Hate pastor claims androgynous nicknames turn kids trans & are the work of the devil

A far-right pastor warned parents that giving their kids androgynous names is setting them up to be transgender.

Speaking at a Labor Day conference run by viciously anti-LGBTQ+ pastor Greg Locke, Pastor Henry Shaffer claimed it’s the devil who allows kids to shorten names like Samantha to Sam, a decision which then sets them on a path toward a gender transition.

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“I have taken enough homosexual young people and transgender through deliverance that nobody would work with… and let me tell you what I found out,” Shaffer told the crowd. “The name that God gave them, the devil changed and shortened their name.”

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“Sam is not a specific gender name,” he continued. “They’re setting our children up with the names that can be not gender specific. Samantha. Samuel. And the spirits in school are working for them to confuse their minds at who they are, and you’ve already given them the name that would make transitioning easy.”

Of course, gender identity is not at all determined by the nickname a child’s parents gives them, but rather is fueled by a person’s deep sense of self.

Shaffer’s comments took place at the Labor Day conference of Pastor Greg Locke’s Global Vision Bible Church.

Locke has made several wildly anti-LGBTQ+ comments. He has said that LGBTQ+ people are “demonic,” “perverted,” and want to “cram it down my kids’ throats.” He also called “transgenderism” “nonsense” and said that LGBTQ+ people are “openly celebrated” and not “persecuted” like Christians.

In February 2022, Locke also threatened to expose six witches who allegedly infiltrated his Tennessee church, unless they voluntarily left his congregation.

That same month, he held a book burning outside of Nashville, in which people burned Harry Potter books and Disney products. During the book burning, a gay man threw a Bible in the fire, proclaimed “Hail Satan!” and kissed his same-sex partner before leaving the event.