Far-right pastor E.W. Jackson took aim at Virginia Governor Ralph Northam last week, who called for a special legislative session to address gun violence in the wake of the Virginia Beach shooting which left 12 people dead.

As Right Wing Watch points out, Jackson hasn’t been very fond of Northam after he lost to him in the race for lieutenant governor back in 2013. Speaking on his The Awakening radio show this Wednesday, Jackson said that Northam’s dismissal of “thoughts and prayers” when it comes to gun violence is proof that he’s a “God hater.”

“The ultimate answer is God,” Jackson declared in an audio clip flagged by Right Wing Watch.

“So let’s add to Northam’s sordid resume that he is also a God-hater,” he continued. “These leftists do this all the time — ‘We don’t want to hear about your prayers’ — They don’t know that prayer is the most powerful force in the universe.”

According to Jackson, Northam wasn’t just mocking prayer, he was mocking Christians in general.

“Prayer is extremely powerful,” he said. “Not only is this dismissive of prayer—and therefore dismissive of Christians, because it’s mainly Christians who say, ‘We’re praying for you’—but it’s blasphemous because it is basically saying that God is irrelevant.”

In the aftermath of the Virginia Beach shooting, Northam said that citizens “must do more than give our thoughts and prayers.”

“We must give Virginians the action they deserve,” he added. “I will be asking for votes and laws, not thoughts and prayers. I have seen firsthand what a bullet does to a body, and I saw it again this weekend.”

Responding to Northam’s comments, Republican Virginia House Speaker Kirk Cox tweeted that the governor “can call a special session, but he cannot specify what the General Assembly chooses to consider. We intend to use that time to take productive steps to address gun violence by holding criminals accountable with tougher sentences — including mandatory minimums.”

Listen to Jackson’s comments in the audio clip below, via Right Wing Watch:

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