Pastor in US Still Held Services with Hundreds of People During Lockdown; Said It is ‘Essential Business’

For some people, not praying is worse than dying.

Remember the Shincheonji Church? When the Covid-19 virus started spreading in South Korea, the church’s leader said: “This disease case is seen as the devil’s deed to stop the rapid growth of Shincheonji”.

The church banned masks, and some people attended services even though they were sick.

Now, it’s happening in the US.

Even though the country has the most number of coronavirus infections in the world, some people are willing to breach lockdown measures to hold a service.

Pastor in the US Still Held Services with Hundreds of People During Lockdown

Florida officials have arrested the pastor of a megachurch after he violated a safer-at-home order in place to limit the spread of the coronavirus.

Detectives say the pastor held two Sunday services with hundreds of people at The River Church in Tampa, Florida.

Pastor Rodney Howard-Browne turned himself in to authorities on Monday (30 March) and was charged with unlawful assembly and violation of a public health emergency order. Bail was set at $500.

While Florida isn’t under complete lockdown, many local counties have stay-at-home orders.

This county and governor’s orders require gatherings, including religious services, to have fewer than 10 people to limit the spread of Covid-19.

So, why would the pastor hold a service and endanger the lives of his fellow Americans despite all the measures in place?

“Essential business”

The church has said it sanitised the building, and the pastor said on Twitter that the church is essential business.

He also attacked the media for “religious bigotry and hate”.

That’s a bit like me calling my boss racist because he pointed out that I came two hours late for work.

Oh, but it gets worse.

Two weeks ago, this same pastor mocked the “pansies” who are scared of the coronavirus and insisted his packed church will only shut its doors “when the Rapture is taking place.”

“If you cannot be saved in the church, you are in serious trouble”, he said.

He also, believe it or not, encouraged congregants to hug in defiance of health warnings.

I’m getting flashbacks to the Shincheongji church founder, are you?

Authorities all over the world have implemented countless drastic measures to slow the spread of the coronavirus, but they forgot one thing- stupidity spreads faster than any virus on the planet.

This pastor is particularly dangerous in such a crisis because he’s an unholy concoction of dumb and bold.

In a Facebook post, the pastor also said that the coronavirus “is blown totally way out of proportion”.

Yes, more than 160,000 infections and 3,000 deaths are definitely no biggies.

The Hillsborough Sheriff slammed the pastor for his defiance, adding that he hoped this would change the pastor’s mind.

“Shame on this pastor, their legal staff and the leaders of this staff for forcing us to do our job. That’s not what we wanted to do during a declared state of emergency,” he said. “We are hopeful that this will be a wakeup call.”

Yeah, I doubt that’s going to happen.