In a January Bible study livestream, Virginia pastor E.W. Jackson said a pair of Georgians headed for the U.S. Senate were “demoniacally possessed” and their fellow Democrats were “cursing” the country by supporting abortion access and gay rights. Newly minted senators Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff were key to Biden’s $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, which passed the evenly divided Senate with no Republican support.

But as the stimulus checks they enabled arrive, Jackson, said his followers should have no qualms about accepting the Democrats’ largess — and passing 10% to his ministry, the 100-member Called Church of Chesapeake.

“They tithe the income they have coming in. That includes the stimulus,” said Jackson, 69, the founder of a conservative political-action committee and an unsuccessful candidate for U.S. Senate and Virginia lieutenant governor. “Whenever God gives us increase, whatever the source might be, we give some to God to acknowledge that it comes from him.”