Bad News For The Far Right. A Religious Con Only Gets You So Far

No doubt about it, this is shaping up to be a helluva year for far right Evangelicals. First off, polling shows that Evangelical membership is dropping like the Hindenburg for a crash landing. Then the news that an independent report showed that the Southern Baptist Convention has more pedophiles in it than an Alexandria, Virginia pizza parlor run by Hillary Clinton. And now we have the cherry for the sundae.

Ladies and gentlemen, meet Pastor Gary Locke. He runs a church called the Global Vision Bible Church in Mount Juliet Tennessee. The home page for the spray painted in black on a trailer in the church yard, and the letters FU! sprayed on the pulpit inside. Church is rather cagey about the actual address. Maybe this is because Locke’s church was recently vandalized with the words  Your lies cost lives! spray painted on a trailer in the church yard, and the letters FU! spray painted on the pulpit inside.

Now remember, this is not an urban or suburban area in a northern state. This is blood red, Evangelical Tennessee. The reference to his lies costing lives seems to be related to his wild rantings and distortions during the Covid crisis. But not even counting that, Locke seems to have been somewhat of a randy lad.

For instance, at the end of one service, after the offering plates had been passed around, Locke screamed out to his congregation that Demons had given him the names of witches in his congregation. I can only imagine the number of women in pews desperately trying to not twitch their noses. More recently, in a racially vile rant that went viral, Locke told his congregation that No true Christian could ever vote Democratic! I have seen the video, and have editorially chosen not to defile the site with it, although you are of course welcome to search it up.

But it appears that there may be trouble in paradise. Earlier today, out of nowhere, Pastor Locke took to Twitter to announce that he had contacted the IRS to Dissolve his church’s tax exempt status for political reasons. I’m sorry, Say wha’?

Now look, I’m a 65 year old Irish Catholic. I’m not devout, like President Biden, but I believe. And mostly what I believe is that if I know nothing else about religion, I know that churches consider their 501(c) tax exempt statuses as sacrosanct! It gives them pretty much free rein to collect and spend their money as they wish, under the premise of religious freedom.

If Locke actually contacted the IRS and told them to dissolve his church’s tax exemption, he did it for a damn good reason. My guess is that his notoriety already had the IRS looking at him, so he took preemptive action to stop them from taking more drastic steps, such as asking to see his books.

Look, Locke is a virulent racist parading around under the guise of a loving man of God. I have no pity for him. But if he dissolves his tax exempt status, then he’s in the hurt locker. He is now going to have to report both the church as well as personal income, pay federal and state taxes on his real estate and other property assets, and be subject to audits. That’s a nice, steep price to pay for being a virulent racist conning a flock. All I know is that it’s about to become a whole lot more expensive to be a dues paying member of his church. Here endeth the sermon.

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