Johnson County pastor under fire for COVID conspiracies, banned from Facebook Live
A Johnson County pastor is facing growing backlash after promoting false COVID-19 conspiracy theories in livestreamed sermons and social media posts.
Those include an edited photo of Adolf Hitler in a crowd of Nazis, all wearing face masks.
The image was removed from the Facebook page of Nexus Church in Lenexa after many shared it and wrote of their disgust.
“I’m basically saying that they are using the mask to control people. Do I believe that? Yes, I absolutely believe that,” Pastor Jon Purkey explained shortly after in a Facebook video. Purkey, a graphic artist, said his creations often offend people. He did not return The Star’s multiple requests for comment.
In the video he went on to discuss the “Great Reset,” a false conspiracy theory which claims, among other things, that world leaders orchestrated the pandemic to take control of the global economy. The conspiracy stems from a genuine plan of the same name, created by the World Economic Forum, that explores how countries might recover their economies after the pandemic.
“I can’t understand comparing wearing masks to Nazis. It’s beyond offensive to Jews and beyond offensive to veterans who fought in World War II. It’s erasure of history,” said one former member, who attended for more than two years, but asked to remain anonymous because she still has close ties to members of the church.
Purkey said he was banned from Facebook Live soon after he made the video. Last month, he appeared in a livestream on the platform saying he had been “unbanned, for now.”
Former employees and members of the church have reached out to The Star, angry about Purkey using his platform and influence to spread false information. A half-dozen former members interviewed said they have left the nondenominational church in recent years because of his rhetoric.
“It’s totally distasteful, and the stuff he has put on Facebook is insane,” said Brooke Johnson, who said she started to attend the church but left shortly after.
The social media posts are only part of the issue for those leaving Purkey’s congregation. Some say the church doesn’t do enough to follow COVID-19 safety precautions, such as wearing masks and social distancing.
Those concerns have caught the eye of local officials. District Attorney Steve Howe said his office has “received complaints and there is an active investigation” of Nexus Church, though houses of worship are exempt from most pandemic regulations in the county.
Masks and microchips
Purkey founded Nexus Church, off of Interstate 35 and College Boulevard, roughly a decade ago, after previously serving with his father and brother at City Center Church in Lenexa. A pastor at that church, Luke Weese, was criticized for attending the pro-Trump rally in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, before the deadly insurrection aimed at overturning the presidential election.
Many online have defended the pastors at both churches, saying that they have only had a positive influence on their lives.
One church member commented on a post that Purkey wrote, and said, “u know ur speaking Truth boldly when u get banned from FB live!”
Purkey has drawn criticism for spreading false information about masks and making light of COVID-19, even when church members have fallen ill or died from it. More than 463,000 people in the United States have died from the virus.
In livestreamed videos on YouTube and social media, he frequently tucks debunked conspiracy theories into his sermons and social commentary. They range from the government pushing the country into a cashless society as a means of control, to the pandemic being a cover for officials implanting trackable microchips into unwitting people.
In a November YouTube video, Purkey once again brought up the false notion that masks are a tool for controlling individuals.
“These mask Nazis. They wear me out,” he said. “I hope you are against the systematic control of people and you want to see the Constitution, the First Amendment, upheld. If you are for losing these kinds of freedoms, you’re on the other team.”
In one video, Purkey compared the coronavirus to abortion. “These people get online and they talk about their masks when fetuses are being sucked out and vacuumed out of women,” he said.
“And they dare have the right to say, ‘My body, my choice.’ But when I walk in a frickin’ Walmart and they tell me to put on a mask, and I look at them and I say, ‘My body, my choice,’ they look at me like I’m an idiot.”
Health experts say such mask rules are in place to slow the spread of the virus, especially to vulnerable people who could die from it. A University of Kansas study released last fall found there was a 50% reduction in the spread of COVID-19 in counties that had a mask mandate compared to those without.
Last summer, the Jackson County health department reported that at least 30 coronavirus cases had been traced back to an Independence church that was holding in-person services and a day camp. According to the state of Kansas’ COVID-19 cluster map, religious gatherings have led to 62 case clusters, 596 cases and 24 deaths.
‘Get in church’
Some former church members said they’ve been uncomfortable returning to in-person services at Nexus. While the church started off with “park and preach” sermons outside last spring, inside services resumed shortly after. Photos and videos on the church’s social media pages show maskless crowds gathered inside since last summer.
Churches and places of worship are exempt from limits on mass gatherings in Johnson County, although that was a point of contention and legal battle in Kansas this past year. Several churches are following COVID-19 protocols regardless. Many have called on church leaders to require social distancing and masks, plus take other precautions to avoid superspreader events.
While Nexus does stream its sermons and many other services online, some members say Purkey pressures them against staying home.
“You need to get in church, not online church, get in to church,” he said in a YouTube video last fall.
In that same video, he discusses microchips in the COVID-19 vaccine, claims certain politicians are trying to shut down churches and other false fringe conspiracies. And he said, “I haven’t had a temperature since the third grade. … I’m not going to get sick. In the name of Jesus.”
“I’m just telling you I’ve taken my stand against cooties, against Kit Kat 19,” and added that by following pandemic protocols, “everybody rolled over like some Rolos.”
Some former members interviewed by The Star argued that Purkey’s message goes against how Christians should treat others. And they worry lives are being put at risk.
“Mocking people who do choose to wear masks, saying if you’re not attending church in person right now that you’re a fake Christian, that’s just really sad to hear. It’s the belittling and mocking others, and not having any kindness or humility toward anyone you disagree with, that’s really concerning to me,” the former member said.
In many of these videos, Purkey spreads fears that “the progressive left” is against the church and working to shut it down. He says the “secular media” are against Christianity and “dedicated to evil.”
Conspiracy theories abound
As conspiracy theories continue to proliferate online, they have also made their way into the pews, a recent poll showed. Nearly half, 49%, of the 1,007 Protestant pastors polled by Lifeway Research said they frequently hear their congregation repeating conspiracy theories regarding current events.
“Christian churches resolve to be places focused on the truth,” said Scott McConnell, executive director of Lifeway Research, in a statement. “Yet, half of pastors hear the spread of assumptions about plots often. This is a startling disconnect.”
The poll also showed that white pastors were more likely than Black pastors to say they frequently heard church members repeating conspiracy theories.
“While conspiracy theories may be embraced by a minority of churchgoers, the larger the church the more minds and mouths exist to be misled,” McConnell said. “At this time, it appears more of the theories are traveling in politically conservative circles which corresponds to the higher percentages in the churches led by white Protestant pastors.”
Across the country, some pastors have come under fire for downplaying the virus’s threat. And differences of opinion on how churches should operate amid the pandemic have reflected a growing chasm in some congregations.
In Tampa, Florida, for example, Pastor Rodney Howard-Browne made headlines for holding services during the pandemic, leading to his arrest. He said officials were using the virus as a weapon to shut them down, the Tampa Bay Times reported.
In Johnson County, some said that they believe Purkey’s rhetoric is reckless, and they hope the more extreme posts will make people aware. But they are not confident his message will change.
Purkey’s graphic design work offended once again on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, when he edited a photo of himself marching alongside the civil rights leader — placing his own face over the face of activist and pastor Eugene Carson Blake.
“As much as you want to distance yourself from that church, you also feel an obligation to speak up and say this isn’t right,” said a former member, who requested anonymity. “My faith is so important to me, and this behavior just doesn’t fall in line with Christianity.”
This story was originally published February 9, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
