Anti-LGBTQ Republican who claimed Bible was his “vaccine” gets COVID-19
Failed GOP politician E.W. Jackson has called gay people "perverted" and "very sick"
An anti-LGBTQ Republican politician and pastor has contracted COVID-19 after previously claiming that the Bible was his “vaccine” against the virus.
E.W. Jackson sought the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate seat in Virginia in 2012 and 2018, failing both times, and is currently head pastor at Exodus Faith Ministries.
He has previously called gay people “very sick” and “perverted,” said that the United States would turn into a “homocracy” if gay former Mayor Pete Buttigieg became president, and earlier this year claimed Donald Trump was “too much of a man” for LGBTQ people.
Last week, Jackson announced during a Facebook Live sermon that he had contracted COVID-19, despite assuring his congregation in March that he was “not gonna get the coronavirus” and claiming that the Bible was his “vaccine” against COVID-19.
“I’m not gonna get the coronavirus,” he declared. “I’m not gonna give anybody the coronavirus, cause I can’t get it, cause I’ve talked to God about it, and I’ve taken my vaccine, and my vaccine is Psalm 91! I am free from that mess.”
Unfortunately, that wasn’t true, and Right Wing Watch shared footage of Jackson revealing that he had been absent for “the last week…because I was tested positive for COVID-19.”
“I’m healthy. I’m sound. I’m whole. Praise God. I’m feeling good,” he added, before revealing that his wife had also contracted COVID-19.
In an interview with Newsweek, he called COVID-19 “opportunistic” and blamed working seven days per week.
“I’ll tell you what-exactly what I believe really happened to me,” he said. “The Bible says we’re supposed to rest one day a week, and I’ve been working seven days a week probably for — I don’t know — who knows how long. So while I’m confessing that I don’t have it — I’m not gonna get it — I’m wearing myself off.”
Also Read: Anti-gay pastor who claimed COVID-19 was judgment on gays dies from virus
Jackson has a long history of opposing LGBTQ equality. In February this year, he used an anti-gay term to refer to former President Barack Obama, calling him “effete” and “light in the loafers” — a derogatory term for gay men.
He also claimed that LGBTQ people hate Donald Trump because he’s “just too much of a man for them.”
“I’m convinced that a lot of this criticism of the president also has to do with his masculinity,” Jackson said. “[Trump is] a man, and you know the left doesn’t like manhood.”
Last year, Jackson opposed an openly gay judge nominated to a federal appeals court by Trump, saying that gay people couldn’t be judges because they can’t be “fair or objective.”
And last April, he claimed that then-Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who was campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination, wanted to turn American into a “homocracy.”
Speaking on his radio show, Jackson said that a “normal man” would be “disgusted by the idea of two men kissing each other on the mouth,” adding, “Yeah, they want a homocracy, in which they get to dictate to everybody what you can and cannot say.”
In 2017, while campaigning for the U.S. Senate, Jackson claimed to “regret” using anti-gay rhetoric, after facing criticism over his past rhetoric.
“I regret using any words that hurt people or that make people think I hate them, or that make people think I look down on them,” he said.
Jackson had previously linked homosexuality to pedophilia and called gays and lesbians “perverted,” “degenerate” and “very sick” people.
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