Over the Easter weekend - some churches - including a church near Baton Rouge, LA - held religious services in defiance of stay-at-home orders issued in their states.
Dr. Tony Spell - the pastor of The Life Tabernacle Church in Central, LA - promoted his Easter service by saying that “Satan and a virus will not stop us” and that “God will shield us from all harm and sickness.” The church’s Easter service reportedly attracted a congregation of about 1,300 followers. Pastor Spell told TMZ - “True Christians do not mind dying, They fear living in fear.”
In Ohio - the Solid Rock Church held services after the state of Ohio exempted church gatherings from the state’s stay-at-home orders. In Tampa, FL - Pastor Rodney Howard-Browne was arrested for defying the state’s stay-at-home order - but Florida Governor Ron DeSantis issued an order allowing churches to hold services. The state legislature in Kansas revoked an order from the governor to restrict religious gatherings to 10 people.
It is no secret that churches see their collections boosted at Easter and Christmas. It is also no secret that many pastors have shown more respect for the almighty dollar than Almighty God.
During a time of crisis - religious people are encouraged to pray that God will save them from the crisis, and the idea of continuing church services amid a true crisis where gathering could lead to death makes sense to some people. But according to the most respected experts on the coronavirus - large gatherings actively spread a potent disease that is killing Americans - even devoutly religious Americans.
The Catholic Church and many Protestant churches immediately followed the stay-at-home protocol and cancelled ALL physical gatherings - opting to hold services online. But why are other religious leaders rejecting the conventional wisdom that large gatherings mean death?
There are leaders of churches that have demanded that their congregations give them money for luxury items, like bigger private jets. Sadly, there are enough gullible people to support the materialistic desires of these leaders.
The church in Louisiana that continues to hold services attracting large gatherings is in a rural area of the state. We are now getting warnings that rural America may soon be hit with waves of the coronavirus that will certainly strain the hospitals there.
The belief that the coronavirus is a city disease or a disease that is striking blue cities and states is proof of ignorance. One of the reasons the African-American community has been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 is because of early messages on social media that it was a “white person’s disease” and African-Americans were naturally immune from the disease. That is factually not true, and Mayor Cantrell of New Orleans and CNN contributor/host Van Jones - both African-American - have openly addressed this deadly myth.
Is is true that the African-Americans population has more underlying conditions and part of that may be due to a lack of health education and medical care - but there is no doubt that many Americans were told by their own community that they would not contract the coronavirus.
That attitude appears to prevail throughout rural red America, and one city official in a small Texas town said he still cannot get people to stop shaking hands with each other.
COVID-19 does not know your race - your political affiliation - your religion - your gender or anything that defines you as part of a group. Facts prove the deadly virus is easily spread and that many people die. Failure to accept these facts is leading to people getting the disease - which is a miserable experience - and dying.
Whether Christian, Jew, Muslim, Hindu or any other religion or agnostic or atheist - coronavirus has the potential to kill you.
The defiance of some religious leaders who are ignoring the common sense their God gave them shows a lack of respect and loyalty to the God they worship. If God will save them from the disease - then is it fair to say that God killed those who died from it?
And to Pastor Spell who so boldly said that - “True Christians do not mind dying” - I say that God blessed us with many reasons to enjoy living!