Right-wing pastor E.W. Jackson is accusing Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam of blasphemy for calling for a special legislative session to address the issue of gun violence in the wake of a mass shooting last week in which 12 people were killed.

Jackson, who has held a grudge against Northam ever since Northam trounced him in the race for lieutenant governor in 2013, used his “The Awakening” radio program yesterday to blast Northam as “a God-hater” for saying that Virginians deserve more from their elected leaders than just offering “thoughts and prayers” after every mass shooting.

“The ultimate answer is God,” Jackson said. “So let’s add to Northam’s sordid resume that he is also a God-hater. 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.”

“Prayer is extremely powerful,” he added. “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.”