For decades, I have felt a strange mix of anger and mild amusement whenever I heard news consumers, when complaining about something that upset them, say that journalists write and print “bad” stories “just to sell newspapers.”
“Bad,” of course, meant stories that they thought were biased, inaccurate or simply silly, perhaps something that in our digital age would be called “clickbait.” Of course, clickbait is clickbait because there’s digital evidence that readers consistently click on certain types of stories, which increases traffic and that helps the newsroom generate money (sort of like selling more newspapers).
Produce enough stories that please the faithful readers of a given publication — down South we call this “preaching to the choir” — and you can turn those readers into digital subscribers. That’s the Holy Grail, the ultimate goal, in the business-model crisis that has dominated American journalism for a decade or more.
This brings me to this unusual Washington Post headline that I saw the other day: “Evangelical pastor demands churchgoers ditch their masks: ‘Don’t believe this delta variant nonsense’.”
Now, was this pastor the leader of an important congregation somewhere in Beltway-land? Well, the answer is “no.”
If he wasn’t local, was he a prominent member of a major, powerful evangelical Protestant denomination or network of megachurches? Again, “no.” Was he connected, somehow, to an influential evangelical college, seminary, publishing company or parachurch ministry? A third time, “no.”
In other words, to ask the question that drove this week’s “Crossroads” podcast, why did editors decide that this story worthy of coverage by a reporter at the Post? (Click here to tune in this episode.)
Well, I think it’s safe to say that this stereotype-packed piece of simplistic, shallow, clickbait was produced because it punched all kinds of buttons that pleased digital niche-audience Post subscribers. In other words (I feel guilty typing these words), they did it to sell newspapers. Here is the overture:
Since the early months of the coronavirus pandemic, Greg Locke, the pastor at a Nashville-area church, has repeatedly called covid a hoax, undermined emergency mandates and refused to comply with guidance from public health officials.
This week, Locke took his defiance a step further, making a sharp warning regarding mask-wearing.
If “you start showing up [with] all these masks and all this nonsense, I will ask you to leave,” Locke, 45, told scores of Global Vision Bible Church parishioners during his sermon on Sunday. His statement was followed by cheers and applause.
“I am not playing these Democrat games up in this church,” he added.
Global Vision Bible Church did not immediately respond to The Washington Post’s request for comment.
What kind of church is Global Vision Bible Church? That’s really hard to say, since the website for this independent congregation contains zippo information about the flock’s history and ties to any other group, other than Greg Locke Ministries.
A progressive Baptist news organization, Baptist News Global, did some digging into his background and found a rather messy divorce as well as the fact that:
He has been arrested six times and placed on probation five times. He converted to evangelical Christianity in 1992. Then he went on to receive a bachelor’s degree in biblical studies from Ambassador Baptist College in 1998 and a master’s degree in revival history from the Baptist School of New England in 2000. Both schools are independent fundamentalist Baptist institutions. …”
After touring as an evangelist, he came to Mt. Juliet, Tenn., and started the church that evolved into Global Vision Bible Church. In other words, this is a classic example of an independent, no-ties-that-bind church led by a preacher who has found a way to grab headlines with comments that put smiles on the faces of way too many journalists and readers on the American coasts.
Now, we had more than our share of preachers like that nearby when I worked at The Charlotte Observer, back in the early ‘80s. They were rarely worthy of local coverage. They were the fundamentalists hiding in the woods that, every now and then, threatened to come out of the woods and trash the New South.
Then came the Religious Right. And then those voters just kept coming, voting for Episcopalians like George H.W. Bush, United Methodists like George W. Bush and even Latter-day Saints like Mitt Romney.
Then things began to get tighter at the U.S. Supreme Court. Then, of course, came Donald Trump and tidal waves of headlines about a monolith of white evangelical voters — as opposed to a rather complex pack of evangelical voters consisting of many people who did, in fact, cheer for Trump early and often (in the primaries, for example, and just as many others who reluctantly voted for him in 2016 because they felt they had no choice.
Then came COVID-19, with waves of headlines about individual churches and preacher refusing to play it safe (while the major evangelical denominations and institutions urged people to work within government guidelines).
Then came QAnon, followed by Trump-flag waving rebels who stormed the U.S. Capitol, many of whom seem to be D.I.Y. evangelicals of various kinds from tiny churches in the hinterlands.
All of which makes someone like Pastor Locke a figure of national importance in the Washington Post. After all:
Locke’s evangelical church in Mount Juliet, Tenn., about 20 miles east of downtown Nashville, has grown during the pandemic, CNN reported. The pastor’s controversial commentary on covid and the 2020 presidential election has attracted far-right churchgoers.
OK, I’ll askl: How large is this congregation and how does it rank, in a complex metropolitan area packed with megachurches — many independent and many linked to major denominations? Are there any scholars or pollsters anywhere, left or right, who have any evidence whatsoever that this man’s voice has anything to do with the mechanisms of evangelical power in America?
Apparently not, according to the holes in this report. But, what the heckfire, let’s punch some more hot buttons?
… Locke called President Biden a fraud and “a sex trafficking, demon-possessed mongrel,” a reference to QAnon, an extremist ideology based on false claims.
He has also falsely claimed the pandemic is “fake,” the death count is “manipulated,” and the vaccine is a “dangerous scam.” And the pastor has preached misinformation about the vaccine, including falsely claiming it’s made of “aborted fetal tissue.”
Locke does, of course, have tons of Facebook followers and:
In July 2020, he posted on Facebook that the church was remaining open and that people did not have to wear masks or social distance. …
Strutting back and forth on a stage beneath a sprawling red-and-white striped circus tent … Locke launched into yet another impassioned monologue. This time, he warned churchgoers to not wear masks and railed against the possibility of more shutdowns.
“They will be serving Frostys in hell before we shut this place down, just because a buck wild, demon-possessed government tells us to,” Locke said, referencing the frozen dessert from Wendy’s.
“Don’t believe this delta variant nonsense,” he continued. “Stop it!”
So let’s end by asking the big question again: Why is this independent preacher in a flock of unknown size in a suburb in the suburbanized countryside East of Nashville worthy of national coverage by the Post and other elite newsrooms based in bright-blue zip codes?
You tell me.
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FIRST IMAGE: Graphic posted at The Insight blog at FourDots.com.