Copeland said spirits "deflected that bullet" from Trump

Jul 15, 2024

During a livestream Sunday night, televangelist Kenneth Copeland, his daughter Terri Pearsons, and her husband George Pearsons held their hands to their right ears as they prayed for Donald Trump to be healed following the assassination attempt against him. (Update: It should be noted that Copeland himself is holding his left ear. Why? Your guess is as good as mine.)

Copeland then claimed Jesus was working through Trump, citing the story of Malchus, a servant whose ear was cut off by one of Jesus’ disciples as a way to delay Jesus’ arrest. Jesus supposedly healed Malchus’ ear—his final “miracle”—just before getting crucified.

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GEORGE PEARSONS: We're gonna pray. We're gonna pray right now over President Trump's ear… and the others as well. So let's start with him. Put your hand over your ear.

Father, in the name of Jesus, we pray over Mr. Trump right now, and we thank you for an accelerated healing process. Lord, I thank you that Jesus healed an ear. Well, he can do it right now with President Trump, and there'll not be one sign, not one thing, Lord, that will even tell that he was shot at.

We thank you, Lord, for the deliverance—his deliverance!—right now, in the name of Jesus. Father, we pray over others who were wounded, and thank you for the miraculous move of God. The healing power of God! Upon them! Working within them! Be healed! Be whole! Be delivered! Now! In the name of Jesus. And this will declare a mighty testimony of the goodness of God. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

…

COPELAND [channeling Jesus]: Do you not remember when my servant cut off Malchus’ ear moments before I was crucified? They were leading me away, and he [Simon Peter] cut his [Malchus’] ear off, and I picked up his ear and put it back… and it was like it had never happened…

…

… And the ministering spirits that my servant prayed for are the ones that deflected that bullet… just enough… just enough… for it was impossible for them to kill him.

It’s almost incredible to watch them mistake Trump’s insanely good luck for Divine Intervention. (They’re hardly alone. The Freedom From Religion Foundation has a lengthy roundup of politicians who claim God protected Trump.)

There’s no evidence the bullet was “deflected.” We still haven’t heard a reliable update regarding Trump’s injuries. And the shooter managed to kill one Trump supporter and critically injure two others even if he missed his target. So the prayer for Trump’s ear seems both pointless and heartless given the tragedy that quickly unfolded.

It’s also worth noting how they pray for Trump without bringing up Trump’s own role in fomenting the political environment in which we find ourselves right now. He’s someone who inspired an insurrection, mocked an assassination attempt against the husband of a political rival, and routinely promotes violent rhetoric when it suits his purposes.

Without mentioning any of that, the Christians just pray for his quick physical healing as if it’d be proof that God supports Trump. (It’s not far-fetched to think they would treat a similar attack against Biden as a punishment from God.)

This isn’t the first time, however, that these people have prayed for something without acknowledging the source of the problem (or mentioning God’s supposed role in creating that environment).

Consider COVID. It’s been a while since I’ve done this, but just look at how Copeland and the Pearsons handled the pandemic—specifically how they used the language of religion to deny what was right in front of them.

Back in March of 2020, just when the United States was beginning to shut down due to the pandemic, Copeland urged viewers to touch their TV screens while he said, “the Devil is trying to give me the flu!” (COVID obviously wasn’t, and isn’t, the flu.)

Days later, when the oily prayers failed, Copeland claimed the COVID scare would be over soon because “Christian people all over this country praying have overwhelmed it.”

Later that month, when it was clear those prayers weren’t working either, Copeland still insisted of the virus, “It. Is. Finished! It. Is. Over!“

That didn’t age well. And it didn’t get better when he used his Magic Jesus Powers to destroy the virus for good, even spitting on it in the process.

For some reason, the virus didn’t listen. It just continued to rage on through 2021 while the kinds of people Copeland preaches to avoided the vaccine more than any other religious or non-religious group.

That must be why Copeland called into a service hosted by Terri and George in August of 2021 in order to let everyone know COVID was really destroyed this time. His evidence? Something about a “blanket of blood” and a “golden cloud”…? (Who knows. You try making sense of it.)

“It’s destroyed,” said Copeland, of a virus he declared dead 600,000 American deaths before that comment.

And then, as the nation approached one million COVID-fueled deaths, Copeland was still spreading the same kind of misinformation to his audience. He spoke in Missouri in April of 2022 as part of his ministry’s Branson Victory Campaign and proceeded to gaslight the audience into thinking COVID was never a problem, that COVID variants wouldn’t be a problem in the future, and that doctors were lying about precautionary measures throughout the previous couple of years.

Now people have gotten used to going to church online, but COVID is gone! And it’s not coming back! And I’ll tell you what: its little brother’s not gonna do anything either. That thing’s over for good.

I’ll tell you another thing: It’s gonna be really hard to get the American people to fall for that again. They’re not gonna do it. There’s a lot of things that happened that will be corrected and never ever happen again. I am believing with all my heart that the medical community got some really, really big time learning. They didn’t keep their oath in a lot of places. Fear of losing their jobs, they would not treat the people what they knew would get them well.

Never again. Say it: Never again. Never again. Never again. Never again. Never again. Hallelujah. Hallelujah…

After two years of inconceivable tragedy, it was hard to imagine Copeland could still be that ignorant. But he was actively opposed to accepting the reality of the pandemic, sheltered enough to avoid the ramifications of his COVID blindness, and eager to rake in the money from in-person gatherings where he could more easily convince gullible Christians to hand over their cash as a way to “sow” their “seed.”

And now the family is using another political catastrophe to enhance their own ministry. It doesn’t matter to them what fresh hell Trump unleashes upon the country; they’re going to convince their followers that Trump is a vessel of God.

(Portions of this article were published earlier)