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Lying Leaders and Susceptible Sheep



It’s no coincidence that many of the most bizarre and dangerous COVID conspiracies and election-fraud conspiracies are spread through the white evangelical community. Evangelical churches are, unfortunately, full of folks who tend to be undereducated, gullible, and prone to paranoia about evil government-based cabals out to get them. So, metaphorical wolves—some of them malevolent and some bonkers believers themselves—prey upon the gullibility and paranoia of these ignorant sheep.

To put it bluntly, Powell was lying again.

Sidney Powell Interview

Two recent events highlight this foul phenomenon. First is an interview with the wacko conspiracy theorist lawyer Sidney Powell on Andrew Wommack’s “Gospel Truth TV” program. Before we get to Powell’s daft comments on that program, a bit of background about Mr. Wommack might be instructive. Wommack and his vast ministries are headquartered in Woodland Park, Colorado, just a few miles from where I live.


1. Wommack and his thousands of followers are Pentecostals, which means they “speak in tongues” and believe God still regularly performs miracles. Pentecostals also tend to be dominionists. That means they believe Christians are called to take control of governments and Christianize the nation on God’s behalf.

2. The Wommack’s eldest son, Jonathan Peter Wommack, has been arrested for DUIs and for beating his wife. The Wommack family has tried to cover up Jonathan’s criminal activities while they get rich by fleecing their naïve flock and far-flung followers. Andrew Wommack’s net worth is estimated at $15 million.

3. Wommack claimed the couple's son Jonathan was pronounced dead, but their prayers brought him back to life. He also claimed he knows of dozens of others who have been raised from the dead.


The list of Wommack’s absurdities could go on, but the items I listed above are sufficient to reveal the kind of person who believes the rantings of Sidney Powell. On that same program, Powell claimed that “They”—unnamed nefarious forces bent on blocking the election audits that would prove the 2020 presidential election was rigged—blew up the car Harrison Deal, a 20-year-old staffer on former Sen. Kelly Loeffler's failed campaign, was driving. So, here’s a bit more of what Ms. Powell had to say on Wommack’s TV program:


I think what we are dealing with here is pervasive and very, very dark. It’s organized. It’s well funded. It’s pure evil. They are willing to kill people, a la Kelly Loeffler’s aide in Georgia, who was suddenly blown up in his car on the way to a rally for her. He happened to be dating Gov. Kemp’s daughter. Gov. Kemp was considering, I think, at that point, a signature audit.


To put it bluntly, Powell was lying again, just as she’s done many times before. Her lies already have her facing a massive lawsuit over her false claims that Dominion Voting Systems rigged the 2020 presidential election. She’s likely to face another lawsuit over this recent claim about the death of Harrison Deal. The plain truth is that young Mr. Deal died in a multi-car crash on Interstate-16 in Georgia. But Powell stands firm on her false claims, counting on prayer to rescue her from the sinister “they” cabal and their nefarious efforts to silence her.


Dr. Simone Gold

Meanwhile, Dr. Simone Gold, a strident anti-vaxxer—seen in the photo at the top of the page—was recently filmed at an evangelical church declaring to her trusting audience that it’s the vaccine, not COVID itself, that they need to fear. Gold then tells the enthusiastic audience to “Rise up! Rise up!” essentially urging them to rebel against the science-based protocols coming from real medical experts. After that nonsense, Gold dared to compare herself to Susan B. Anthony and Rosa Parks.


According to a PolitiFact article, Gold’s “Save Our Country Coalition, which seeks to raise millions of dollars, is backed by advocates linked to several conservative organizations, including the FreedomWorks Foundation and the Tea Party Patriots.”


Dr. Gold is just one of many white evangelical doctors pushing the dangerous anti-vax conspiracy theories. Another of the more prominent anti-vax evangelical physicians is Dr. Sherri Tenpenny. I know quite a bit about Dr. Tenpenny because a few months ago one of my writing partners was asked to ghostwrite a book for Dr. Tenpenny. And this writing partner then asked me to join her in this project. At the time, neither of us had even heard of this woman.


Dr. Sherri Tenpenny

I can now say—after reading the transcripts the publisher sent us along with some of my own research—Dr. Tenpenny is a quack. Among the bizarre things she wanted included in her book was a claim that by the end of September, most of the people who did acquiesce to "the cabal’s" push for COVID vaccinations would be dead from the toxic vaccines. So, according to Tenpenny, if you’ve been vaccinated, by the time you read this you’re likely to be in your last days. Thankfully, we hadn’t time to complete the book by the deadline the publisher wanted, so the book was cancelled.


Dr. Tenpenny’s goofy beliefs should raise a massive red flag to any reasonable human being. But, because most of those who attend her conferences—and who make her wealthy by buying her crazy resources—are gullible white evangelicals, her perilous proclamations have spread nearly as fast as the COVID virus she and they dismiss as an evil hoax.

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