Florida newspaper calls for resignation of local Republican official for promoting 'unhinged' QAnon 'garbage'

In Central Florida, far-right Republican and QAnon conspiracy theorist Fred Lowry is not only the senior pastor at the Deltona Lakes Baptist Church — he is also an elected member of the Volusia County Council. The Orlando County Sentinel's editorial board slams Lowry's extremism in a scathing editorial published on June 3, taking aim at his coronavirus denial, QAnon beliefs and efforts to promote former President Donald Trump's election lies.

"Somehow, in the course of a 45-minute sermon, Fred Lowry was able to tell enough lies and spout enough conspiracies to fill a garbage truck, which is exactly where his May 30 sermon belongs — everything from a stolen election to QAnon quackery to pandemic denial," the Sentinel's editorial board writes.

Lowry's May 30 sermon, which the Sentinel slams as "unhinged," has been posted on Facebook — and it's right out of the QAnon playbook. QAnon believes that the United States' federal government has been infiltrated by an international cabal of pedophiles, Satanists, cannibals and child sex traffickers and that Trump was elected in 2016 to fight the cabal. Members of QAnon were among the extremists who violently attacked the U.S. Capitol Building on January 6 in the hope of preventing Congress from certifying now-President Joe Biden's Electoral College victory over Trump in 2020.

The Sentinel's editorial board explains, "Yes, a Facebook Live video shows one of Volusia County's top elected officials preaching to the congregation about satanic rituals and torturing children and using their blood to extract a compound called adrenochrome, which is then used in the belief it brings on hallucinations, intensifies personalities and slows the aging process."

The editorial goes on to say that someone as "unhinged" as Lowry shouldn't hold public office.

"Lunatic fringe conspiracy theories are infecting this nation like a disease, and an elected member of the Volusia County Council is a carrier," the Sentinel's editorial board warns. "Fred Lowry needs to resign. Now. And if he won't do that, the County Council needs to use whatever powers it possesses to condemn Lowry for bringing shame not only on himself, but on the office he holds…. Lowry's not only an embarrassment — his judgment is now in serious question."

The editorial board continues, "The council is charged with making consequential decisions that are supposed to be rooted in fact and reality. How can anyone trust that Lowry's making fact-based decisions when he's preaching sermons about cabals of Satanists using the blood of kidnapped children to get high and live longer?"