Timothy Pate

Pastor Greg Locke wants you to know that, despite his history of promoting religious hatred against Muslims, he’s “not going to be a jerk for Jesus.”

In a recent video on Locke’s Facebook page titled “WHAT A MUSLIM MAN JUST TOLD ME HAS ME FURIOUS,” Locke tells his followers a story about a Muslim family who left a game of pool unfinished when nobody would play with them. His message, of course, is that Pastor Greg Locke is a kind and gracious pastor. Wait, what?

In the video he says:

Look folks: I’ve made my stance on Islam very clear. But I still love people. And I think it’s a shame that that family came, and left, because he felt slighted by the people around him. That’s not the mercy of Christ. That’s not the love of the gospel. I don’t care what the color of their skin is, what their sexual orientation, what kind of outfit or what religion they choose; Jesus died for the sins of the entire world.

You see, some of you clicked on this video for the wrong reason, and what you heard was not what you expected. But let me tell you something: as strong and as bold as I am religiously and politically, I’m not going to be a jerk for Jesus. I still believe in kindness and civility. So at the end of the day, I want to be the kind of person that even those that disagree with me appreciate my kind and gracious spirit.

He’s right about one thing: his stance on Islam is very clear. And that stance is not one of love or tolerance. In September 2015, Locke posted another video — this one ranting that the teaching of the history of Islam was equivalent to brainwashing and indoctrination. David Edwards covered the story:

“We have a number of families in our church that are really upset and up in arms over all of this new Islamic indoctrination in our public school system,” the pastor opines in the video. “Let me tell you something, when they are in sixth grade, they get half a page of watered down Christianity that has about as much Bible as a thimble if you will. And now, there’s 28 pages that they have to learn about Islam and Mohammed and how it all came about and about the Holy Koran and the Five Pillars of Islam and how they pray and when they pray and where they pray and why they pray and about pilgrimages and all of this!”

“That’s a bunch of bunk, we do not serve the same God,” he continues. “And there has been an absolute Islamic invasion and indoctrination of our kids.”

According to Locke, a history test given on the Sept. 11 anniversary was part of an Islamic plot in the Tennessee schools.

“Do not think, ladies and gentlemen, that is any coincidence whatsoever, that on Sept. 11th, that they will be taking tests on it,” he insists.

Locke offers some advice to parents: “You need to tell your kids, ‘Take an F for the class.’ Because I’d rather fail in man’s class and get an A+ in God’s class. And we need to have some kids that have some character, that stand up. Because we do not serve the god of the nation is Islam. We do not serve Allah.”

Just two months later, Locke posted another video railing against Islam. In this one, he promotes the conspiracy theory that refugees from Syria are being sent as a “Trojan horse” to infiltrate the United States with radical Islamists.

“I am convinced 100 percent that (the Syrian refugee issue) is a Trojan horse to get radical Islam more embedded into the fabric of the United States of America,” Locke said. “One thing you will find out about me very, very quickly is I’m not PC – politically correct. I try to be BC – biblically correct. So I’m not really interested in whether you follow me or not. You can get mad, you can unlike the page, and I promise you I will not lose one moment of sleep over it.”

Locke went on to opine that if even a small fraction of the Syrian refugees seeking asylum in the United States are ISIS agents, the result will be devastating.

“Can I remind you than on 9/11 19 men carried out the biggest, most explosive terrorist attack that this nation has ever seen. Nineteen,” he said. “So if there is only 100 in the 10,000 Syrian refugees, that’s 100 too many.”

It gets worse. In the same video, Locke even calls for what amounts to concentration camps for Syrian refugees in Alaska. He also implies that President Obama has “an Islamic agenda.”

“Because we do want to show compassion, and love, and grace, and we do want to help the women and the children, here’s what we do. … There is some very nice land in Alaska, let’s build a small refugee camp, let’s feed them, let’s clothe them. Let’s be kind and loving and compassionate and show them the American Spirit, and let’s put them in Alaska for at least another year until we can vote somebody into the White House that the American people can actually trust and have confidence in, who doesn’t lie to us boldly and have an Islamic agenda.

“And then after that year we’ll see whether we allow them to come into our nation’s ‘borders’ or not,” he said. “So for now, let’s take care of them, in Alaska, where no harm can be done.”

Locke is one of many voices promoting this kind of bigotry and fear toward Muslims. He teaches people to behave in exactly the same way that he condemned in his video masquerading as a call for kindness and grace. Where else does he think the people who treated this family of Muslims so poorly learned such hatred?

The only thing worse than a hypocrite is a hypocrite who broadcasts his or her hypocrisy and touts it as a virtue. Locke doesn’t absolve himself of the ugliness he has instilled in others with a video claiming he is above that behavior.

Locke claims to be guided by his faith, but it’s glaringly apparent that he is not committed to doing the work to back it up. He’d rather hawk his virtues then turn around and betray them with every move he makes.