Who Is Rodney Howard-Browne? Evangelical Pastor Won't Close Florida Church Amid Coronavirus Panic

A South African evangelical pastor based in Florida is defying orders to close his church amid the coronavirus crisis, saying his congregation is not full of “pansies” that are afraid of the coronavirus.

“We are not stopping anything,” Pastor Rodney Howard-Browne said during a sermon Monday. “I've got news for you, this church will never close. The only time the church will close is when the Rapture is taking place.

“This Bible school is open because we're raising up revivalists, not pansies.”

Videos emerged on Twitter of Howard-Browne’s sermons about the coronavirus panic at the River Church in Tampa. The church is associated with Revival Ministries International, an Evangelical organization founded by Howard-Browne.

The profile of Rodney Howard-Browne has quickly grown since his stance.

Originally from Port Elizabeth, South Africa, Howard-Browne moved to the U.S. in 1987 with his wife, Adonica, and their three kids Kirsten, Kelly and Kenneth. He said on the organization’s official website that he came to the U.S. because he was “going to raise up people from other nations to come to the United States of America. I am sending a mighty revival to America.”

Howard-Browne, 58, opened his first U.S. church in Clifton Park, New York, in April 1989. In 1991, he would move to Louisville, Kentucky, where he continued delivering sermons until moving to Tampa in 1993. The River Church would open three years later in 1996, followed by Revival Ministries International in 1997.

As the leader of Revival Ministries International, Howard-Browne has become somewhat infamous for controversial statements. These included the hearing of an alleged plot in 2017 to assassinate Donald Trump and saying that Hollywood practices child sacrifice and cannibalism.

He has also promoted various conspiracy theories, typically focused on an alleged global plot to destroy America. This included the coronavirus panic, which he said was a weapon to “instill fear.”

“Because the climate change narrative for global governance failed,” Howard-Browne said during a sermon. “they are using the World Health Organization to then come in and take over the control of nations and then they are going to bring in vaccines … There’s going to be forced vaccines, which they can kill off many people with vaccines. It’s about population reduction because there are too many people on the planet, but with the correct vaccines we can shoot them and then they can die.”