'No, I Do Not Think the Coronavirus Is God's Judgment on Homosexuals': Prominent Pastor Rebukes 'Fake News'
WASHINGTON – Pastor Ralph Drollinger, leader and founder of Capitol Ministries, is firing back after the White House and mainstream media criticized his latest Bible study titled: "Is God Judging America Today?"
"The liberal media specializes in attempting to present themselves as morally superior to Bible expositors by painting them as extremists in some way or another, even if they have to sacrifice truth in order to accomplish it," Drollinger tells CBN News.
The controversy started after LGBT activists and a number of media outlets incorrectly reported Drollinger's Bible study blames homosexuals for the coronavirus outbreak.
Even White House spokesman Judd Deere weighed in calling the reported implication "disgusting" and "not something the president believes." His response, which first appeared in NBC OUT, a division of NBC News catering to the LGBT community, was repeated by a number of news outlets, including The Hill and The Independent in the United Kingdom.
"It is not my opinion on this matter that is disgusting, it is Deere's lack of integrity that is disgusting," Drollinger says.
Now in a letter to Deere, obtained by CBN News, Drollinger demands an "immediate retraction."
"As much as the White House rails about fake news, they should not be a purveyor of it themselves," he says in the letter.
Deere declined to make additional comments for this article.
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CBN News asked Drollinger if he believes the coronavirus is God's judgment on homosexuals.
"No, I do not think from the perspective of biblical exegesis that one can conclude that the coronavirus is God's judgment on homosexuals," he responded during an interview conducted via email.
"I make this abundantly clear in the study that the media got wrong - they reported just the opposite of what I said in my Bible study," he continued.
In his study, he examines the question many Evangelical pastors are asking: is America now experiencing God's judgment?
"I do not believe America is experiencing the forsaking wrath of God, but yes, America is experiencing the consequential wrath of God," he writes and goes on to explain.
Drollinger examines the five forms of God's judgment as stated in the Bible: eternal wrath (hell), eschatological wrath (the day of the Lord), cataclysmic wrath (the flood), forsaking wrath (removing restraint), and consequential wrath (sowing and reaping).
He mentions homosexuality in just one paragraph when listing examples of forsaking wrath. He quotes and writes "indicative of forsaking wrath is a proclivity toward lesbianism and homosexuality."
The word "coronavirus" is only mentioned in the footnotes of the Bible study where Drollinger makes the point that he doesn't think the virus is a form of God's cataclysmic wrath because that type of wrath is "void of a human curative - and I think we'll soon see a human cure for the coronavirus," he explains.
Drollinger says falling victim to fake news is very difficult emotionally.
"One feels violated - I have never had my home robbed, but from what people tell me who have, I gather that it is a similar emotion," he says.
"Libelers must be held liable in order to put an end to the biases they intentionally and increasingly portend towards Evangelicals," he continues.
Drollinger is a high profile pastor in Washington, across the country and around the world.
As CBN News first reported in 2017, Drollinger leads weekly Bible studies with members of President Trump's cabinet.
He also pastors weekly studies with members of the House and Senate.
His Bible studies are also posted on Capitol Ministries' website.
Drollinger tells CBN News that he sought a timely topic for last week's Bible study.
"As a careful Bible expositor, I thought I could best serve the White House Cabinet, Senate and House Members who participate in my weekly three separate Bible studies, to get out in front of this issue – and to let them know that there will be many LOONS out there who will be saying that the coronavirus is an act of God's judgment on America. So I thought it best, in my area of expertise which includes systematic theology, to outline the five forms of God's wrath as taught in and throughout Scripture. My point was and remains that the coronavirus, after biblical analysis, could only be equated to the category of God's wrath known as sowing and reaping wrath, or better known as consequential wrath, or perhaps better known to the layman as natural law. My point was to say that for reasons stated in the Bible study itself, that this was not a form of God's wrath of abandonment," Drollinger explains.
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