ready to go to bed. I mean, I'm like about to go in and shower. It's like 11 45 at night, and my neighbor calls me. And I don't hear from my like, me and my neighbor are like, we're cool. I love him. He's a great guy.
00:03:27
Speaker
But we don't call each other and hang out like that. He was like, what's up? If I'm getting a call 1145, I'm like, what the fuck is going on? It was either a butt dial or it was something serious. So I answer the phone. I'm like, ready for bed high. And he's like,
00:03:54
Speaker
Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Like instant starts out with like this kind of panic vibe. And so my neighbor is my neighbor's Puerto Rican and that's not relevant to the story. I just am racist and like to point out everybody's nationalities before I tell stories.
00:04:11
Speaker
Uh, my neighbor's white. Um, no, I'm kidding. He's poorly. And he's got a Spanish accent that is hard to understand sometimes, but it's specifically hard to understand when he's like, gets going. Like I think some of the words he chose were Spanish words. Cause he was just like, his brain's going a million miles an hour. I'm like,
00:04:32
Speaker
trying to understand is it like his accent and it's harder over the phone like in person it's fine but over the phone I'm like he's panicked he's like going off I'm like what the fuck is happening right now but what I gathered was so his kids just graduated high school and what I gathered was that one of his sons
00:04:54
Speaker
girlfriend who's, she's always around the house and stuff. I guess she's going to school to become a barber or a hairdresser or something like that. So what I gathered from his panic was that he was leaving for Puerto Rico with his kids at 2 45 that morning, the next morning. So in a few hours, they're getting ready to hit the road to head to the airport to go to Puerto Rico. And he's like,
00:05:23
Speaker
my son's girlfriend just like she she's in school to become a hairdresser or barber and she gave him a haircut we're about to leave my kids have never been to Puerto Rico before and she fucked up his hair man she fucked up his hair he I cannot bring him around my family he fucked up her she fucked up his hair like he's losing his goddamn mind he's very upset he's so mad about it and he I he's
00:05:46
Speaker
He's a guy who just swears incessantly all the time. My kids are around. He's like, dude, this fucking loser, this fucking motherfucker. He talks like that when my kids are just throwing a ball right next to him with each other. Maybe part of it's like the English is a second language. It doesn't compute. He swears like that. You hear him screaming from his house sometimes when he hurts himself or something like that.
00:06:13
Speaker
He just what it's like, that's just who he is. So when he calls me, he's like swearing a bunch and screaming. I'm like, I can't tell if this is just him being him or if something's going on, but he's upset. And he's like, man, I need your eyes. Like, I've never asked you for nothing. I need a favor from you so bad. He's like, I hate to do this to you, man. I just it's it's an emergency. His hair looks fucking awful. I need I need you to cut his hair, man. I'm like,
00:06:41
Speaker
You want me to? You want me to come? What? What the fuck are you talking about? What prompted that? So I was like, what do you want me to? You're actually saying you want me to come over and cut you because he's like, you don't have to come over. You don't have to come over. I'll meet you at the shop. I was like, what shop? He's like the shop, man. You know, the shop.
00:06:58
Speaker
And I'm like, okay, he called, he has, he definitely called the wrong person. And I'm like, man, I have no idea what you're, what you're talking about. Like, are you sure you called the right person? And he goes, oh fuck, is this my neighbor?
00:07:21
Speaker
I'm like, yeah, man, this is Sam, your neighbor. And he's like, oh my God, the guy who cuts my hair is named Sam. I called the wrong Sam. Holy fucking shit, man. I'm so fucking sorry. He's like, listen, man, I love you. You're a great guy. Can you keep eye on the house while I'm gone? I was like, yeah, that's of course. I'll keep an eye on the place while you're gone.
00:07:39
Speaker
He's like, all right. Oh, my God. He's like, I feel so bad. I didn't mean to scare the shit out of you. You probably thought something was awful, like awfully wrong. I'm like, yeah, dude, you scared the fucking shit out of me. Calling 1145.
00:07:52
Speaker
You should have just rolled with it, cut the kid's hair into like a fryer tuck sort of. He's like, man, this is the first time I bring my kids to Puerto Rico. They're going to meet like I think they've his family might have come out here, but it's there's a good chance he hasn't really had family out here. And his kids have never been back to visit where he's from. So he's like making it's like a big deal for him. And the fact that he gets his hair cut like
00:08:19
Speaker
I want to say like every week and a half, two weeks. It's like what he just goes and does the whole like barber thing. And he's so like for it's like really important to him to keep his hair fresh at all times. And for his kid to come home the night before they leave for Puerto Rico with a fucking hack job on his hair, set him off so bad.
00:08:44
Speaker
I've never heard him act that angry before, but I'm like, hi, so I'm like terrified, like paranoid. Dude, my heart like dropped out my asshole. I thought something awful had happened. He's like, I've, when he starts going up, I've never asked you for a favor. I need your help right now. I'm like, he's asking me for something big and he needs me to bring him somewhere. Like this seems like a real problem. I don't know how to,
00:09:10
Speaker
handle this, like I guess I'll go tell my wife I'm leaving to go deal with something for our neighbor, but I like, yeah, like what are we dealing with 11 45 at night? It scared the shit out of me, dude. My, like the paranoia said in my heart starts racing. Uh, and I'll just come to find out it's just his son got a shitty haircut and he's a embarrassed to bring his kid around his family.
00:09:37
Speaker
You could make a full sitcom episode over this. It was one of the greatest phone calls I've ever received. Oh my God. Yeah. Puerto Rican dudes are animated. Mm-hmm. I had to always get Miami a lot for a while. And we basically got like all these car dealerships all at once and they all had to be like trained and set up and everything with our stuff like immediately. So I spent like two months in Miami.
00:10:06
Speaker
uh, just like going to a different dealership every day and like doing training with their service people. And it was, it was fun to like hang out down there for, you know, extended period of time and just kind of get to see the whole place and try a bunch of food and stuff. But the, the, like the actual work part of it kind of sucked because nobody knew that we were coming.
00:10:35
Speaker
Like rarely did anybody know that they were supposed to like have their people like off premises for half a day. So they're all upset when you show up. Each store had like, you know, stores here might have like two or three service advisors and some of them there had like 24. Huge by comparison. And so it's like, you'd show up, you're like, I have to go through this training deal, which is about an hour, hour and a half.
00:11:04
Speaker
with all of your people today. Can I start with a group of them? And the ones that really didn't like you and didn't want you to interrupt them would just give you one person at a time. So you're just there for the entire day just saying the same thing. And then like, by the fourth group,
00:11:27
Speaker
Like I just, I don't care anymore. I can't say the same thing four times in a row. So like, it would get to a point where you'd come up on the noon hour and they'd usually like, have you sitting in the, like the technician break room to do training. So like lunchtime rolls around and like all these Puerto Rican dudes would start rolling in to eat their lunch and just shout at each other.
00:11:54
Speaker
Every day, every day it was like a two hour period where like you could barely hear or talk because it was just like big arguments and stories and stuff going on. It was 2016, so it was like, I remember the one week I was there the day after Trump won the election. Okay.
00:12:17
Speaker
All the old Latino guys were pumped and all the young Latino guys were really upset and they were fighting just like at each other's throats.
Generational Divides and Political Rhetoric
00:12:27
Speaker
Really? That's the delineation, the generational gap, huh? Pretty much. Yeah. I mean, there's some mixing, of course, but.
00:12:35
Speaker
it's so funny man because back like talking about my neighbor again like when that was all like the 2016 election was all going on um he was like um he asked us one like uh my wife and i one day he's like what do you he's like look he's like if you guys don't want to talk about this shit like that's fine no one's gonna talk about this he's like but you know i'm
00:12:59
Speaker
I'm genuinely curious as to what you guys think about all this shit going on. Like, I mean, what do you think about Trump? And we were just like, yeah, not feeling that guy at all. And he's like, really? He's like, look, I'll be honest, man, I'm kind of into him. And he's like, and it's so funny because like it. The ironic juxtaposition that conservatives find themselves in is that
00:13:25
Speaker
The Hispanic population is, by and large, mostly voting pretty conservative on most fronts, you know? Yeah. Conservative people, family people. So they're trying to pander to their white base and be like, ah, yeah, nah, we don't want them here. And then they're just like, they come here and they're like, we're voting for your guys though. And they're like, yeah, what? It's like, you have to like.
00:13:47
Speaker
really try to like it's they have to figure out how to make their moves in order to like appease both groups of people which that's the irony of politics right you have to find a way to like make two groups of people who ultimately don't care about each other vote for the same person yeah it's not working out super great for uh
00:14:08
Speaker
Democrats this time, but we'll see what happened. We're DeSantis. Oh my God. He is sucking wind. It's so funny, man, because he had such a, he, it looked so much like he really was going to give before like Trump really kind of came back and announced his, his campaign and shit.
00:14:30
Speaker
DeSantis was cruising, man. I thought this guy had a real good chance of, uh, I mean, a year ago, I was like, it, hands down, it's going to be DeSantis versus Biden. And then you watched how things have played out since people started announcing that, well, I shouldn't say people, pretty much just Trump announces he's going to run again. And DeSantis is just like,
00:14:53
Speaker
I mean it's hard to imagine making more of a fool out of yourself but he's fucking managed he's done a great fucking job at that. Yeah yeah it's funny he's like just i really took him to be more of just like a corporate jerk off.
00:15:11
Speaker
And I don't know if he just took bad advice somewhere along the line and they're like, hey, you got to up your conservative credentials with like the super mago right wing people. He tries to dunk on Trump for being too pro gay or something, like something awful and stupid. That video that his like rapid response Twitter group, which
00:15:36
Speaker
Good God. It's so lame. Rapid response Twitter. But the video that they put out that was like the. Meme wizard like. What what's the guy from? The serial killer movie. God, I'm just totally losing my train of thought here. I wish I could save you.
00:16:04
Speaker
Christian Bale played the serial killer. Oh, American Psycho. God, that that really shouldn't have been that hard. Anyways, the video sucked. It was terrible. I haven't even watched. I haven't watched the video. I just saw like several headlines being like just saying, just bash his trump for being too pro gay. You're just like, that's his angle. God, Dan, this guy really has got nothing going for him, does he? It's not going well.
00:16:34
Speaker
No. Well, speaking of politically charged activists. Yes. That are just really tapped into mainstream America. They got a thumb on the pulse of the zeitgeist. Sam came to us this week to Jeremiah and I and he said, we need to talk about Greg Locke because he's been in the news and I feel like you cursed me.
00:17:06
Speaker
I've been listening to so many Greg Lock clips. Your YouTube algorithm is going to be so fucked after this. Yeah, I just finally got Richie the barber out of my YouTube search recommendations. It kept popping up every every time I looked at YouTube, there was a there was like a short in there. It was like Richie exposes Tom Cruise. Yeah. Oh, it's going to be all Greg Lock, like casting out demons and witches.
00:17:33
Speaker
The universe I'm looking forward to or would love to see more than anything would be Richie calling out Greg Locke. I want to see Richie go after these. Any anyone who's into like the exorcism lanes, you know, I want to see Richie go after Catherine Crick. I think I want to see this guy move like I want to see a turf war between people performing exorcisms in the streets.
00:18:03
Speaker
It would be great. Yeah. Oh man. What if they just went head to head like Street Fighter style and just got, you just got to see who's like, who is the better spiritual warrior who could call the demon out of the other first. It's like an arcade game where you just see who can cast out the most demons in the shortest amount of time. It's like a split screen arcade game. You're just fucking mashing the yellow and blue buttons. It's like that Michael Jackson Sega game, but you're just like throwing, throwing devils out of people.
00:18:33
Speaker
Jackson Sega game Yeah, he had a game. I didn't know about this Yeah, you like moonwalked around and I think you threw your hat at people or something like that. I Think it was for Sega is it on your is it on the
00:18:53
Speaker
thing that Jesse made you what's that your gaming? Oh, man, I haven't checked but I should. My buddy Jesse made me this this like retro game pad thing. It's amazing. It's it's incredible. It has like every game up until up through like Sega Dreamcast.
00:19:13
Speaker
So, and, and like every version of every game. So like I've been playing a bunch of NBA jam. Yes. Like I'm playing the NBA jam on super Nintendo. Jennifer, there's the one for second. So happy to hear that. That's, that's kind of what got me fired up on it is when we were talking about it, I was like, man, I would love to play NBA jam. And now I've been going hard on it. It's not the most fair game. No, it is imbalanced as fuck.
00:19:41
Speaker
Every team sucks in the first quarter. They do okay in the second quarter. The third quarter, they mop the floor with you. And then you have to come back in the fourth quarter every time. It's like Harlem Globetrotters. Yeah, exactly. You get to be the hero and the underdog. The AI just makes you eat shit the third quarter. That is how Harlem Globetrotters games work, right? I went to one.
00:20:09
Speaker
as a kid and thought it was the funniest fucking thing in the world, man. Watching people, Washington generals that they play against. I don't remember. I remember so little about it other than just like, you know, the things that stick out to a middle school boy is like someone going for the free throw and they get pantsed. You know, oh, fuck. They were like, they got that heart, hearts on the boxers and shit. It's like very Looney Tunes esque.
00:20:37
Speaker
Yeah, I think it's the Washington generals that they play. They play against the same team, quote unquote, every time they play. So there's there's a whole group of dudes that have just been on a basketball team with the absolute worst. They have the perfect record of losing, you know. It's so insane. It's honestly, I it's it's goofy as fuck, but I would absolutely consider taking my children to it.
00:21:06
Speaker
That's a good thing for dads to take their kids to. It would be really fun to take my kids. Because if you're not taking your kids, why are you there, dude? Right. It's kind of like being a grown man at WrestleMania. Yeah.
00:21:24
Speaker
or like a monster truck event. You took your kids away. 13% of the audience. Oh yeah, monster truck's a better example. What are you doing at a monster truck? Oh, you're 45 and single and you love monster trucks. Okay. It's Monster Jam this weekend. I'm cosplaying Randy Savage.
00:21:45
Speaker
Oh, my God. Anyway, I don't know how we got here. That's typically how things go. But talking about Pastor Greg Locke, he so. Oh, yeah. Go ahead. Sorry. I was just going to point out the article that I sent to you was shocking to me when I read it. And then
00:22:09
Speaker
After the headline, the headline is Pastor Greg Locke Repents Scrubs thousands of videos from Facebook to minimize collateral damage. And for anyone who knows Pastor Greg Locke, actually we covered him on our episode with Christian Nightmares.
00:22:26
Speaker
Yeah, I think so. I don't remember what he was talking about in the clip, but... Yeah, it's... I mean, it could have been anything. Anything awful. You just take the worst corners of evangelicalism, and that's probably, you know, what he was talking about. But you read that and you go... Do you want an example? Yeah, hit us with the example. Just to, oh, wet your whistle. I'm to the place right now. If you vote Democrat, I don't even want you around this church. You can get out.
00:22:53
Speaker
You can get out you demon. You can get out you baby butchering. Election thief. You cannot be a Christian and vote Democrat in this nation. I don't care how mad that makes you. You get pissed off as you want to. You cannot be a Christian and vote Democrat in this nation. They are God denying demons that butcher babies and hate this nation.
00:23:16
Speaker
Yikes. Charged. Charged is the word. He comes out swinging for sure. So apparently he's repenting though of these politically charged videos and he scrubs thousands of them from the internet. And it's one of those like you go, wow, he repents like turd from his ways. I got to read this article. And then you realize it's the biggest like
00:23:42
Speaker
13 year old girl, sorry, not sorry you've ever heard in your life. It is. It's so irritating to listen to. So Greg's got he's got some stuff going on. So I've I've heard clips of Greg Locke before, you know, on that episode or he's like a he pops up on Christian nightmares page here and there.
00:24:11
Speaker
Uh, I would say probably the new evangelicals talks about him once in a while. Um, but I didn't know a lot about him. I just thought he was some loud mouth preacher, which he is. He's very loud mouth and he, he.
00:24:26
Speaker
I feel like he's been almost misrepresented, not intentionally by any means, but because he's gotten so much traction on the Internet that there's like this idea that he has like a giant church or something. His church is in Nashville. It's called
00:24:43
Speaker
Global Vision Bible Church. It actually used to be Global Vision Baptist Church, but they split over something at some point and that's why it's Global Vision Bible Church. And it's not
00:24:59
Speaker
I mean, it's not small by any means, but it's not huge. It's not a mega church, I don't believe. And most of his following is online, YouTube, Facebook. I'm assuming he's monetized those and he's doing pretty well.
00:25:18
Speaker
Is a lot of crossover fans with Matt Gaetz. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, so even just monetizing those videos, I'm interested. I would like to know what type of financial hit he's succumbing himself to by scrubbing the videos like is it.
00:25:36
Speaker
Are people still watching them and is he gonna like cut a portion of his paycheck? What loss is this to him? Well, it sounded to me like a lot of the videos that he was deleting were on Facebook. Yeah, probably not YouTube. Maybe not their back catalog of sermons on their own website. I'm not sure. I should have actually checked to see if they upload all of their sermons to their own website. I didn't check that. He definitely puts them on YouTube now.
00:26:07
Speaker
Um, cause I watched quite a few of them, but yeah, like looking at, looking at some of the videos and stuff that, uh, that I did today, like you can tell that it's a pretty small church, at least some of the ones that I, I watched. Um, so there was a couple that centered around like 2018 because that's when Greg.
00:26:30
Speaker
who was allegedly having an affair, divorced his wife and promptly married his administrative assistant. Yeah, immediately. It's very bizarre. Well, there's some good quotes from him on that too. I can actually pull those up while you continue to
00:26:55
Speaker
Yeah, well the main one that he had mentioned was that... So he had to act fast. His shorts were gonna get sticky. Very, very sticky. It's so funny listening to like the way that he responds to people asking him a very reasonable question about like...
00:27:17
Speaker
Hey, you got divorced and 32 hours later, you married your wife's best friend. What was going on there? It's like, how fucking dare you? You're like, Jesus, man, your defensiveness is a little telling.
00:27:31
Speaker
it goes. There's some good quotes from them. He goes, uh, afterwards, like after, uh, despite his, uh, failed marriage and shit. Uh, this is from an article in 2018. This is like right around the time that was happening. Christian post has been able eat
00:27:52
Speaker
Greg Locke will mention in quotes that people ask to talk to him a lot. And I don't know that he talks to a lot of publications, but for some reason Christian Post has gotten a few interviews with him. So I'm not sure if Christian Post is like,
00:28:09
Speaker
something. I don't know why he gravitates towards them. Maybe, maybe they're more evangelical in general. So he feels like he can speak to them in a way that won't like, I don't know, tank things for him. But he says,
00:28:30
Speaker
I still preach against divorce. I'm in a series right now in Ephesians. I'm encroaching on chapter five. You know, I'm gonna have to preach about marriage. Husbands love your wives as Christ loves the church. That's a difficult balance right now, but I'm gonna have to learn to be a better husband than I was the first go around, he said, of his new marriage. Now, in all honesty, that's not a horrible response. But the problem is,
00:29:00
Speaker
That would make sense for someone who got divorced and then later got remarried, right? Like, you know, there's no doubt we, Locke and his ex-wife, both contribute to the failure of our marriage. And so I'm gonna have to learn to be a biblical husband in the strictest sense of the word. I'm not gonna change the fact that I'm still very conservative by values and morals. Is divorce wrong? Yeah. Does God offer forgiveness? There's only one unforgivable sin in the Bible and it's not divorce. It's blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, he said.
00:29:30
Speaker
Certainly not a situation that I thought I would ever find myself in, but I'm here. And what I'm finding now is that our phone is ringing off the hook with pastors that have gone through or going through the same thing, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I think what's notable is like.
00:29:45
Speaker
A lot of what he says could actually make sense if you didn't marry your wife's best friend 32 hours after your divorce was finalized. That's what you're saying sounds like you're not dealing with what people are actually asking you. You're like, yeah, I mean, yeah, of course divorce is a sin. Yeah, but I repented. And it's like, you know, fuck.
00:30:12
Speaker
There's also what Jesus says, allegedly, in Matthew 19.9 when he says, hey, I say to you, whoever divorces his wife except for immorality and marries another woman commits adultery. You heard it straight from Jesus. Pastor Greg Locke is an adulterous man. That he is. But he's preaching out of Ephesians
00:30:39
Speaker
Not not the the gospel of Matthew. So I guess he's a little bit off the hook until he circles back to the beginning of the New Testament again when he has to figure out how to do some mental gymnastics to get out of that one. Yeah, he's up for it. He's flexible. Oh, he's super flex. I think like one of the most interesting things that I found from like watching a bunch of clips of him and stuff is
00:31:09
Speaker
The guy is like, he is such an unapologetic, self-absorbed maniac. Yes. Like total narcissist. Absolutely. And one thing that like, with all the stuff that he's, you know, I mean, this, this played out very publicly. I mean, he's a guy that's like attracted a ton of attention to himself. You know, he.
00:31:30
Speaker
He preaches fire and brimstone and calls people out, calls people false prophets, calls people demons a lot. And. Even called that some people in his church not too long ago for being witches and was like. Going to get there. Oh, OK, you got that on your list. All right. Well, I'll save it. I'll save it.
00:31:50
Speaker
I love it. One thing you will not hear from him, though, is like any sort of repentance. Like it doesn't matter which one of these scenarios you're talking about, which thing he stuck his foot in. Like he does not take hardly any responsibility for anything he never admits wrongdoing ever. Are you sure? Because I I definitely read some of his quotes here and he goes,
00:32:22
Speaker
Now, he says on Facebook, he's like, look, we took down thousands of videos, took about three or four days, deleted every one of them. Locke told us congregation, all of them, all rants, not because what I said was wrong, but because when I became a man, I put away childish things and I've learned to say things better.
00:32:48
Speaker
So the problem is like 48 hours. Yeah. The problem is he could have said all that better, but he still believes the same things. But if he communicated better, it wouldn't have been it wouldn't have been the same problem that it was. Yeah. He he in one sentence talks about meekness instead of meanness and saying things better. And then in the next sentence says, I'll still call out baby butchers. Yeah.
00:33:15
Speaker
So I'm I'm I am but I'm not amping it up on politics. I'm not. I'll spit in the face of Planned Parenthood and call out baby butchers. I'm not going to compromise on the alphabet community. He's added. I'm not going to lay down the sword. I'm just going to be more meticulous and specialized at who we swing it at. Greg Lock Repents and takes down thousands of videos. Fucking dumb.
00:33:44
Speaker
That's such a loser. Oh, man. Yeah. So it seems like I don't know. Do you get the impression that some of the like crazy supernatural deliverance stuff that he's into is more of a recent thing?
00:33:58
Speaker
the past couple of years, past few years. I feel like it must be because he also in some of his quotes was mentions focusing more on that, the deliverance side of things. When he talks about the Jesus side of things, it's more of the salvific work of Christ and deliverance and not so much on politics.
00:34:24
Speaker
It feels more recent like in the past few like yeah past couple of years probably Yeah, and so he's made the rounds a few times in the past like year or so just by Just clips of him saying insane things he has a real bone to pick with demons and witches and the clip that Sam was talking about I've got it here, but it's a
00:34:54
Speaker
The context for this is he is talking about casting a demon out of someone. I think like that week, somebody had come in with a demon afflicting them. They cast the demon out and the demon revealed the names of some witches that are in their congregation.
00:35:19
Speaker
And part of this is funny. It's funny because it's so stupid. But it's also, I think as you're listening to this, think about what it must be like to be a person in his congregation.
00:35:35
Speaker
Always like two seconds away from being in the crosshairs. The guy that that freaks out on stage completely blows his top, calls people out from the pulpit. And, you know, you've kind of like wrapped your whole world around this church. Yeah. Think about it in that context as a woman sitting in the audience.
00:35:56
Speaker
He'll say things like, um, like I had some kind of my office this week and they told me X, Y I'm not going to say names. I'm not saying their names, but I had. So I had, I had three people in my office this week. Talk to me about X, Y and Z. And you're like, bitch, those people are sitting in your fucking congregation.
00:36:13
Speaker
And, or, or, or more likely you made the whole thing up. You're like a standup comic at this point where you go, the funny thing happened to me last week and it didn't happen because you're a comedian and there are some morons in the audience who go, did that really happen? And then there are plenty of people who go, this guy's telling jokes for a living.
00:36:33
Speaker
Yeah, I've convinced Greg Locke is making up a lot of his scenarios, and I wouldn't be shocked if several of them came from his own personal experiences that he's deflecting on other people, like when he talks about, like, you know, porn ruining marriages and adultery and this or that. It's like you're going a little hard on things that people are speculating that you may or may not have a problem with. Yep. Anyway, never admitted. So let's let's hit it. Let's hit it.
00:37:04
Speaker
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. Three of you in the room right now.
00:37:23
Speaker
I thought it was over. You better look at my eyeballs. We ain't afraid of you, you stinkin' witch. You devil worshiping Satan is a 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 you. You so much as cough wrong and I'll expose you in front of anybody on this tent, you stinkin' witch.
00:37:50
Speaker
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 spell. Listen, some of you been sick because you befriended that witch. Two of you in my wife's ladies Bible study and you know who you are. Yeah, and it goes on from there. And he basically like, he never names them.
00:38:12
Speaker
But he just kind of like lets that hang over the audience that like, you so much as do one thing that I don't like, you speak up, you say something wrong, you try to cause division, whatever, whatever he defines as a problem, he's going to out you to the whole church. And I got to think that there's like, like every woman in the congregation is just sitting there like,
00:38:35
Speaker
What am yikes me? Yeah, could it be so-and-so could be I mean not only does that make you doubt yourself, but it also makes you doubt Everyone around you. I mean You second-guess that whether or not you confide in the people that are in the church, you know and stuff I mean, that's yeah the cult mentality That's what I think too is like again
00:39:02
Speaker
It's easy to just throw the word cult around, but like the political stuff that just seems like I'm a jerk off that wants to get on the cable news once in a while. Yeah. And it worked and he ended up doing like a whole like freedom of America bullshit tour or some got the name wrong, but it was some sort of freedom America horse shit kind of tour that he got to speak on. It worked for him. He got.
00:39:30
Speaker
You know, in one of the videos you sent me, he talks about like being a financial wreck and that was probably around the time he was getting divorced. Um, he, but he talked about his financial problems and I'm like, even throwing that in at your level, like you, you're getting a lot of views. People are paying attention to you.
00:39:52
Speaker
It's just everything he says is really well calculated to solicit the response that he needs for himself. I mean, whether it's about like how his marriage failed and why he's like. You know, all of a sudden with his wife's best friend or. His sorry, not sorry apology for getting too invested in politics like.
00:40:20
Speaker
Yeah, it's like, that might be the case, but like, then you hear his witch rant and you're like, that's unhinged as fuck. And you're still going off. Like you just, what you do from the pulpit is start screaming about whatever comes into your head. And there's this idea that
00:40:38
Speaker
And this is common for any one of his caliber, any one of his ilk of like that. I mean, like you said, cult is easy to throw around. I I think the term cult adjacent is probably a little like more.
Greg Locke's Controversies
00:40:52
Speaker
Yeah, because he's like, you can leave you if you don't like this, you can leave cults don't say that cults go if you don't like this, you have to meet me in the back and I'm going to fuck you in the ass or something crazy like. Well, yes and yes and no. I mean,
00:41:08
Speaker
I think that what I Think he has all the potential in the world to be a You know a Jim Jones type Oh Like it's it's there. I don't think politics gets him there, but I feel like all this devil's demons which is casting people out blah blah blah blah blah that is
00:41:32
Speaker
has a much broader appeal to the kind of audience that's gonna stick with him through thick and thin, you know? Yeah. And like, I think that is, you know, there's gotta be a strategic reason that he's pivoting away from politics, but I think that in addition to that, the supernatural stuff gives, it raises the stakes and it gives him a much broader appeal to the kind of people who are just gonna sign over their life to him.
00:42:00
Speaker
Yeah, I think so. That stuff definitely seems to have a pull for a lot of people. I mean, I guess at some level, that's what swept me up when I was in college, like the supernatural aspect of Christianity. It's exciting. In one of his videos, the one we keep talking about, the video that I just watched, we should post in the show notes. It's the one you share in our Discord, Casey.
00:42:29
Speaker
It says he calls out his ex-wife, but he doesn't really specifically. It's just about marriage and commitment to the church. I don't know. It's just all over the place, kind of. He just blasts his congregation for his problems. Yeah. But the way he goes about it, it's like there's just like the ranty
00:42:53
Speaker
pull people in sort of like, I'm going to, it's a deflection, right? It's like, these are all these problems that I'm going to deflect. I'm going to point out that the people in the community who are dealing with this and the people who are doing that, um, like even like one of the quotes he has from when he was dealing with his like divorce, uh,
00:43:17
Speaker
It says when asked how their relationship flowered into a marriage, like his new wife, Locke explained that things began to change after his divorce with Melissa was finalized in May.
00:43:29
Speaker
quote, we were a week from the finalization of divorce. Had we talked about, hey, let's go on a date when all of this is done. Yeah. Of course there were feelings. We just didn't know what to do with them until things were legal. Like nobody doesn't know what to do with feelings until there's like a legal separation. And he's like in this same thing, he talks about being like close with them. They go on trips together. They do a bunch together. Their kids were friends. It's like,
00:43:56
Speaker
There's that level of narcissism that allows you to just casually just excuse all of your behaviors as normal when it's red flag after red flag after red flag, and then take those same things
00:44:18
Speaker
Like everything he does, he deflects all that onto his congregation. He's like, there's some of you who are looking at other people in your marriage. It's like, you just said before your divorce or finalize, yeah, were there conversations about why don't we do after? Are there feelings? Yeah, I guess so. But it's so innocent for you, but all of a sudden it's demons and witches and everything for your congregation.
00:44:43
Speaker
Well, yeah, that's that's kind of what I was talking about in the discord, too, is that like it's fascinating to see the way that he maneuvers through that process of like, you know, he's got a he had to find a way.
00:44:58
Speaker
Apparently a bunch of the congregation left when all that happened. When he married this other, this other chick, I guess there's a lot of people that stepped out at that point. Good for you. Good for them. You're probably still nuts, but good job. That's a good time to find the exit. But, uh, you know, for the people that are still there, like these are his ride or die fans that have stood with him in spite of finding out that he is a complete hypocrite.
00:45:26
Speaker
And you know what, it's one thing to find out that someone's not perfect, right? Somebody screws up, makes a mistake, a normal pastor.
00:45:34
Speaker
Yeah, you got to work through that. But even a normal pastor with something that wasn't quite so nefarious as marrying his wife's best friend and his assistant after, you know, a week of being divorced, like even in those situations, like the pastor is probably going to have to step down, go through a whole like they're going to send him to some dorky marriage camp and blah, blah, blah. Oh, yeah. Greg is immediately like, how do I
00:46:02
Speaker
reframe the issue of divorce to the remainers of my congregation. How do I sell them what they desperately want to hear? And it's that I'm still infallible, that this is normal. This is not bad. And yeah, sure. Does the Bible say it? Sure, whatever. But, you know, don't let that slow you down. And he starts by saying, like, he's got to introduce the idea that
00:46:29
Speaker
leaving your spouse is okay under certain circumstances. So like his first way of doing that is by saying, he goes, I'm going to tell you something. There are pastors around this country that if you as a woman, if you went in there and told them that your husband was just beating the crap out of you, they would say that you need to stay with him because you made a commitment. And that's what the Bible says. I think that's a load of crap. And like every reasonable person is like,
00:46:59
Speaker
Yeah, nobody should do that. I mean, if you're getting domestic abuse and stuff like that, you should leave. And then it turns into your spouse is making you falter in your walk with God. They're pulling you away from the Lord with their worldly concerns and this and that and the other. It's time for you to serve God and stop worrying about catering to this person. Maybe it's addiction and drugs that are
00:47:27
Speaker
you know, causing your marriage to fail and like, how long are you going to hold yourself back to, to, you know, stay in the pocket with this person who is obviously like a mess or whatever. Like, and he just slowly works his way down until he's at a point where he's talking, he's given the example of someone in the, of someone in the church that came to him to talk about their marriage for like the umpteenth time. And he's like,
00:47:54
Speaker
Yeah, my wife gave me another ultimatum. I've been seeing things a little bit differently these days than I did when we first met. I think it's time for you to call her bluff. You want to serve God over the next three years or you want to chase after this woman?
00:48:07
Speaker
You know, and like took that example, didn't give any example of like what the ultimatums were that this lady was asking her husband. I mean, even if she probably not even a real scenario, right? Probably not. Then it it's it's funny because he wants him to vacuum a rug and he's like, but baby, the game's on. It's like.
00:48:28
Speaker
that, God, I just, it's filling the blanks. Yeah, it's filling. That's what's important about it. That's what works. You can fill in the blanks. And so like, maybe at that point, the guys in the audience are all going like,
00:48:42
Speaker
Yeah, you shouldn't have to take that, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then he talks about, you know, he's like, you know how many marriages in this church have been ruined by pornography? Like you men come in here and you say that your wife won't be intimate with you and stuff. And you've been staring at pornography. She ought to throw you out of the house until you get yourself straight with God. And it's like, we've slowly walked down this path to where like the little things that all of you
00:49:08
Speaker
are feeling nervous about right now are reason enough to question your marriage and possibly end it. Yeah. Like what justifies him, even though he won't explain, he goes, he even says that in the details of his, cause he was accused of abuse, um, uh, in his marriage. And that's what led to the divorce. And he says that there are details in the sealed divorce files that would totally exonerate him.
00:49:37
Speaker
And he goes, nobody wants to hear the side of the store, that side of the story and pulpit and pen, who was another publication that was trying to like ask him about it. They just want to hear, they just want to spin this nonsense and burn my life to the ground. And this is where you get the level of sociopath that he is. He goes, and the facts are the facts. I retain the kids. We finally got Amical. She's got two. I've got two. I'm remarried. She's moving on with her life.
00:50:07
Speaker
We're trying to be as friendly as we can." So he goes, I have the kids. And that's the statement that I have the kids isn't about the kids. It's about him believing that that makes him the more responsible, mature adult while his wife, who didn't get the kids, is the unhinged lunatic of a woman.
00:50:28
Speaker
And then he goes, but then he doesn't have the kids. He fucking saw him into this shit and goes, I got two, she got two. He doesn't even give a fuck. They're just like this random ass negotiation for how you fucking split the kids. That blew me away. I don't care. Like if my wife were getting divorced and we were like,
00:50:50
Speaker
figuring out who got the kids and I was like, all right, how about how about this? You get one and I get one and that'll be great for the kids and our family. And that'll that's the reasonable. No, of course not. That would be insane if that would be absolutely insane and traumatizing to the children to split them up to just like
00:51:12
Speaker
All right. How about this? We'll split everything 50 50, the house, the money. It's like that full house episode where Stephanie and DJ put a line of tape down the middle of their room and try to decide like that, like you can't come on. It's like you split everything. And it's like, no, you're going to draw a line of tape down the middle of your house and be like, all right, you live on that side with your two kids and I'll live on this side with the two kids that I get. It's like fucking insane. It brings the song to mind.
00:51:42
Speaker
Split custody, like a normal person. She got the palace. I'm going through the big D and don't mean Dallas. The big dick. It's the big D dick. It's divorce, actually. I knew you would go there, though. Well, you know, I mean, he's getting divorced. He's like, maybe I'm gay. He tries a few things out, realizes he's not. I don't know. That would be a much happier end to this story. It would be a much more realistic country song.
00:52:09
Speaker
I'm very like very Brokeback Mountain. Yeah. I dude, I really like. I just I don't I think. To have this many fans this late in the game, I mean, online is one thing because you're looking at 30 second clips or whatever, but these people that are in his church and sticking with them. And even though it's not a big group, it's just astounding.
00:52:40
Speaker
that they would stick with him through that. You have to have so much personally invested in this guy. He reflects so much of who you are that you just can't cope with the fact that the guy's a total hypocrite. He's a piece of crap. We're just at a point now where beliefs are people's identity. I think about myself in the way that I've changed my mind over the years.
00:53:09
Speaker
Where if I go who I was at Liberty, I did some things that I might, that I wouldn't do today. And there were things that I thought that caused the level of like disequilibrium in myself. But when I think of like who I am, I'm never like, if you asked me now, like, are you like, I'm the same person. Like you could say I'm a different person. And I think that's what things gets convoluted, right? People go.
00:53:40
Speaker
I don't think any of what I used to, I'm a different person now. But the people who knew me then still like me and they still feel like I'm the same person. I might swear more in my jokes, I might make filthier jokes, I might go for it more and just for the laugh and we'll see where that goes and maybe you, like there are things you'll do differently based on your shift in belief out of evangelical Christianity where you're like trying to stay on this like
00:54:07
Speaker
weird moral high ground all the time. But like most people, if they change their mind about something like what I started thinking, so like, I mean, real shift back, uh, talk Shane Claiborne for a second. When I read Irresistible Revolution from Shane Claiborne, that really shifted my focus. And I was like, this is what I've been needing. I needed to read this because I've been living with this discontinuity where I'm like,
00:54:34
Speaker
I'm told all these things from an evangelical church, but I believe that what I'm reading and what I know about Jesus and my Christian faith is telling me that I should care less about my own personal freedoms and how much money I keep in my taxes and taking care of other people. And I had this shift in focus and I've been like teetering on that. And then I read this book and I go, oh my God, I needed this.
00:55:05
Speaker
And when I read that book, I'm still the same person. Hanging out with me is still the same, but my beliefs changed and that's okay. So this idea that everyone ties their beliefs to their personality, it's like, once you do that, you're just fucking asking to live in this cycle of discomfort.
00:55:31
Speaker
When you start to change your mind, you have to shove that shit down for so long because you just convinced that like, that is who you are. We are our beliefs. And it's like, no, we're the things we do. We're the people we are when we're hanging out with our friends. And you know too, dude, like, and this has come up so many times that like, when your parents were hanging out with their friends and they were just hanging out and they weren't talking about this shit, like they were just making jokes and having a good time and like,
00:56:02
Speaker
That's that's all it is. Like we aren't our beliefs. And I think if we could detach ourselves from this idea that you are what you believe. And honestly, we've talked several times about the way that this goes for like people who leave evangelicalism and find like a liberal version of Christianity or just like leftism in general, where they just double down on the same types of fundamentalism where it's like, if you don't think like me, you're out. It's like,
00:56:29
Speaker
We're not our beliefs. At the end of the day, we are not our beliefs. We are the people we are when we're hanging out, not talking about the things we fucking believe in. And I feel like that kills me when I think about people like this in the church, it's like they hear this and you hear all the cheers and the hoots and the hollers. And when they go home and they raise their kids, I'm sure some of them are really fucking shitty.
00:56:54
Speaker
But plenty are just caught up in this like conservative evangelical Christianity, just like we were. And they're not talking about this. This is inconsequential to the way they live their life, the way they do their job, the way they talk to their coworkers. These people aren't witnessing to their coworkers day in and day out. And I may not know them personally, but I know from personal experience that everyone I've ever met who's Christian talks about talking about how they wish
00:57:24
Speaker
they would reach out to people more. Like, no one's doing that. They're not disrupting conference calls. They're just living their goddamn lives. Even I. Yeah. And I think that's right. I do really bristle sometimes when people talk about, you know, people with conservative beliefs and stuff, you know, as if they're just devils and demons that should be cast out. You know, I mean,
00:57:51
Speaker
it irritates me because it's just it's such a huge percentage of the people that i know and interact with all the time and like right i mean Aside from some jokes here and there or whatever. I mean the vast majority that it it doesn't hardly affect Who they are and how they treat people there are some that it does but I think like being out of some of those circles like if you're out of circles with conservative people and you're you're
00:58:20
Speaker
Your interactions with them are all either online or it's your family, which is different, too, because your family, especially if you've got conservative parents, they feel this weird obligation to like try to bring you back into the fold or make sure that you think right. Absolutely. It's so different with family. You're right. Normal people just do normal people stuff. And the flip side of that is true, too, and in that like
00:58:46
Speaker
You can talk all you want and perform all you want about your values and who you are and what you believe and how right you are about this and that and the other. At the end of the day, it's like we said before, what people remember about you is the way that you made them feel.
00:59:07
Speaker
Yeah. And like, no one cares that you posted statuses about this movement or that, or, you know, this bill going through Congress and stuff. That's not all, that stuff's not bad to do, but like, it doesn't define who you are as a person to other people. What defines you is the way that you treat them. And so like, you can post all you want about, you know, your faith and spreading the gospel and you believe this and you believe that and love and peace and whatever.
00:59:37
Speaker
If you treat, you know, the, the, the person at the gas station counter like crap, because, you know, your speedy rewards card isn't working or something like that. Like that's what you are. They gave you the wrong vape. Yeah, I think everything about going back to Greg. Greg.
01:00:04
Speaker
I don't it's hard to say with a guy like this. I think. He's Mark Driscolli. I think I don't think he's capable of thinking outside of how he's being perceived. I don't know that he has thoughts. So, I mean, one of the things he says is in regard to like changing his mind or whatever, it's like
01:00:35
Speaker
of why he wanted to get rid of his Facebook posts. It's like, I had this comment, I was riding my bike and God told me that I should get rid of it. And I was trying to negotiate with God. And it's like, and then he's like, oh, I guess God wanes maybe, like I'm trying to negotiate with him, but whatever. I guess he, I don't know, whatever conclusion he came to, because what's weird about Greg is I'm not, well,
01:01:06
Speaker
on a personal level, uh, whatever everyone else believes. If you're still believe in the power of the Holy Spirit and them speaking to you, great. Um, I don't believe that. I don't believe people are capable of delineating their own thoughts from the thoughts of God. And I think that's gotten to us a lot of fucking trouble over the years. So when he's riding his fucking goddamn bicycle,
01:01:30
Speaker
And he's saying he's having this conversation with God. He's having a moment of clarity. I would hope where he goes, maybe I've been a cunt for five or six years and I need to change my ways. No, but that would require reckoning with who I am. But you know what the easy way out is? The easy way out is saying.
01:01:53
Speaker
You know, I, I believe everything I said, but God is challenging me to just talk about the gospel now. And he just gets to like, it, it just resets, it resets the clock before he has to do it again. It's like, it's like porn. And then you like come again and you tell God you won't do it for six months or more. You're like, I give that was the last time until I'm horny again.
01:02:20
Speaker
six hours later and you then you it's like Jesus Christ man like that's all this is this this whole like I'm done with politics is his I gave up porn for God and I think like what I don't there is absolutely zero chance
01:02:50
Speaker
in my mind that this is some sort of moment of reflection about like his character that he wants to change. This is about branding. It's about self-interest. Maybe there's some sort of a legal angle on it that he's worried about. You know, maybe he's being challenged on
01:03:11
Speaker
I don't know, it could be tax exempt status, could be something to do with custody of his kids. I mean, it's hard to say. There's some reason though that he's decided to just completely rebrand himself. And like the way that he cloaks it is hilarious. Like the fake sincerity and stuff. So this clip, he prefaces this clip by saying that like,
01:03:38
Speaker
You know, if you ask anyone about me, if you ask anybody what's the one thing that defines me, it's my courage and my boldness in speaking the truth. And then this is where it goes from there. That is not what I meant. But I did enjoy it. Here we go. My question is, why is that the number one thing I've preached for 31 years?
01:04:09
Speaker
He's 45. This may be the realest sermon you've ever heard me preach. Why is it that I preached for 31 years? And if you ask anybody, hater or lover, what is the number one personality trait of Greg Locke, all of them hands down will tell you courage and boldness. Do you think that he had to do a little method acting? He's crying over what a pussy. He just watched Kyle Rittenhouse's
01:04:39
Speaker
Like a testimonial quote. Imagine if he's like, how to cry, and he just comes up with that video of like, you know that video, the guy, it's like the worst cry of all time? Yes. It's like, nah.
01:05:09
Speaker
Oh, he goes on in that thing to state that like. Oh, man, it's such a convoluted like come to Jesus message where he's like, you know, but I think some of this he doesn't go so far as to say, like, you know, I was a maniac and I I preached things that were not in the Bible and like I strayed from the word and I hurt.
01:05:38
Speaker
Our church's reputation because I did this and it's me and my fault and I repent. He does a lot of like, you know, I let, I let meanness sometimes triumph over meekness because meanness got more amance.
01:05:58
Speaker
and use the congregation you share in this responsibility with, like he continually- Who said Amos? Mukes the congregation. Yeah, who said Amos? Oh, it was you? Oh, you loved my meanness. So I realized how much you guys loved. I gave the people what they wanted and I realized that that was wrong. But also, if it wasn't for you, I would never, ever have done such fucked up shit. It's your fault. You see what you did to me? You did this to me. It's like, Jesus, man, reign it in. And it's like, it is partially true, like,
01:06:28
Speaker
He was playing to his audience. But, you know, you don't want that coming out of him. You want that coming out of somebody else. But he goes on to say that basically like. Performative beliefs and showmanship in Christianity is what's ruining the American church. Right. He does. Yep. And. It's it's it's ridiculous on its own.
01:06:57
Speaker
But what makes it even more ridiculous is the sermon that he preached one week prior to this. Did you see this? I don't know. I think you would remember. Wait, wait, wait. What year are we talking? Did you send me this service? This is recent. No, no, no. This is like in the past month here. Okay.
01:07:22
Speaker
So this article just came out about him doing the whole like, I'm better than this now. God showed me the error of my ways. Well, now because he also Christianity is awesome in the way that everything before that is a clean slate now. Like if you show him a video, he said three weeks ago, he's like, yeah, but I didn't you see what I said three weeks later where I repented of the way I said it. Yeah.
01:07:51
Speaker
There'll be a lot of that, a lot of revisionist history on the Greg Locke, uh, you know, like, yeah, I diddled those kids. Uh, and, but, you know, I repented of that like six weeks ago, dude. You don't think I'm, you don't think I'm good to still teach children's church. He's like, I'm forgiven of that pigly wiggly. I knocked off in yazoo. Like, I thought you said you was innocent of those charges.
01:08:19
Speaker
Well, I was lying, and the preacher said, that's forgiven too. I've watched old brother of art that way too many times. So, okay, in this sermon, he's talking about deliverance and possession and all of that kind of stuff. We haven't even talked about his movie that he's just came to. I know, dude, I haven't seen it, and that feels like a total tragedy. I didn't realize he had a movie until today when I was going down the rabbit hole in the sky.
01:08:46
Speaker
How are we talking about him without have actually watched his movie? Oh, man, I don't know if I can make it through it. It'll be. I mean, if it's over 45 minutes, it'll be a tough, tough 45 minutes. But I don't I don't know. It'll be hard to commit to actually watching that. I get I'm still playing tears in the kingdom, man. I don't have time for fucking Greg Locke movies. And is a better use of your time for sure.
01:09:11
Speaker
So in this sermon, okay. He's got, there's a doll house on stage and he's talking about, he's talking about demon possession and casting demons out, which he's there. Part of their whole deliverance thing is that demons afflict Christians and can possess Christians, which is kind of a weird unconventional belief for Christians. At least in my experience. Yeah. I've heard.
01:09:40
Speaker
the back and forth on that. That's like a predestination versus like Armenianism or whatever. I feel like it's in that same category. Well, so he's talking about casting demons out of people and then having them come right back and he's, you know,
01:09:59
Speaker
Couple months later. He's casting another demon out of them and stuff and he's like you can't just cast the demon out You got to destroy the structure and at this point he takes out Somebody from the audience comes up and hands him like a Louisville slugger. Oh There you go again. I can't not do it. They hand him their Louisville slugger And sexual the Christians it always goes that way especially with cults it was like
01:10:28
Speaker
If it was a cult, it was like it starts with you just like waving this thing around like, oh, this is going to get rid of demons. And then before you know it, you get two cocks in your hand and you're just waving them around trying to get rid of those demons. It always gets sexual. Kind of a Heaven's Gate sort of thing. Yeah, you got I mean, it's don't blame me for going there. Blame cults for taking those neural pathways for me pathways.
01:10:57
Speaker
the well-blazed trails that are your neural pathways. Yeah. So this guy comes up and hands him like a like a big wooden baseball bat and it has a Bible duct taped around the end of. And he's talking about like you got to tear down the edifice stuff that's that supported these demons. And this is here's the clip from from that.
01:11:22
Speaker
You gotta get rid of the triggers on that iPhone. You gotta get rid of the triggers on that Netflix. You gotta lose her number. You gotta lose his number. New phone, who dis? The demon comes out when you expel it. The stronghold comes down when you demolish it with the Bible. This is the sound of him smashing the dollhouse with the Bible bat. And then he just throws it.
01:11:51
Speaker
He's got to start tearing that mess up. It's like a drummer at the end of a show. You got to break it down. You've got to pass down imagination and that right. I think that exalted sales. You've got to get in the Bible and beat that stronghold to death. He's got a little RFK thing going on there. Yeah, that raspy. What a fucking loser. What a fucking loser.
01:12:18
Speaker
And then proceeds the next week to give his shaky voice sermon about how showmanship is ruining American Christianity. So dumb. God, it's dumb. It's just ridiculous. I was watching like a video of somebody talking about this who's got like a, you know, it's a
01:12:43
Speaker
Christian guy who's got like a theology YouTube channel and stuff. And he's like, I think this is like such a perfect example of how these guys use Christian, like all of this stuff, Christianity as a whole, the Bible as a whole. It's just a tool to be used by them until they're done with it. And then they discard it. Like he, he smashes this. I mean, the most, just like for, for a group of people who have like this reverence for like the flag.
01:13:13
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah. To tape, imagine he was talking about American exceptionalism and he taped a flag to a bat and then just beat like a, I don't know, an Osama bin Laden pinata to death and then just chucked it. I mean, it's so disrespectful of the thing that you claim to value so much.
01:13:38
Speaker
The guy made a great point about it in the video where he's like, he goes, they do this with scripture. They do it with references. They throw the, you know, in Jesus name on top of everything. I mean, like he's literally in one clip. He talks about how he would, you know, if somebody spoke up during the service and he's like, he's like, you try to make trouble while I'm preaching. I'll take this microphone and I'll beat you right in the mouth with it in the name of Jesus. In the name of Jesus.
01:14:05
Speaker
Yeah. That's all you got to say. You just got to finish your sentence within the name of Jesus and then it's fine. They're not convictions. There's no reverence there for this stuff. I mean, I, that's a big blanket statement, but by and large, like, like Christianity, the Bible, all of these, like, you know, uh, structures and hierarchies that are kind of in place within Christianity, like they're all just tools.
01:14:34
Speaker
to be used by Greg to broaden his platform and gain prestige and money and all this kind of stuff. And then the minute they don't work, the minute that, you know, marriage as a sacred institution doesn't work out for him anymore, you just throw it aside, you get rid of it. Well, and the, the, ultimately the beauty of what Greg's doing and what a lot of pastors and preachers are doing around the world are like,
01:15:05
Speaker
Like you listen to his rants. Like the video I watched today of him railing against so many things was like, I, he didn't bring, he brought the Bible occasionally and it'd be like, just like it says in Romans one 14. And then he talks for 10 minutes. It's like, you're not actually.
01:15:35
Speaker
using your, like, I understand that there's plenty of problematic passages in the Bible that could be singled out and used to promote problematic things. Uh, and that's, that's essentially what they do, but they do it to an even weirder degree, which is like, you know, your conservative church in the middle of nowhere, that's like not trying to be YouTube famous. That's not the,
01:16:00
Speaker
Pastors live in a simple life. Everyone just kind of chills like they all know each other. Everyone knows each other in town. It's like they might pull verses out of the Old Testament or whatever and just come up with this whole idea about it's like, and that's why it's not okay to put your dick in another man's asshole. And you're like, look, that's fine. If that's the direction you're going, I understand like you're,
01:16:28
Speaker
You're reading that specifically, and you're coming away with this because you're a simpleton, I guess. That's being generous. But like, you don't have nuance. You're not interested in academic criticism of the Bible. You're not interested in the way that, you know, the way how we got the interpretations we got. But Greg Locke is even more special in the way that he goes
01:16:54
Speaker
he just reads a passage from the Bible and then just chooses his own adventure. He dungeons and dragons the motherfucking shit out of everything. It's like whatever he's thinking and that's what I think that's what's interesting about inspiring and charismatic preachers who understand not understand that that's a poor choice of words who have memorized a lot of the Bible and this is like Mark Driscoll too.
01:17:22
Speaker
is what they do is they rant about the things they care about. And then they, when they say a certain thing, they recall a verse that could connect to that. And they go, it's just like it says in James four, three, whatever. And then they just connect it to what they're saying to give validation to their own beliefs and their own ideas. And that's what happened when you know it well,
01:17:46
Speaker
you can do that. You don't have to worry about context. You don't have to worry about nuance. You don't have to talk about how cultural norms have changed. You can stream of consciousness rant. And because you've read the Bible enough or so much that all these
01:18:08
Speaker
all the verses that confirm your biases are the ones that sear themselves into your memory, you're allowed to then just pull them out on your rants. You're not even, you're not basing your rants off of scripture even, which is what most shitty preachers do. You're basing scripture off of your rants and that ends up being actually more dangerous. It moves outside of your like little community where you just like
01:18:37
Speaker
are insular with your regressiveness and you move to viral internet status is what generally happens. Yeah, he's Christian Alex Jones. Yeah. Yeah. There's a lot of things floating around in Alex Jones's head that he can apply to whatever he needs to do. Yeah. It's just enough credibility to keep the ruse going. Yeah. Yep. I guess a lot of people do that too. I guess pop psychology has not helped.
01:19:06
Speaker
Uh, people doing that either, but that's more benign. Let's talk about how benign that is when people talk about, you know, throw pop psychology into their, uh, their desire for a three day weekend. Oh my goodness. A little more me time. Jesus Christ. How could you know it's a, it's always like when it's from the other angle, when it's from this like Greg lock angle, it's always atrocious.
01:19:38
Speaker
Well, uh, last but not least, we need to talk about Greg's movie project, um, which is, I mean, I think it's like written and directed by him and then it ties in a number of douchebags kind of like him.
01:19:58
Speaker
Can I make one quick point before we move on? It's very quick because it's come up a lot. There's a lot that pops up on Google searches. There's a lot of people who have pointed it out. So I just want to mention that like he has a lot of political tirades. There's been a lot of conversation about his 501c3 status in light of that.
01:20:26
Speaker
that it should be taken away, which it should be. But Greg has stated or had stated that he got an attorney and dissolved their 501c3 status because the government
01:20:45
Speaker
ain't gonna tell me what I can and cannot say. So the IRS won't need your stupid tax exempt status. You can put it in a bag and burn it in your front yard for all we care. I renounce 501c3 communism in the church. There is absolutely- That'd be the only respectable thing that he does. Yeah, there's absolutely no record of him renouncing his 501c3.
01:21:15
Speaker
There is some there is some question of whether or not he actually did establish himself as a 501c3. And if he's done anything under any normal regulations, but all that would probably be known because 501c3 makes you tax exempt, but as an organization, but. More importantly, it allows your parishioners to file their
01:21:45
Speaker
donations to your organization as tax exempt. So we would probably know if they renounced it because a lot of people might
01:21:56
Speaker
have a problem with their donations to the church no longer being tax exempt. I feel like it would have come up if that actually happened. It clearly did not happen. So I know that's come up a bunch. I thought it was worth just making a quick mention of his 501c3 status is likely still intact. Boy can dream. So his movie is called
01:22:26
Speaker
Come out in Jesus name and we just read you the the Storyline here if you want to call it that I think I would like to see a good gay twist on this That would be my of course you would Following a startling chain of events the most controversial pastor in America Greg Locke definitely That himself her pocket shirt You pig
01:22:53
Speaker
took a 180 degree turn from his mainstream religious traditions and led his church into legitimate revival. He and a diverse group of unconventional preachers then began to spark the most important awakening in the history of the Christian church. What group? A diverse group of straight white men?
01:23:17
Speaker
I don't think they're all white, but we'll see here in a second. So through the most unlikely means by casting out demons. This fiery film documents the beginnings of their journey while Come Out in Jesus Name is a 90 minute feature length film. It also has a special two hour deliverance edition that includes as
01:23:41
Speaker
Bonus material it says in parentheses a historic 30 minute invitation prayer and deliverance session led by pastor lock during the March 2023 premiere that became the largest mass deliverance in church history in Jesus name.
01:23:58
Speaker
a lock media film, a Global Vision Bible Church production. Lock media. That's new. Thousand in 2023. So this whole thing, it's him and a couple of other goofball pastors. One of them is Vladimir Savchik, who he looks like he looks like. What's what's the bizarre looking dude from the Goonies? I
01:24:29
Speaker
The guy they thought was the bad guy. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But hey you guys. He looks like hey you guys. Like started listening to David Goggins and got fit.
Modern-Day Exorcisms and Skepticism
01:24:41
Speaker
I have no I have no clue. So he's one of the pastors. One of them is this Mike Signorelli and
01:24:50
Speaker
This guy I've seen before, he has some insane TikToks where he talks about like different kinds of demons that can invade your dreams and stuff like that. Like he's out of his mind and it says some really wacky stuff. I love one more. I love the specifics of demonology. That is impressive to me. And then there's this type of demon and they do these things specifically. But then these types of demons
01:25:26
Speaker
They like taking dumps in teacups, you know? And don't watch out for this demon because they will upper decker your toilet. And sometimes these are the most commonly mistaken for ghosts. But remember, ghosts aren't real. They're demons and their shits aren't real, but they still stink and they do sit in the tub and you cannot get rid of them without an interesting combination of incenses and essential oils.
01:25:38
Speaker
These are the ones that ruin your soups and you gotta watch out for these demons.
01:25:57
Speaker
though, the other pastor on this is Leon de Pries, who God, I know he looks he would look at home in a fedora, like one of these guys that's a little too into Peaky Blinders like Joshua Harris on the cover of I kiss David goodbye. Dude, they all have like bios in IMDV, too. And it's like
01:26:23
Speaker
Ordained as a prophet before birth, discovered at the mere age of 17, this was the moment when Leon de Pries got saved and delivered through an encounter with Jesus Christ. Leon de Pries became a living example of the supernatural power of God that was imparted to him during his encounter in the midst of a drug den. At 17, he's from, wow, it's like South Africa maybe?
01:26:50
Speaker
Yeah. And then, you know, he hosts like prophetic get togethers online or something. It's basically like a, you know, I zoom chat, a bunch of lunatics. Zoom exorcisms are the best thing to have come out of the pandemic for sure. Yeah. Oh, I love those Catherine Crick videos or someone over the computer. Unbelievable. What happens when they lag? Does that affect the deliverance?
01:27:18
Speaker
Like you get a little cross stream disconnect, you know, it's a good question. You have to repeat those words to imagine like this stuff that we end up doing with like every guest, but you're trying to deliver them from a demon or you're like, no, Hey, can, can you hear me now?
01:27:34
Speaker
You got to go to settings and look at your audio input. Your input is what you're talking to. Make sure that's on your microphone. Now you can't hear me. And that's all demons.
01:27:51
Speaker
all its demons preventing it from getting set up properly so they don't get cast out. But they're just never powerful enough to just to fight against the computer settings that are manually selected. It's tough being a demon in 2023. Yeah, yeah, you got a real internet wizard to cast them out these days. The greatest thing, okay, the best thing if you want to have some fun, good, just go look up
01:28:21
Speaker
uh, come out in the name of Jesus clips on, uh, on YouTube. And I was trying to see if I could like get some segments from the movie to, to use as like sound clips or whatever. There's not really much from the movie on there. What you find is a whole bunch of videos of people in the movie theater being delivered from demons. They go to watch the movie.
01:28:48
Speaker
And then the girl that they came with just starts screaming in the regal. Again, tough to be a demon in 2023. You can't even watch exorcisms without your demons being exercised. It's wild times out here.
01:29:09
Speaker
Oh my God. I just like love the idea of like someone kneeling in the aisle and they've got like gum and old popcorn grease like soaked into their pants and they're just squealing. In actuality, it was just like her boyfriend fingering her real good in the backseat of the movie in the back of the movie theater. Dude, what is with.
01:29:32
Speaker
Oh, man, there's so many funny things about like these demon deliverance videos. But part of what's hilarious about it is that they're all the same. Like there's a very established like script, man. And like the process of delivering, you know, someone from a demon, like it was storyboarded like six years ago, and they all stick to it to a T.
01:29:58
Speaker
Yeah, it's like more precise than like the events leading up to childbirth. It's like six centimeters now at six centimeters. Oh man. Is the cervix dilated?
01:30:18
Speaker
Come out. You got to wait. You got to wait until like the spirit is dilated eight centimeters or whatever it is for children. And then you can suck the demon out. But only if you're a Catholic priest. It's different if you're evangelical or not. I mean, it depends. Do there is this video we were watching earlier of
01:30:46
Speaker
The headline on the video was like young boy delivered from demon of autism. Oh, my God, dude, I I'm still feeling over that. It is such a good video because it's just like this like this goofy looking kid. He's just standing in the park. You know, he doesn't seem like he's totally aware of what's going on. He's looking all over the place.
01:31:12
Speaker
He looks very uncomfortable. Yeah. He's just kind of like slouching and sticking his gut out and stuff. So predatory on this in the name. I think it's Catherine Crick. It sounds like her voice. I absolutely think it is. You mentioned that in her hair and her voice. It's Catherine Crick for certain.
01:31:32
Speaker
Dude, everyone in these videos does this long drawn out thing like they really, you know, like soak up their moment in the spotlight and they scream and roll around on the ground and cry. And like so there's like you got to struggle a little bit to pull the demon out. This kid, she's good. She goes in the name of Jesus, I would book I come out, come out of him. I love the kid just stands there and he's like looking around like all confused and stuff. And then he goes, I'm leaving him.
01:32:03
Speaker
He kind of like looks at her and he's like, what just happened? It's unbelievable. And he's still just looking around like nothing changes about his affect. Nothing. He's the same kid before and after exorcism, after the exorcism. And everyone is like praising Jesus that his mom, I think it's his mom crying on the ground, collapses that he'd been delivered. And it's.
Understanding Autism Beyond Norms
01:32:33
Speaker
It's so gross. I actually have seen a couple of things recently where things like this have happened where you're delivered from the spirit of autism or something like that. It's so dismissive of people who we all know autism's a spectrum and most people
01:32:59
Speaker
who are diagnosed on the autism spectrum, being a spectrum, particularly most, mostly you could all be on it. And you're just like, after you get to a certain point, it's more noticeable. Uh, but it's like, there's nothing wrong with these people. Like they're just people and you're trying to cast out their demons. So that way they just are more like you. I do. There's this kid in my school. He's going to be a kindergartner next year.
01:33:28
Speaker
Preschool. I met with him in preschool. He's reading at a fourth grade reading level. Preschool. Unbelievable, this kid. He blows my mind. I love spending time with him. And there you go, we're concerned about his social skills. And I meet with him. I played, we played perfection. We played memory match. This kid tells me about his life, about the songs he likes.
01:33:59
Speaker
I just like, he seems, I don't notice any issues. And they go, well, he doesn't like playing with his peers. I'm like, that's because his peers are taking dolls and smashing them into each other.
01:34:13
Speaker
He doesn't like that. He's just the genius. He's not anti-social. He's just way smarter than anyone. But he also has that rigidity that comes with autism. So if he gets splashed a little bit with water, he freaks out. There's certain things that make him lose his mind. And it's like,
01:34:32
Speaker
That's how you diagnose it based on like, this is what like, you know, neurotypical is. And then you have these extremes where it's like, he's incredible at everything academically, but rigid in this way. And that's how you find your way under the autism spectrum. And it's just a way of, you know, diagnosing something, which ultimately medical diagnosis are super helpful in school because it just allows you to get a lot more services, uh, and accommodations to help you make like
01:35:02
Speaker
manage your way through school. He's going to need accommodations and services because when he goes to kindergarten, he's not going to want to be doing the same thing that other kindergartners are doing. You need to find
Community Engagement and Promotions
01:35:12
Speaker
a way to accommodate his abilities and help him where he might be falling behind. But all of this is like
01:35:23
Speaker
I thought of that kid as soon as I watched this video where they tried casting out the demon of autism. I'm like, this kid could be in college by the time he's 12. This kid could find a fucking cure for cancer. If he gets delivered. If he gets delivered, he's just going to watch NASCAR with his brother. It's like, come on, dude. Amazing.
01:35:50
Speaker
That's what it is. Amazing. Oh my God. Well, we need to get Jeremiah back. Sorry, Jeremiah. That means your basement. That means he's like doing the backstroke in his basement right now, probably. Yeah. Yep. Poor Jeremiah, bailing water in the basement, but
01:36:15
Speaker
Thank you for listening. If you enjoy the show, leave us a review wherever you listen to it, share it with your buddies. Um, someone in your life can appreciate this. I, I almost guarantee it. We would appreciate the, uh, the word of mouth that it helps a lot. And, uh, if you're not in the discord yet, you really ought to join the discord. It's fun place. It's kind of, I feel like we're.
01:36:41
Speaker
Like getting more and more like topic ideas and stuff like that from the conversations in the discord people post a lot of
01:36:49
Speaker
cool, interesting, useful, mostly funny things. So it's a good spot. Come join. Yeah. You can hang out and talk. You can lurk. Doesn't matter. It's just a good place to be. So do those things. And, uh, Oh, and our buddy Spencer Bland, his comedy special is out. So you can get that on iTunes, a couple other places, just go to his Instagram page and he'll, uh,
01:37:19
Speaker
He'll point you in the right direction, but super funny, very talented guy, and he definitely would appreciate the support. So that being said, thanks for listening, and we will talk to you next time.