Notorious Televangelist Dies Of COVID After Railing Against Vaccines To Viewers For Months
Controversial televangelist Marcus Lamb is once again making headlines after dying of COVID-19 following a months-long anti-vaccine campaign in which he shared conspiracy theories about the pandemic.
Lamb, the CEO of Daystar Television Network, one of the nation's largest Christian broadcasters, died Tuesday after having been hospitalized with COVID-19 since November 12.
Lamb was 64, unvaccinated and diabetic, and chose alternative treatments for the disease.
Long before the pandemic began, Lamb was notorious for his homophobic and transphobic views and promotion of so-called "Gay Conversion Therapy," an abusive practice which purports to "cure" gay people of homosexuality and has been ruled a human rights violation by the United Nations.
Lamb was also frequently embroiled in scandal, including a 2010 extramarital affair that was rumored to be with a transgender person, and his purchase of a private jet with funds from a $3.9 million loan from the Trump Administration's 2020 Paycheck Protection Program meant to aid small businesses at the outset of the pandemic.
But Lamb's more recent notoriety sprang from his televised anti-vaccine crusade during which he featured a "who's who" of anti-vaccine conspiracy theorists.
Hydroxychloroquine promoter Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was featured on Daystar shows, as was Sherry Tenpenny, infamous for claiming the vaccine makes people magnetic, and Ryan Cole, who falsely claimed "thousands of patients" had contracted "stage 3 or 4 cancers" after getting vaccinated.
Cole was also a proponent of treating COVID-19 with Ivermectin, a veterinary anti-parasitic that has not been approved to treat COVID-19 and the use of which has resulted in a handful of deaths. Lamb himself chose Ivermectin to treat his COVID-19 case instead of medically approved treatments.
But his family seems to see no connection, instead blaming Lamb's struggle with COVID-19 on an attack from "the enemy," an evangelical nickname for Satan.
Lamb's son Jonathan made the claim on a November 23 appearance on his father's show Ministry Now.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that this is a spiritual attack from the enemy."
"As much as my parents have gone on here to kind of inform everyone about everything going on to the pandemic and some of the ways to treat COVID — there’s no doubt that the enemy is not happy about that.”
It doesn't seem likely Lamb's death will change his family's or congregation's minds about the pandemic and vaccines. On the episode of Ministry Now broadcast just hours after Lamb's death, his wife Joni said she and her family "stand by" their endorsement of alternative treatments like Ivermectin.
On Twitter, Lamb's death didn't inspire much sympathy - a few below:-
You may remember Marcus Lamb as the guy who had to pay back his $3.9 million PPP loan when it was revealed that he had purchased a private jet immediately after securing the loan.
He founded the second biggest Christian network in the world. He used it to crusade against #COVID19 vaccines and to spread unfounded lies to millions of people about the life-saving jab. Now he has died. Of COVID.
The prayers didn’t work. Neither did the ivermectin or hydroxy. You know what would’ve worked, THE VACCINE.
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John Bellamy Adds: No sympathy at all.
Sorry to sound cold hearted but who knows how many of his ' followers' have died because of him.
Throwing any king of abuse, let alone homophobic abuse would not make me like this so called ' MAN OF GOD' very much and because of his antics I would say he was NOT A MAN OF GOD AT ALL - but more likely this was a 'MAN LIVING IN ABSOLUTE FEAR OF HIS OWN SEXUALITY AND A DESPERATE NEED FOR PUBLIC ATTENTION AT ANY RATE ' - better known as 'AN ATTENTION SEEKER' - and I will NOT be mourning his death at all and as far as I am concerned, he is with his God now and maybe, that's where he belongs and maybe The Almighty can teach this bigot, this homophobe, this attention seeking vile excuse for a human being hiding behind the cloth of the church to spew his devilish evil tripe that limits the CREATION and the SOUL OF GOD by denying his fellow people the right to live their lives in accordance to God's larger plan of which much scares the beejesus out of this 'little man' of such ' little faith.'
When these religious fanatics claim ' I AM THE WAY' - RUN FOR THE FUCKING HILLS as CLEARLY these fucked up missionaries of their own self importance - as in this case, spew evil deadly tripe and the vacuous empty headed people who seem completely unable to make a decision for themselves and question the validity of a man spewing hatred and venom at other of God's people and all because they / we gay men - scare the crap out of him and that - my dear Bullshitting Man of the Cloth ( tea towel ) is evil personified. Not holy, but evil.
God would be / God is - ashamed of you using Her / His name to support your fear - to support your ramblings and to support your murderous uncaring manner towards others and where it is all about you and fuck everyone else.
So many men of the church are evil. Whether it be some Crystal Cathedral in America or within the walls of the Vatican.
While I appreciate that everything is part of God's Plan, and it should not be for me to question, but why give me a mind and a brain if not to question and when men and women of the church so abuse, then the very institution that employs such behaviour is suspect.
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