Pastor claims he miraculously cured a man hospitalized due to voting for Democrats
"Hopefully he’s a good, solid Republican now," said Pastor Robert Henderson
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There are countless stories about pastors who encourage their congregations to vote for Republicans, in defiance of the IRS rule (the Johnson Amendment) that prohibits non-profit groups from telling members which way to cast their ballots. Those groups can always wink in a particular direction; they just can’t cross that line.
Rarely, however, will you see a pastor urge people to vote for Republicans by using the threat of death.
That’s what Pastor Robert Henderson did recently during the “Opening The Heavens” conference run by self-proclaimed Christian “prophet” Hank Kunneman. Henderson, a pastor who once blamed the 9/11 attacks on Christians not being unified and said his prayer was responsible for the death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, had already cast a spell against Kamala Harris, declaring that the “heat of God” was withering her campaign down to nothing. (Polls say otherwise.)
But he later told a story about an unnamed man who nearly died because he voted for Democrats. That is until Henderson stepped in and miraculously saved him.
Kyle Mantyla at Right Wing Watch has the video:
Henderson explained that during a recent trip to Kentucky, he heard about this man who was in the hospital due a very high fever—so high that doctors worried it would “cook his brain.”
“Nothing was working” to bring it down, he said, so Henderson suggested that church members pray.
That’s when he learned more about the situation:
… All of a sudden, another person in attendance at that conference said, ‘I need to tell you something.’ She said, ‘That man that is in that condition has been a lifelong Democrat and we have tried to convince him that he is in agreement with the spirit of death because of his vote.'”
The man kept voting for Democrats, they clarified, which was supposed to explain his condition. They kept trying to talk the man out of it, but he refused to budge. So Henderson said he prayed and “asked for healing.” And voila! That did the trick:
“I am not joking; five minutes after we finished that prayer, someone that was connected to the situation got the call and said his fever just broke and the man was spared and he was back at the services the next day.”
“I want you to hear this: His vote connected him to something in the spirit world that had to be undone,” Henderson concluded. “Now, hopefully he repented. Hopefully he’s a good, solid Republican now.”
There are obvious questions to ask about this story: Who was this guy? Can we hear from his doctors? Was he receiving any medicine? And if this guy was cured, how does Henderson explain all the Democratic voters—including many Christians!—who aren’t in the hospital as a result of their politics?
But none of those questions mattered to the people in the crowd. They ate it up because they’re inclined to believe that politics is a spiritual battle and Donald Trump is the next Messiah. No amount of cruelty or fascist rhetoric will make them consider another candidate. No abortion denial horror stories will make them care about women’s health. No level of incompetence will ever make them see Trump as unfit for office.
They’ve convinced themselves that a vote for Republicans is an extension of their faith—or, to put it another way, Republicans have realized that many white evangelical churches and their ministries are nothing more than useful extensions of their political campaigns.
Jesus is always secondary to whatever the GOP needs.
There’s an argument to be made that, if your vote is supposed to connect you with “the right thing in the spirit world,” there’s no discrepancy between Christian values and Democratic policies. After all, only one party has any interest in helping the poor, the hungry, the “least of these.” Only one party supports making sure more people have access to health care and aren’t burdened with out-of-control student loans. Only one party has a clear, evidence-based plan for decreasing mass shootings. Obviously, all of that is idealistic—there’s no shortage of legitimate criticisms of Democrats—but the point is that Democratic values aren’t out of sync with the religion. Unless, that is, you hinge your entire religion on the idea that life begins at conception and that unborn fetuses matter more than living women… and everything else.
But guys like Henderson have reduced the entire faith down to the worst GOP policies, linking the two up for everyone gullible enough to fall for it, and it’s a growing problem for the GOP and Christians alike. At least younger Christians. Neither side actually seems to like the other—Republicans insincerely pander to Christians, and Christians know damn well that Republicans have nominated a thoughtless buffoon—but now they’re joined at the hip and have no choice but to move together in the same direction.
What I find far more disgusting than anything this man has to say, are the people who think he's worth listening to. I don't think people should delegate their thinking to anyone, least of all the clergy. Almost every problem on earth traces back to either a profit motive or religion, and they are not mutually exclusive.
Are they 𝘵𝘳𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 to see how crazy the stories can get before the rubes stop buying into them? Jesus H Motherfucking Christ on a cracker, I did not have "voting for Democrats cooks your brain" on my fundie bingo card.