The congregation was in the middle of an online service when a longtime churchgoer in her 60s texted her pastor to complain that his prayer lamenting the riot at the U.S. Capitol in January was “too political.”
The woman later unloaded a barrage of conspiracy theories. The election of Joe Biden was a fraud. The insurrection was instigated by Black Lives Matter and antifa activists disguised as Donald Trump supporters. The FBI was in on it all. The day would soon come, she said, “when all the evil, the corruption would come to light and the truth would be revealed.”
Startled and moved to tears, Pastor David Rice told the woman she had been “tricked by lies.”
“You need to know how crazy this is,” he said to his congregant at Markey Church in Roscommon County, Mich., a rural region of 25,000 residents that voted 2 to 1 for Trump. “You have been with my family and in my home and I care for you but you are dabbling in darkness. You are telling me it’s giving you hope. I’m telling you as your pastor that it’s evil.”
“You have been with my family and in my home and I care for you but you are dabbling in darkness.” QAnon and conspiracy theories are taking hold in churches and pastors are fighting back
By @jaweedkaleem https://t.co/QvWqnQHl3S— seth liss (@sliss33) March 3, 2021
I will take comments on this submitted by email only to KSHarmon[at]mindspring[dot]com.