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Every Wednesday morning, Ralph Drollinger meets with some of the most powerful people in the US to lead his weekly Bible study group for President Donald Trump’s cabinet. It turns out, this powerful pastor also holds some deeply dubious views on the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak.
In a number of articles, he suggests the pandemic could be a manifestation of God’s wrath, adding that God may be judging the US because of their tastes for environmentalism and “lesbianism and homosexuality.”
Drollinger, a pro basketball player-turned-pastor who leads the "White House Bible Study Group," recently published the statements in blog posts about current debates among evangelicals on his website Capitol Ministries.
“Relative to the coronavirus pandemic crisis, this is not God’s abandonment wrath nor His cataclysmic wrath, rather it is sowing and reaping wrath: A biblically astute evaluation of the situation strongly suggests that America and other countries of the world are reaping what China has sown due to their leaders’ recklessness and lack of candor and transparency,” Drollinger said in one statement.
Drollinger said in another post that the US is currently experiencing "God’s consequential wrath.” He goes onto cite examples from the Bible where God's wrath has been the result of a “proclivity toward lesbianism and homosexuality” and the "religion of environmentalism."
“Accordingly, the coronavirus could be a form of God’s cataclysmic wrath," he adds. "But having said that, I don’t think we should label the coronavirus as a form of God’s cataclysmic wrath, such as the form of wrath He manifests in the OT [Old Testament] with the Flood, Sodom, and Gomorrah, or the 'unparting' of the Red Sea, because that form of God’s wrath is void of a human curative – and I think we’ll soon see a human cure for the coronavirus.“
In a recent Bible study called “Is God Judging America Today?” he adds: “Too many of the unfaithful have been allowed by the faithful to gain high positions of influence in our culture... Those individuals who are rebuked by God’s forsaking wrath are largely responsible for God’s consequential wrath on our nation."
A spokesperson from Capitol Ministries told IFLScience that they are currently preparing a "Setting the Record Straight" article in regards to these comments, which will be published on their website soon. They also said: "No, Drollinger never said this virus was connected in any way to homosexuality."
Drollinger meets with some members of Trump's cabinet at 07:00 am each Wednesday morning to conduct the White House Bible Study Group, the first Cabinet-level bible study in over 100 years.
According to The New York Times, his study group’s sponsors include a long reel of some of the Republican Party’s biggest figures, such as Mike Pence, Mike Pompeo, Rick Perry, Ben Carson, and Betsy DeVos. It’s also noteworthy that Pence and Carson are part of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, which is coordinating the US response to the COVID-19 outbreak.
“Drollinger’s horrific assertions are ludicrous. Our government’s top leaders depend on him for moral advice and give him regular and direct access. His shameful views cannot be ignored,” Alphonso David, President of the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ advocacy group, said in a statement.
“Our country is in crisis, and rather than placing the blame on marginalized communities that are disproportionately impacted by the pandemic, our leaders and their advisors must focus in, buckle up and flatten the curve,” they added.
[H/T: The Intercept]
