Pastor Calls for Violence Against Elon Musk, Breaks 9th Commandment in the Process

A Pastor in Tennessee, Rev. Steve Caudle, appeared to call for violence against Elon Musk during a message this past Sunday.

I would like to preface this story with full disclosure: I’m not one of those Christians who thinks the life of faith can be lived out if your Biblical worldview (what you say you believe) doesn’t align with what II Peter calls ‘virtue’ (living in such a way as if what you say you believe actually is true).

And where some argue over whether or not to take the Bible literally or figuratively, I strive to take the Bible SERIOUSLY — and let an honest rendering of a particular passage dictate whether the meaning is literal or figurative; or both, as it often is.

In short, I do not believe violence in and of itself is necessarily “evil” — context matters.

Righteous violence is a thing.

There are, as the Pastor says, times when “there is no other option”; and in those cases, the Godly and proper response — a response in alignment with faith, which honors God — would be a violent response to a specific scenario.

I wanted to begin with that concept so you don’t think I’m trying to throw the Pastor under the bus.  It’s easy to fall into theological traps, and I don’t want to do that to the man.

And I’ll tell you up front — he has tried to walk some of his statements back.  And I almost want to give him the benefit of the doubt.

But the problem wasn’t just his call for violence; He also broke the ninth commandment — which in Biblical terms could be just as bad, maybe more so.

Nevertheless, Rev. Caudle definitely made some inflammatory statements this past Sunday from behind the pulpit of the Greater Second Missionary Baptist Church of Chattanooga.

For one thing — the thing that almost everyone is focused on — he sounded as if he was justifying violence against Elon Musk for the work he is doing on DOGE.

Here’s the primary clip that’s making the rounds on social media:

Pastor Steve Caudle calls for "conflict" and "violence" against Elon Musk & D.O.G.E.

"When Elon Musk forces his way into the United States Treasury and threatens to steal your personal information and your Social Security check, there is a possibility of violence." pic.twitter.com/Gq0LeTY5aA

— Derrick Evans (@DerrickEvans4WV) February 10, 2025

One of the problems a lot of Pastors fall into is failing to differentiate between a statement referencing the spiritual realm as opposed to the physical realm.

It’s an easy mistake to make because there is often — almost always — a spiritual and physical aspect to every truth, principle, or concept.

I say it’s a “mistake” many Pastors make, but it can also be a convenient loophole that many Pastors will USE — allowing them to make statements regarding the tangible world, with the ability to smooth over any offense later by claiming to have been speaking only about something in a “spiritual sense” — occurring wholly in the spiritual realm.

Which, quite frankly, is almost always hogwash.

That’s not how it works.

Nothing happens purely in the spiritual realm, or purely in the physical realm.

At any rate, I suspect the first “mistake” Pastor Caudle made was his casual meandering along the line separating the physical and spiritual realms — which was no mistake at all.

It was his purposeful tactic to get away with calling for violence against Elon Musk, in my opinion.

Elon Musk did respond, by the way.  As expected, he drew a very reasonable conclusion from a simple study of the line of attack.

This tells me that he is trying to hide MASSIVE fraud https://t.co/VMC4LmYnwG

— Harry Bōlz (@elonmusk) February 10, 2025

Elon wasn’t the only one who reacted; social media lit up with pushback as reported by an article in the Daily Mail:

A Tennessee pastor has sparked controversy after calling for violence against Elon Musk in a fiery anti-government sermon.

He then warned that the U.S. could soon face similar turmoil: ‘In this nation, I’m worried that we are on the verge of bloodshed. This is an attempt to take us back to a day that we do not want to go and we will not go. Therefore, there will be conflict.’

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Turning his attention to billionaire Elon Musk, Caudle accused him—acting as a special government employee—of using DOGE to ‘force’ his way into the Treasury and ‘threaten’ to steal Americans’ personal data and Social Security benefits.

‘No one likes violence, but sometimes violence is necessary. When Elon Musk forces his way into the U.S. Treasury and threatens to steal your personal information and your Social Security check, there is a possibility of violence,’ Caudle warned.

‘Sometimes the devil will act so ugly that you have no other choice but to get violent and fight.’

Musk responded to Caudle’s remarks in a post on X on Monday, writing, ‘This tells me that he is trying to hide MASSIVE fraud.’

Other people who watched the clip online slammed the man of faith.

One user wrote: ‘This is all a lie and he claims to be a pastor. Shame on him and anyone who believes these lies without taking the time to learn the truth. I’m suspicious he’s getting money.’

Another added: ‘A “pastor” calling for conflict and violence from the Pulpit is absolutely non-Christian behavior.’

While a third said: ‘I’ve never attended a church where pastor has called for violence. I would have walked out.’

Charlie Kirk was one of the first to respond to the Pastor’s message, calling it “Disgraceful”.

Tennessee preacher Dr. Steve Caudle appears to call for violence against Elon Musk while spreading a rabid form of misinformation about DOGE:

“Sometimes the devil will act so ugly that you have no other choice but to get violent and fight."

Disgraceful. pic.twitter.com/5KK3K2yHkN

— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) February 10, 2025

There were plenty who focused on the possibility the Pastor is getting his fair share of fraudulent money.

After all, he is on a local zoning board with quite a few big moves currently being made.

One person posted this, which definitely holds true.

As I said, the Pastor later attempted to walk back some of his comments.

He basically did so using exactly the tactic I mentioned earlier — arguing that he was speaking purely in spiritual terms, and in no way advocates for literal violence in the physical world.

Here’s that response video, in what seems like an attempt to stop the damage before he looses his pastorate or position on the local zoning board.

For some reason the Pastor disabled the ability to share the YouTube video as a playable video on another website.

Through the marvel of modern technology, I magically put it here anyway, for your convenience:

As Chad Prather said after watching Pastor Caudle’s initial sermon message, THIS IS NOT WHAT JESUS TAUGHT.

This is NOT what Jesus taught.

Pastor Steve Caudle told his church to use violence against Elon Musk for eliminating government fraud.

Please beware of FALSE TEACHERS… pic.twitter.com/YQo7HMcZ48

— Chad Prather (@WatchChad) February 10, 2025

And though Pastor Caudle attempted to walk his message back while desperately attempting to look like he wasn’t doing so…

There remains a problem.

Even if you give him the benefit of the doubt, and allow 50% of the problem to be merely his lack of specificity in talking about spiritual and physical realities…

And even if you allow another 50% of his issue being that the world simply doesn’t understand that violence is actually a Biblical concept…

You still have TWO problems:

1. He was so non-specific about his “violence” rhetoric, that he ended up talking about it in terms of spiritual warfare AND the physical world — which is accurate in terms of the comprehensive nature of reality… except he later denied the physical aspect of his words.  (Meaning… he doesn’t understand his own theology, which is typical.)
2. He lied.

And that’s the part that really caught my attention.

Not just that he lied — but that his lies about Elon Musk’s actions as part of DOGE weren’t excusable.

He didn’t lie because he doesn’t know the truth, and he didn’t like because he misunderstands what Elon Musk is actually doing and is simply confused.

He lied… to prop up his other point:  THAT VIOLENCE IS JUSTIFIED IN THIS CASE.

See the issue there?

Because of the complicated nature of the subject matter, and the tendency of Pastors to confuse themselves by not giving the concepts enough specificity when they’re teaching about them…

I would be prone to give him the benefit of the doubt: to simply chalk it up to a complicated concept that has both physical and spiritual meanings, and he’s human — he confused himself.  It happens.

But his lie about Elon Musk threatening to steal people’s information and their Social Security checks only had one purpose — to JUSTIFY his call for VIOLENCE.

And unfortunately for the Reverend Caudle… that means he did what everyone is claiming he did, he did it knowingly, and he now he is trying to wiggle out of it because he doesn’t want to face the consequences.

Facts… so stubborn.

And that makes me even more curious about Elon Musk’s response.

Is Pastor Caudle worried about some fraudulent financial scheme getting exposed?

Here’s some detail on that from the International Business Times:

Caudle accused Musk of manipulating the US Treasury through his involvement with cryptocurrency, particularly DOGE, and insinuated that Musk was attempting to steal personal data and Social Security benefits from Americans.

Elon Musk, never one to shy away from controversy, responded to Caudle’s comments on X. In a post on Monday, the Tesla and SpaceX founder accused the pastor of using inflammatory language to conceal what he called ‘MASSIVE fraud.’

‘This tells me that he is trying to hide MASSIVE fraud,’ Musk wrote on X.

When asked to clarify his remarks, Caudle explained that a passage from the Gospel of Matthew inspired his words. ‘I was talking about the passage out of the Gospel of Matthew. The 11th chapter, the words of Jesus, not my words,’ he said. ‘When he said since the time of John the Baptist, the kingdom of heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force.’

Caudle insisted that his references to violence were rooted in the teachings of Jesus rather than a call for violent action in the present day.

The controversy surrounding Caudle’s sermon has also drawn responses from local political figures.

Hamilton County Mayor Weston Wamp said Caudle’s remarks were ‘totally unacceptable,’ particularly for a pastor. ‘Hateful rhetoric has no place in Hamilton County, especially from a pastor,’ Wamp said in a public statement.

According to reports, Wamp has since called for Caudle’s resignation from the Hamilton County Regional Planning Commission, citing his inflammatory comments.

In response, Caudle expressed frustration that Wamp had made his demand without addressing him personally.

‘I think it would have been decent of the man to look me in my eye and talk with me before he sent that,’ Caudle remarked, clearly upset by the mayor’s actions.

I find it ironic that when Pastor Caudle wants to call out Elon Musk, he did it from afar.

He stood behind the comfort of his own pulpit, in front of his own congregation, and gave a message that he undoubtedly knew most of his parishioners would agree with in general.

And yet, when the Mayor of the town openly and publicly called for Caudle to step down for his perceived impropriety…

Pastor Caudle responded by throwing a theological fit because the Mayor didn’t follow Biblical protocol and come say the thing to his face, first.

So I guess you could say on top of unjustly stirring up strife, then lying to cover his misstep, after which a previous lie ensured he couldn’t cover up his misstep with another lie…

He then hypocritically calls on the Mayor to act more Christ-like than he himself was willing to act by calling out Elon Musk from afar (with lies, by the way).

It doesn’t sound like Pastor Caudle has his ducks in a row.

And in my opinion… his calls for violence aren’t even the worst of it.

His biggest problem is he doesn’t understand the Biblical text he so readily purports to teach to others.

I would much rather wrongly call for violence, than knowingly teach false doctrine — considering what the Bible has to say about those who engage in that activity.

But, then again… Pastor Caudle may not have read that section yet, at least not in its proper context or with self reflection.

Judging from his blatant false teaching, I’d almost guarantee that he hasn’t.

This is usually the place I would put the full sermon video for anyone who wants to take the Pastor up on his recommendation to hear the entire sermon in context.

But considering there is no context in the rest of the sermon that changes the section I’ve already included, and considering I’ve already heard enough false teachings from the man to know he’s a charlatan at worst and incredibly inept in his sacred duty at best…

I think we’ll just leave things where they are, and hope the good Reverend mends his ways before even more of his sins find him out.

They tend to do that, you know.