I got so excited when Pastor Greg Locke announced last night that he was going to be “stepping down” (or, as he put it, “STEPPING DOWN”).

… the last six months or so, there’s been a lot of vitriol, a lot of lies, deception, assumptions. The news media has been massively horrendous. It’s been hurtful. It’s been a lot of basketball-sized ulcers, a lot of chewing fingernails… and a lot of sleepless nights… It’s been a very difficult road, especially the lies and the foolishness and the nonsense and the made-up stuff… … … There have been thousands of people that have called for my resignation from the church, that I step down as a pastor, that I burn my ordination certificate, and all of that…

And then, as everyone should’ve guessed, he went in the other direction.

… Pastor Greg Locke is stepping down from what the critics think about me. I’m stepping down from what the leftist media thinks about me, what the liberals think about me, what CNN thinks about me. They can try to burn my life to the ground all they jolly well please. I’m stepping away and stepping down from what the LGBTQ thinks about me. I’m not gonna back up, pack up, slack up, or shut up until I’ve been taken up by the glory of God…

First of all… CNN? They aired one segment in March talking about why so many evangelicals support Donald Trump. Locke was interviewed, voluntarily, and he made his points. As far as I could tell, they aired a fair piece that gave voice to various Christians with different opinions. It wasn’t a hit piece. I have no idea why he thinks CNN is out to get him.

More importantly — and he never brings this up in the video — the reason he gets so much criticism isn’t just because he’s a right-wing pastor who believes transgender people are “perverts,” that the sexual revolution leads to homosexuality and bestiality, and really really hates Planned Parenthood.

He also gets criticism because his ex-wife said in March that Locke hit her repeatedly, shamed her for gaining weight after he had paid thousands of dollars for her weight-loss surgery, was emotionally abusive, called her a “deceitful bitch,” and told a Christian publication that the real reason for their divorce was that she was mentally ill.

He left all that out of the video, presumably because he sees himself as the victim in all this. He’s not “stepping down” because he’s too arrogant to ever consider taking time off to do some self-reflection on the awful decisions he’s made. But he should.

Maybe clearing his head would do him some good. The problem is that when your head is so full of garbage, doing a thorough cleaning is bound to take a long time.

