Coronavirus has claimed the life of another religious figure who doubted the severity of this disease, having told his followers that this was merely God testing the faithful.
Pastor Ronnie Hampton, of the Shreveport, Louisiana-based New Vision Community Church died Wednesday, one week after claiming the virus was nothing to worry about. His death follows that of evangelist Landon Spradlin, a noted blues guitarist who died on Wednesday. Like Hampton, Spradlin also doubted the severity of the pandemic, saying it was nothing more than “mass hysteria” spurred by the media in its hatred for Trump.
Hampton spouted conspiracy theories about coronavirus and suggested it was all part of an effort to separate and divide people, RawStory reports.
“It’s shutting down everything, which means that the physical connection of Christians is being ripped apart,” he said during a Facebook Live broadcast the week before his death. “We’re not able to fellowship. We’re not able to love each other. We’re not able to greet each other with a handshake or a hug. We’re not able to be in close proximity of each other. We’re not able to break bread, sit down and eat with each other because Caesar is mandating how we conduct ourselves using the pretext of this virus to be able to conduct our lives and run our lives for us.”
Hampton also claimed the government was using the virus to impose martial law and create a police state so that microchips could be implanted in the public via a vaccine that has sinister implications.
“They’re gonna come up with a vaccine and in that vaccine, everybody is gonna have to take it … and inside of that vaccine there’s going to be some type of electronic computer device that’s gonna put some type of chip in you and maybe even have some mood, mind-altering circumstances,” he said. “And they’re saying that the chip would be the mark of the beast.”
“I haven’t tested positive for the coronavirus,” he said, “and if I do test positive, we do what we gotta do to take care of it. I want you to know that the Lord said not to let your heart be troubled. So I’m not trying to worry about this. I’m just gonna continue to be prayerful, be faithful, this may be His way of sitting me down so I can get a little rest.”
Here’s Hampton’s Facebook post below:
