Radical right-wing pastor Greg Locke used the service at his Global Vision Bible Church Sunday to attack Tennessee Republican Gov. Bill Lee for supposedly signing an executive order giving the National Guard the authority to build "quarantine camps" in the state in which to lock up those who refuse to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
Locke, who has long been an unhinged opponent of efforts to control the spread of COVID-19, recently announced that anyone caught wearing a mask in his church would be ejected. On Sunday, he used his sermon to rail against Gov. Lee for signing an executive order easing some regulations in the state so health officials can better and more quickly deal with rising infection and hospitalization rates.
"Do you see this nonsense our governor signed?" Locke fumed. "[He] will not get reelected because, I'm telling you, he is a coward. I don't care how much he talks about Jesus; Bill Lee is a coward. You tell him I said so. He's a noodle. He's a waffler. Willy nilly nonsense. Opening up Tennessee to this bunch of craziness going on. I ain't voting for him again. I'm ashamed I voted for him the first time."
"Did you see the executive order he just signed for COVID-19?" Locke continued. "Anybody that has a medical license can now practice in Tennessee from out of state, which is unconstitutional, super, super dangerous, and that is very unlawful for a lot of reasons. But they're talking about all these hospitals are overflowing with people. Why don't you carry camera in one of these hospitals that are supposed to be overflowing with COVID patients and show me how empty they are?"
"But here's the two things that bothered me," Locke said. "Number one: He has authorized the power of the National Guard to get involved in issues of COVID-19. ... You know what bothers me more about the National Guard getting involved? Why don't you look at Section 8 of what he signed? ... They've authorized the Tennessee Department of FEMA to build what they call—in his own authorized pages of a signature—quarantine camps. I ain't talking about East Germany, I'm talking about Tennessee! Quarantine camps for the uninformed people that are still in refusal to be vaccinated."
Then Locke began to scream.
"I don't care what Bill Lee says," Locke bellowed. "I don't care what fraudulent, fake Joe Biden says. I don't care what Planned Parenthood says. I don't care what Chris Cuomo said. I don't care what Gavin Newsom said. I don't care what Nancy Pelosi and her insurrectionist nonsense has to say. You better wake up, church! You better wake up! They hate us. We are speed bumps to the deep state on the road to their progressive communism, and I'll shout it from the rooftops if I'm the last one. I live by what I say, and I will die by what I say if I have to. I'll fight this garbage until my dying breath."
In addition to the fact that authorization to build temporary quarantine facilities is mentioned in Section 18, not Section 8, of Lee's executive order, everything else Locke said about it is wrong. The order does not give the National Guard the power to imprison those who refuse to be vaccinated but merely states that if temporary quarantine or isolation facilities need to be quickly constructed in Tennessee, the state, in an effort to speed up the process, has suspended regulations that require plans for the construction of new health care facilities to be preapproved and certified as meeting applicable state health and safety requirements.
