Lorenzo Sewell, a Detroit pastor who delivered a prayer on the Donald Trump inauguration, announced the launch of his official meme coin. Although the coin is meant to be used for charity purposes, crypto X reacted sceptically, to say the least.
Predictably, the Trump inauguration delivered some spectacular moments — from Melania’s hat preventing the President’s kiss to Elon Musk’s alleged Nazi salute at the end of his speech.
The crypto community was caught off guard by the total absence of cryptocurrency mentioned in Donald Trump’s speech. However, the photos of Trump with Sen. Lummis, who waged war on Operation Choke Point 2.0 and proposed the creation of a Strategic Bitcoin reserve, were met with enthusiasm.
One of the stunning moments of the inauguration was the three-minute-long MLK-heavy prayer delivered by a Michigan pastor, Rev. Lorenzo Sewell. He chanted his words referencing the famous “I Have a Dream” speech and Declaration of Independence, starting his prayer by grating the Lord for the “millimetre miracle” that saved the future president from the bullet during the July murder attempt. Sewell stated that America will begin to dream again.
One of the reasons for multiple references to Martin Luther King’s speech may be the fact that Trump’s inauguration coincided with MLK Day. And Sewell mentioned Dr. King that night once again–in a short video on X where Sewell announced the launch of his official crypto token. The pastor urged everyone to buy it in order to help the ministry and concluded that “we know that King’s dream can only be fulfilled if we acknowledge that people are living in a nightmare”.
The comment section went poisonous on the announcement. But let’s first talk about Sewell’s personality before diving into his meme coin and the community’s reaction.
Rev. Sewell’s complicated past
People who followed Trump’s campaign weren’t probably surprised to see Sewell delivering a prayer during the President’s inauguration as the pastor has been actively involved in the 2024 campaign, presenting the pro-Trump Christian events, giving speeches alongside the future president in churches and addressing the public at a Republican National Convention.
Before joining the Trump bandwagon, Sewell has been a pastor at the non-denominational 180 Church. Rev. Sewell doesn’t divide religion from politics, saying that the gospel message is the political message and the Bible is a political book. “You cannot be a spiritual person and not be political,” said Sewell. Fox News cites him saying that he doesn’t believe all Democrats are demons, but their platform is demonic.
Sewell is passionate and energetic, not only in his prayers. Not everyone in the 180 Church was happy to have a pro-Trump pastor, and on one occasion, the political clash resulted in Sewell getting handcuffed. His enemies drilled new locks to the church door, and the pastor was approached by the police while trying to get into the church. Thankfully, after weeks of holding services elsewhere, including a methadone clinic, Sewell managed to get his church back. It was only a year before Sewell met Trump for the first time and joined his 2024 campaign.
During that meeting at the roundtable, Sewell expressed his admiration of Trump, saying the 45th President was charged with 34 felonies, and then he raised $52.8 million in 24 hours. Felonies that don’t stop the one on the way to glory is something that Sewell understands very well as it reflects his own life experiences as reportedly Sewell was a gang leader in the 90s before the 1999 spiritual revelation brought him to a religious path.
Pastor’s meme coin roast
The pastor’s $Lorenzo meme coin doesn’t seem that different from the TRUMP and MELANIA tokens that garnered substantial amounts of criticism following the launch. However, it seems that it was the pastor’s coin that gravitated the most hate.
In the X post, Sewell claims he decided not to sell Lorenzo tokens and instead locked them permanently in the Liquidity Pool to earn fees and let the token flourish. In the video, Sewell asked people to “do him a favor” and “buy the official Lorenzo Sewell coin.” However, the public was harsh on the move. Below, you can see only a few of the many angered voices:
Will pastor man rug? Only God knows. What’s clear enough for many in the crypto community is that meme coins began to gain notoriety similar to one that NFTs got at some point, where the element of gambling and scammers started to outshine the revolutionary technology.
In his criticism towards the TRUMP token, journalist Nic Carter suggested that tokens issued by political figures in power may be used by external agents to manipulate and bribe national affairs. Can someone influence Sewell via a generous $Lorezno investment? Will see.
