Ralph Norman has a lot on his plate these days: a growing pandemic within his home state of South Carolina, a stimulus package to deliver to constituents, and a popular Democratic challenger with a campaign that continues to gain momentum. Oh, and demon sperm.
On Monday, July 27, U.S. Representative Ralph Norman of Rock Hill appeared at a press conference hosted by the Tea Party Patriots in which he introduced a group named America’s Frontline Doctors. In a video from the press conference that has now been deleted from most social media platforms, Dr. Stella Immanuel falsely claims that hydroxychloroquine can cure COVID-19 and argues against mask-wearing and social distancing as effective measures to slow the spread of the virus.
Per the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, there are no known drugs that are approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to adequately treat or prevent COVID-19. Additionally, medical experts agree that mask-wearing and social distancing are effective preventative measures for virus, so what’s the evidence behind Immanuel’s claims?
As it turns out, the answer is demons. Immanuel, a Cameroonian-born doctor with a medical degree from the University of Calabar in Nigeria, doubles as a pastor in her practicing state of Texas. It’s there where she started Fire Power Ministries as well as a Youtube channel through which she peddles her medical conspiracies — some of which are amusing and others downright dangerous.
One of the doctor’s most notable claims falls into the former category. Immanuel argues that diseases such as endometriosis are actually the result of sex demons. In a video posted to her Youtube channel in 2013, Immanuel states that demons “turn into a woman and…sleep with the man and collect his sperm…then they turn into the man and they sleep with a man and deposit the sperm and reproduce more of themselves.”
It’s not just demons that Immanuel says we should worry about, though. The doctor claims that witches can have “astral sex” in which they “astral project and sleep with people,” and that alien DNA is involved in the process of creating our medicine. Immanuel has even gone as far as to advocate against media such as Disney Channel original shows “Hannah Montana” and “Wizards of Waverly Place,” as well as “Pokémon,” as they introduce children to witchcraft and sin.
Is this the kind of medical expertise Ralph Norman supports? In a statement released the day after the video from the press conference went viral, Norman came out strongly against…cancel culture? Yes, despite Immanuel spreading a dangerous conspiracy on the use of an unapproved medication, Representative Norman argued that the doctor has “a right to her opinion!!!” with three exclamation points.
According to Norman, the real problem is not that he gave a platform to quack doctors, but instead that social media giants took that platform away. The representative argued that companies like Facebook should not have removed the viral video from their platforms, claiming that they were “silencing [Immanuel]” and that their actions were “un-American.” But Dr. Immanuel doesn’t need Norman’s help regarding censorship — Jesus is going to destroy Facebook for her.
Norman’s challenger, Democratic candidate and former Gamecock football player Moe Brown, expressed his shock at seeing Norman align himself with Immanuel’s comments. “That’s when I’ve got to speak up and call out my opponent or anyone who is in a position of power who is not taking these things seriously,” Brown said in an interview with WCNC. Brown’s grandmother died after contracting the virus, making personal Norman’s appearance in the viral video littered with false claims and fear-mongering.
Dr. Stella Immanuel will likely recover from July’s controversy relatively unscathed and with what little reputation she had still intact. If anything, this experience has likely taught her to stay out of politics, something that should be easy seeing as she believes the U.S. government is run by reptilians (in the case of Ralph Norman, we’re inclined to agree).
But as Moe Brown mounts an aggressive political campaign in South Carolina’s 5th District, Ralph Norman’s appearance at last month’s press conference may come back to haunt him like a demon looking to deposit its demon sperm.