An elderly Christian nationalist televangelist has said there will be “no more rainbow flags” now that Donald Trump has won re-election.
In a recording of his Sunday sermon following Election Day, 87-year-old Kenneth Copeland said, “I believe it’s here right now, the [Christian spiritual] awakening we’ve been waiting for…. Now the atmosphere has been cleansed…. No more rainbow flags. No more.” An audience member can be heard exclaiming, “Thank you, Jesus!” in response.
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Copeland continues, “And the spirit of Margaret Sanger is gone.” Sanger is an American birth control activist and sex educator who opened the first birth control clinic in the nation, and established other organizations that evolved into Planned Parenthood, local clinics that offer reproductive and women’s health, especially to low-income individuals.
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Televangelist Kenneth Copeland used his Sunday service to declare that Trump’s election will unleash a “spiritual awakening” in America because “the atmosphere has been cleansed”: “No more rainbow flags. No more. And the spirit of Margaret Sanger is gone.” pic.twitter.com/W6vTbzdlsT
The televangelist’s comments aren’t surprising. He was a member of former Trump’s Faith Advisory Council. Before Trump’s election, he led a prayer asking God to “break the power of the homosexual lesbian spirits that are trying to ruin our children and ruin this nation.”
Copeland’s prayer — made during a broadcast of the Rescue America Tour hosted by FlashPoint Live, a Christian evangelical political program — began by asking the Christian God to oversee “in school board elections, judges, sheriffs, mayors, city managers [and] college presidents.”
“Those that refuse to hold to your will and do it, remove them and put someone in there that will,” Copeland said, before continuing, “We pray that your will be done on this Earth as it is in Heaven…. We pray for the people that devils are fighting in and trying to ruin their lives with perverted ideas and perverted ways.”
Copeland, who has been twice divorced despite the Bible’s prohibitions on divorce, continued, “The people that are addicted to pornography and addicted to the things of the flesh in this world, and we break the power we break the power of the homosexual lesbian spirits that are trying to ruin our children and ruin this nation. Get down from there! We sit by the throne. You are under our feet.”
Copeland has previously made headlines for advocating for in-person worship services during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns. He claimed that Jesus made Trump immune from COVID-19 (even though Trump conducted the deadly virus during his presidency). He also told his followers that he could cure them of COVID-19 through the TV.
Copeland and his wife have earned millions throughout their careers and living in a $6.3 million mansion paid for by the church and using its $20 million private jet for vacations. In 2015, they were criticized by comedian John Oliver on Last Week Tonight for their luxurious, tax-exempt lifestyle.
In 2021, Copeland was also one of several mega-pastors accused of sexual abuse by former adult film actor Madyson Marquette.
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