Greg Locke | |
|---|---|
 Locke preaching at Global Vision Bible Church in May 2023 | |
| Born | May 18, 1976 Nashville, Tennessee, U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | Christian preacher Church pastor |
| Spouses | Melissa Biggers (m. 1996;div. 2018)Taisha McGee (m. 2018) |
| Children | 4 (two biological; two adopted) |
Gregory Duane Locke (born May 18, 1976) is an American non-denominational evangelical Protestant pastor. He is the founder of Global Vision Bible Church in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee. [1] [2]
Locke was born in Donelson Hospital in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1976. [3] Locke claims his father was imprisoned during Locke's early life, and his mother remarried when he was 5; Locke had a turbulent relationship with his stepfather. [3]
Locke states that following multiple unrecorded arrests, he was sent to a children's home at the age of 15, where he converted to Christianity. [3]
Locke "founded" Global Vision Baptist Church in 2006. In 2011, the church officially split from the Independent Baptist movement and changed its name to Global Vision Bible Church. [4]
In 2016, Greg Locke posted a Facebook video in which he criticized changes to Target's bathroom policy. [5] As of April 2022, Locke's social media audience numbers in the millions. [6] [7] In September 2021, Locke was permanently suspended from Twitter; his account was later reinstated. [8]
Locke kept his church open through outbreaks of COVID-19, and claimed that it was a "fake pandemic". [9] He said that those who wore masks to his church would be asked to leave, [10] and discouraged vaccination among his congregation. [11]
Locke was present during the January 6 attack on the Capitol. [12] He encouraged his congregation to travel to Washington, D.C., and was scheduled to speak before Trump at the Ellipse. Locke did not end up speaking at said event, but he did deliver sermons at the Freedom Plaza on January 5 and near the Capitol steps during the insurrection. [13] Afterward, Locke condemned the violence but maintained, without evidence, that it had been instigated by antifa. [13]
Locke has been a speaker at several stops on the pro-Trump ReAwaken America Tour, which features conspiracy theories about vaccines and the 2020 presidential election. [14] [15] [16]
On January 23, 2022, during a sermon, Locke claimed that obsessive-compulsive disorder and autism spectrum disorder "could be" forms of demonic possession: "Are you telling me my kid's possessed? No. I'm telling you your kid could be "demonized" and attacked but your doctor calls it autism." This statement was condemned by advocates for neurodivergent people and the Autism Faith Network. [17] [18]
On February 2, 2022, Locke held a burning of books and materials related to witchcraft and the occult. [19] [20] During a sermon on February 13, he claimed to have discovered six "witches" within his congregation during an exorcism and threatened to expose their names. [21] [22]
Locke is the executive producer of the documentary film Come Out in Jesus Name, which was released in March 2023 through Fathom Events. [1] The film chronicled the ministries of deliverance ministers such as Alexander Pagani, Isaiah Saldivar, and Mike Signorelli. [23] In a statement made to The Christian Post, Locke also expressed a desire to change his focus from politics, saying that he was “misdirected by focusing on things not in the spiritual realm.” [2]
During the early days of the bombing campaign in Gaza in October-November 2023, he advocated for violence against Palestinians. He further called for missiles to destroy the Dome of the Rock and called Islam a Satanic cult. [24]
In 2024, on Easter Sunday, an unknown man parked a trailer filled with Bibles at an intersection near Locke's church, and then intentionally set it on fire, according to the sheriff's office. Locke said that the act "was most assuredly directed at us" and that it proved Christianity is "under attack more than ever before in the United States of America". [25]
Locke met his first wife, Melissa Biggers, at Good Shepherd Children's Home while he was there as a ward of the state; Biggers was among the facility's staff. [26] In 1995, Locke and Biggers became engaged. They have four children, two of whom are adopted. In January 2018, Locke confirmed in a video posted to Facebook that he and Biggers had separated, [27] and the divorce was finalized in May. [28]
Locke married Tai Cowan McGee in 2018. Prior to their marriage, she was his administrative assistant. Locke has repeatedly denied any suggestions of infidelity [28]
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