Pastor E.W. Jackson Says Black Lives Matter Is 'Worse Than COVID'

COVID-19 has claimed more than 560,000 American lives but conservative pastor E.W. Jackson believes Black Lives Matter will have more detrimental lasting effects on America than the pandemic.

Jackson said on The Awakening, a radio show, the "cultural" virus in the United States may be worse than the medical one the pandemic posed. He pushed back against the criticism of law enforcement, arguing that it could motivate officers to abandon their career choice, and at a Black Lives Matter co-founders' belief in Marxism, a philosophy often associated with communism and socialism.

"COVID is a medical problem and a disease problem that is going to run its course," Jackson said. "I think Black Lives Matter could so infect the culture of our country, so divide us racially that it could take a generation to undo the damage they are doing."

Jackson, who is Black, criticized BLM for having different reactions to shootings if it involved a police officer, accused the organization of not really caring about the people they advocate for and being "out of sync with the word of God."

The pastor, who was the Republican candidate for Virginia's lieutenant governor, also took issue with Patrisse Cullors, a co-founder of BLM, and said she was working to undermine America.

In December, Cullors said in a YouTube video that she learned about Marxism early on in her organizing career. A believer in Marxism, she said she was taught about systems that were criticizing capitalism and encouraged people to be open to the idea.

Cullors noted that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was referred to as a communist while he was alive, but now, decades later, people only discuss the work he did to advance equality. The core of the movement, she said, was the "liberation" of every human being and the way to get there, according to Cullors, is not the current structure that's in place.

"I'm working on making sure people don't suffer. I'm working to make sure people don't go hungry," Cullors said in the YouTube video. "I do believe that we can get to a place where there's a socio-economic system that doesn't oppress certain groups of people and only uplifts a few."

Pointing to Cullors' comment in June that she was a "trained Marxist," Jackson questioned who funded the training and criticized her proposal to abolish the criminal justice system.

Cullors praised the jury for finding former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin guilty of murdering George Floyd, but disagreed it signaled the system worked. Instead, she said in a video posted on Instagram it showed it was "broken" and that there was a need to "fight for more" to move America to a place where there are "no jails or prison or surveillance."

Jackson called it a belief straight from the Marxist playbook and said on Monday the United States should start considering anyone who is a Marxist or communist a "threat to our national security." He said holding those beliefs calls into question whether they have greater loyalty to China than to the United States.

Newsweek reached out to Black Lives Matter for comment but did not receive a response in time for publication.