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Pastor Greg Locke to Fight ‘Demonic Influences’ by Burning ‘Harry Potter’ and ‘Twilight’

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Tennessee Pastor Greg Locke, a right-wing firebrand who’s made headlines throughout the pandemic, is now directing his attention and anger toward all things occult-related. That’s why he’s holding a “burning service” Wednesday night at Global Vision Bible Church in Mt. Juliet, a suburb of Nashville. The pastor urges congregants to bring books and anything witchcraft-related so it can be destroyed in the flames.

Locke, a COVID-denier who’s been banned from Twitter for spreading misinformation, has been preaching a sermon series about deliverance. Last week’s message raised eyebrows because he equated autism with demon possession. In the pastor’s January 30 sermon, titled “The Price of True Deliverance,” he admonished listeners to “stop allowing demonic influences into your home.”

Pastor Greg Locke: ‘We’re Exposing the Kingdom of Darkness’

In a Facebook post Monday, Locke elaborates on the reasons for burning anything with ties to sorcery. Those items include “Harry Potter” and “Twilight” books and movies, tarot cards, healing crystals, spell books, Ouija boards, and “anything tied to the Masonic Lodge.”

Locke writes, “We’re not playing games. Witchcraft and accursed things must go.” He references Acts 19, when new believers renounced evils from their past. “If you think we’re crazy, then scroll on,” he tells readers. “We’re exposing the Kingdom of Darkness for what it is. It’s time for people to be delivered.”

The pastor references a group of counter-protesters “on Hip Mt. Juliet” who plan to attend Wednesday’s service to “break out their witchcraft and open their Ouija boards while we celebrate.” Although Locke says everyone’s welcome and he’ll pray over them, he warns he’ll “snatch that evil garbage out of your hands and burn it right in front of your face.”

About his unconventional methods, Locke writes, “This is Global Vision and we don’t do things like the church down the road or the one you grew up in. We can’t unsee the miracles that are happening around us. It’s time to break covenant with the Devil and grow in the Lord.”

Pastor Greg Locke Has a History of Burning Books

In 2019, Locke posted a video of him burning a book by an atheist lawyer. In “The Founding Myth: Why Christian Nationalism Is Un-American,” Andrew Seidel argues that the United States wasn’t built as a Christian country. Seidel, who works for the Freedom From Religion Foundation, sent Locke a copy of his book, the premise of which is “ridiculous,” according to the pastor.