A Coast pastor posts pro-Trump videos on church website. He’s banned from YouTube.
He calls himself Professor Toto because he claims he’s “pulling back the curtain on liberal lies.”
Waveland Pastor Shane Vaughn recently drew the attention of Newsweek Magazine when he posted a video on his church’s website sharing the strategy he believes Donald Trump will use to regain power.
Vaughn told his “army of patriots” that Trump is actively supporting secretary of state candidates in battleground states to ensure votes in his next presidential election are counted.
“I told you Donald Trump has a plan because there’s no need in him running again if he can’t make sure that the votes are going to be counted right,” Vaughn said in a video posted this week.
The First Harvest Ministries pastor has become a staple on Newsweek in the past year. The magazine, which often features pastors on their website, wrote about Vaughn when he preached in a YouTube video against wearing masks in his church and getting vaccinated for coronavirus.
“Vaughn has also claimed that coronavirus variants are coming that will render vaccines ineffective and that inoculations will ‘quit working’ until America repents for ‘dead babies’ and ‘sodomy,’” reported the magazine last December.
The views are in direct opposition to reports from the Center for Disease Control, World Health Organization and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, that emphasized masking as a critical public health tool that reduces the chance of spreading COVID-19.
The Mississippi State Department of Health has also repeatedly said that getting vaccines and booster shots are medically proven to be the most effective act of defense against COVID.
Vaughn has since been banned from YouTube because of misinformation in his videos. It’s unclear how many subscribers his channel had.
Last May, Newsweek reported when Vaughn compared the circumstances surrounding Facebook’s suspension of Trump’s account to “Satan’s decision to kill Jesus.”
Vaughn said he felt attacked by Newsweek’s most recent report, calling it a hit piece. “And since then, I’ve received four death threats so far,” he said in a video posted Monday. “One email just came to me and said they hope the hurricane blows my church down again. I tell you what, there are some evil people in this world.”
Vaughn had made it his mission to teach politics to the masses nearly as much as he preaches about religion. First Harvest Ministry’s website archived 66 political lectures. Dozens more videos with political content sit in his archive of live broadcasts.
“God raised us up, a little Mississippi preacher that nobody knew,” Vaughn said. “And we have just been called by God to keep the republic focused, to keep you out of those rabbit holes chasing after delusions and running into confusion.”
Vauhgn did not respond to Sun Herald’s request to comment.
