The father of Christian reality TV star Anna Duggar—whose husband is serving a prison sentence for child pornography—has caught massive flak on social media for a church sermon this week in which he compared 2020 election-denying rioters to enslaved Black people 200 years, who he said were freed because they never protested their bondage.
While guest preaching at the Fairpark Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas, on Sunday, Mike Keller took to the pulpit to discuss “Satanic” vices that he consistently called “principalities.” During the sermon, which was uploaded to the church’s YouTube page, Keller talked about “spiritual wickedness in high places,” specifically focusing on the federal government and the Biden administration.
Two weeks before the Jan. 6 insurrection, Keller claimed, a pastor colleague of his in Florida warned his congregation not to go to Washington, D.C., because it was supposedly a trap.
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“He was right. He was right,” Keller said, not going into detail about how the insurrection was allegedly a trap or acknowledging that Donald Trump was in power at the time, not Joe Biden.
“Folks, I want to tell you; it is really simple,” Keller said. “I’ll show you how to change America.”
Keller directed the congregation to 2 Chronicles—about King Solomon’s prayer for wisdom—in their Bibles.
“A hundred-fifty years ago, or 200 years ago when the Blacks were slaves: Did they ever go to Washington, D.C., and have a rally 200 years ago to protest against slavery?” he rhetorically boomed to the church audience. “No. What did they do?”
Keller explained in his unfactual version of history that “good people on the plantations,” presumably enslavers, built churches for enslaved Black people and “loved them and taught them how to read so they can read the Bible.” (Keller obviously ignored scores of history books, documentaries, news clippings, and various other forms of media about how most enslaved Black people were forbidden to read, had to build their own dwellings, and could not worship to their liking.)
“Here’s what the Blacks did about 150 years ago,” Keller continued. “They humbled themselves. They prayed. They sought God's face and they turned from their wicked ways and God made slavery illegal through several white presidents. It worked, didn’t it? They didn’t protest.”
Keller was seemingly unaware of Black conductors on the Underground Railroad who helped get others who were enslaved to freedom, Black abolitionists who spread political action through writing and public speeches, or any of the hundreds of slave rebellions that took place in the U.S. (He also failed to mention that enslavers did not generally allow people who they considered their property to travel at their will.)
Ironically, Keller said he personally prays to God for money to buy books.
“I’m pretty sure running away is a form of protest,” a TikTok user said, regarding the baffling sermon.
“This is why they don’t want books and actual history taught,” another said. “Ignorant people soak this shit up.”
“Did he really just blame black people for being slaves and then make white people out to be their saviors?” a TikTok user asked. “This is why we need CRT [critical race theory]. Period.”
Apart from his bastardized historical account of enslavement, Keller also used his sermon to rail against California’s abortion freedoms, praise Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott for being “God fearing,” and chastise southern Florida’s “satanic strongholds.” He also falsely claimed the U.S. voids passports from the Dominican Republic (which he referred to as the “Dominion Republic”) because the Caribbean nation has a ban on abortions, and totally fumbled the reason why Puritans and Pilgrims left England for America, claiming they were “burn[ed] at the stake” for memorizing scripture. He also said that he felt the rapture was coming “soon.”
In 2008, Keller’s daughter, Anna, married Josh Duggar from the show 19 Kids and Counting, which showcased a huge evangelist family and their compound. As the oldest son of the self-proclaimed ultra-Christian family, Josh Duggar allegedly molested his younger sisters and was caught by the feds for possessing child pornography.
Keller and the Fairpark Baptist Church didn’t immediately return The Daily Beast’s requests for comment Wednesday regarding the sermon’s revisionist history.
