One Tennessee pastor gave his members two options: come to church maskless or be kicked out. Pastor Greg Locke told his members at Global Vision Bible Church in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee that he will ask anyone with a mask to leave.
The warning from Locke comes after various states and communities reinstate mask mandates because of rising COVID-19 delta variant cases.
“If they go through round two and you start showing up (with) all these masks and all this nonsense, I will ask you to leave,” Locke said during a service on Sunday. “I will ask you to leave. I am not playing these Democrat games up in this church.”
On Tuesday, the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control will recommend vaccinated Americans wear masks indoors in certain circumstances due to the rise of the highly transmissible delta variant. The agency will recommend vaccinated people in high transmission areas wear masks in indoor public places to prevent further spread.
The CDC is also expected to support universal masking for all teachers, staff and students in schools, regardless of vaccination status.
As of Tuesday, there were 611,000 confirmed COVID-19 related deaths in the U.S. The delta variant now makes up at least 83% of new COVID-19 cases.
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Locke criticized pastors who have canceled services or held off water baptisms due to the new coronavirus variant. He said not only will the church be maskless, but they will also not engage in social distancing, local news outlet Lexington Herald reports.
“They will be serving Frosty’s in hell before we shut this place down, just because a buck wild, demon-possessed government tells us to,” Locke said in his Facebook video.
This isn’t the first time Locke’s spoken out against COVID-19 regulations, The Charlotte Observer reported that Locke said he would rather go to jail than shut down his congregation because of the pandemic. He did eventually close down his church shortly to comply with the COVID-19 guidelines.
Follow Gabriela Miranda on Twitter: @itsgabbymiranda
