Coronavirus is spreading across the globe, and it’s fair to say that people are anxious and scared about what’s going to happen next.
But there’s no need to worry, because this anti-LGBT+ televangelist recently “healed” viewers by… asking them to put their hands on their televisions.
Kenneth Copeland, who runs Kenneth Copeland Ministries, tried to “heal” people who have the coronavirus in a broadcast captured by Right Wing Watch.
“Put your hand on that television set,” Copeland said, while holding up a hand that is presumably covered in holy water and standing in front of a screen that read: “Standing against coronavirus.”
American televangelist tried to ‘heal’ people with the coronavirus through their televisions.
“Hallelujah!” he declared. “Thank you Lord Jesus. He receives your healing. Now, say it: ‘I take it, I have it, it’s mine,’” Copeland said, while staring intently into the camera.
“I praise you that I’m well and whole. According to the word of God I am healed, and I consider not my own body. I consider not symptoms in my body, but only that which God has promised,” he added.
He continued: “By his stripes I was healed, and by his stripes I am healed now. I’m not the sick trying to get healed, I’m the healed and the Devil’s trying to give me the flu!” he exclaimed. “Or, whatever else kind of thing he’s trying,” he added.
Copeland then inexplicably laughed for a while before finishing with: “Healed and well in the sweet name of Jesus. Amen. Hallelujah!”
I’m not the sick trying to get healed, I’m the healed and the Devil’s trying to give me the flu!
The 83-year-old Texan is well known in evangelical circles in the United States, where he has been a controversial figure due to his enjoyment of private jets.
Kenneth Copeland healed viewers of the coronavirus through their televisions last night. pic.twitter.com/8lwHufTIy4
— Right Wing Watch (@RightWingWatch) March 12, 2020
It is also worth noting that he has an article on his church’s website which asks if homosexuality is “wrong”. While the article insists that gay people are “no less loved by God,” it also suggests that queer people can change their sexuality by becoming religious.
A number of other religious figures have made wild claims about COVID-19.
Incredibly, Copeland is not even the first religious commentator to make wild claims about the coronavirus.
Last week, pastor Steven Andrew declared March to be “repent of LGBT sin” month and said it will “save lives and the nation, and protect from coronavirus“.
“Obeying God protects the USA from diseases, such as the coronavirus,” he said.
“Our safety is at stake,” he claimed, “since national disobedience of God’s laws brings danger and diseases, such as coronavirus, but obeying God brings covenant protection.”
Pastor Jonathan Shuttlesworth, another televangelist, also claimed that only “pansies” wash their hands and said churches that have closed down due to coronavirus concerns have “no balls”.
It’s not exactly a surprising development. In the past LGBT+ people have somehow been blamed for floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, bushfires, Rachel Dolezal, even the fall of Rome – so it was only a matter of time before we had the coronavirus blamed on us too.