Extremist pastor Mark Robinson wants to be North Carolina’s next governor, and his vision for the country is one of bloody ruthlessness.
“Some folks need killing!” Robinson declared in a lengthy sermon delivered on Sunday, which was first reported by The New Republic. “It’s time for somebody to say it. It’s not a matter of vengeance. It’s not a matter of being mean or spiteful. It’s a matter of necessity! When you have wicked people doing wicked things, torturing and murdering and raping. It’s time to call out, uh, those guys in green and go have them handled. Or those boys in blue and have them go handle it.”
Currently serving as the state’s lieutenant governor Robinson is caught in a tight race against North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein. Like many Republican 2024 hopefuls, he’s hitched his sled to the electoral machinery of former President Donald Trump. After much mutual praise between the two men, Trump officially endorsed Robinson in March, calling him “Martin Luther King on steroids.” If the two men share any similarities, it’s a fantasy of retribution against their political enemies.
Robinson began Sunday’s screed by reminding his audience of America’s history in warfare. “We now find ourselves struggling with people who have evil intent. You know, there was a time when we used to meet evil on the battlefield, and guess what we did to it? We killed it!” he said. “When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, what did we do? We flew to Japan! And we killed the Japanese Army and Navy! … We didn’t argue and capitulate and talk about, well, maybe we shouldn’t fight the Nazis that hard. No, they’re bad. Kill them.”
But as Robinson continued speaking, he appeared to be speaking not of hostile military powers in open warfare, but of the domestic political boogymen regularly excoriated by the right.
“We need to start handling our business again,” he continued. “The further we start sliding into making 1776 a distant memory and the tenets of socialism and communism start coming into clearer focus. They’re watching us. They’re listening to us. They’re tracking us. They get mad at you. They cancel you. They dox you. They kick you off social media. They come in and close down your business. Folks, it’s happening … because we have forgotten who we are.”
“Some liberal somewhere is going to say that sounds awful. Too bad. Get mad at me if you want to,” Robinson said at one point during the rant, clearly anticipating the reaction his comments were likely to generate.
Given that Robinson was ambiguous in his description of who exactly was in need of “killing” — and his already lengthy roster of hateful commentary against minority groups and opposing political ideologies — it’s no surprise the sermon is raising red flags.
In 2021, he referred to LGBTQ people as “filth.” Months later Robinson declared that heterosexual couples were “superior” to homosexual couples, and likened LGBTQ relationships to cow shit. In 2020, Robinson stated that he missed the days when women couldn’t vote. “I absolutely want to go back to the America where women couldn’t vote,” he said. “Do you know why? Because in those days, we had people who fought for real social change, and they were called Republicans.” The year before, he suggested that mass shootings were “karma” for the legalization of abortion. The list goes on and on.
If Robinson’s solution to what he believes is ailing America is killing and brute force, does he intend to place Americans who disagree with him in the crosshairs?
