Right Wing Watch is cited in Harper’s story about Greg Locke.
The pastor is pacing back and forth, a cordless microphone in one hand, the other extended before him. He says, “This is the awakening the American church has been waiting on,” and keeps pacing. He has readied himself before taking the elevated stage, donning a paisley shirt, top button undone, and speaks now from the wood pulpit of his revival tent. There are evils hiding among the congregation, the pastor continues, unseen devils that must be named and expelled. “I renounce you, Satan,” he says, “and all of your demons.” On his command, those demons will be cast out by the power of Jesus: an exorcism en masse. His voice works up to a pulsing staccato, listing the lurking devils. “Yoga . . . psychic hotlines . . . every voodoo curse, out, out right now in Jesus’ name!” he says, “spirits from healing crystals come out, spirits from dream catchers come out . . . up and out!” These unholy spirits must all depart and flee far away. “Out, out, out!”
...At the height of the pandemic, Locke’s sermons reached a Manichaean crescendo, complete with visions of QAnon tunnels and Hollywood cabals. Yet, when the dust settled, these could feel like unrealized nightmares, the products of an abstract spiritual war fought somewhere out of sight. Even progressive watchdogs that had been monitoring Locke grew bored. “I think he got addicted to the outrage cycle,” a Right Wing Watch researcher said. “We don’t want to be part of this nonsense anymore.” Trump was not reinstated; the Storm did not make landfall. So Locke set his sights closer, warming to the notion that he might battle demons locally, casting them out right there in the tent.
