Right-wing pastor Rodney Howard-Browne, who refused to close The River at Tampa Bay church or pay attention to coronavirus “distancing” advisories, saying he and his congregation are not a bunch of “pansies,” has been arrested and booked on misdemeanor charges of unlawful assembly and violation of public health rules.
The Hillsborough County Sheriff held a press conference on March 30 announcing the warrant from Howard-Browne’s arrest.
Right Wing Watch reports: “For weeks, Howard-Browne has insisted on holding Sunday services on the grounds that he and his congregation are “not pansies” while insisting that his church is the most sterile building in America because it is supposedly equipped with machines that can instantaneously kill any virus. Howard-Browne has used these services to promote baseless conspiracy theories about the coronavirus outbreak and repeatedly vowed that he would never cancel services, regardless of what the government ordered. He held services again yesterday, after which he received a visit from the local sheriff’s office about his wanton flouting of the safer-at-home order.”
Said Howard-Browne on March 16: “Well I know they don’t want us to do this, but just turn around and greet two, three people. Tell them you love them, Jesus loves them. Amen. Listen, this has to be the safest place. If you cannot be saved in church, you in serious trouble. We are not stopping anything. I’ve got news for you, this church will never close. The only time the church is closed is when the Rapture is taking place. This Bible school is open because we’re raising up revivalists, not pansies.”
Howard-Brown also believes that coronavirus is a plot to kill people with vaccines, Right Wing Watch adds: “Howard-Browne, who was among evangelical leaders who laid hands upon and prayed over President Donald Trump in the Oval Office in 2017, dedicated most of his Sunday sermon to mocking fears about the spread of the coronavirus and calling it a ‘phantom plague’ designed to terrify people into receiving vaccines that will kill them, which he claimed was all part of a plan laid out in a 2010 document called ‘Scenarios for the Future of Technology and International Development’ produced by The Rockefeller Foundation and Global Business Network.”
Said Howard-Browne: “It’s been weaponized to instill fear into people because what they want to do is change the way the world functions, really forever. All these churches that are allowing themselves to come down to 250 [congregants], guess what? When you try to meet again, you ain’t gonna be able to meet again. They are going to keep you at 250 because you gave up ground. You gave up ground. Whatever ground you give up because of fear, you will give up permanently. Because the climate change narrative for global governance failed, they are using the World Health Organization to then come in and take over the control of nations and then they are going to bring in vaccines … There’s going to be forced vaccines, which they can kill off many people with vaccines. It’s about population reduction because there are too many people on the planet, but with the correct vaccines we can shoot them and then they can die.”
