Bethel Redding Urging People to Not Socially Distance? Open Thread COVID 19

I know, I get it, everyone that loves to go to church is getting itchy to get back to that. Which is creating all sorts of creativity and new ways that people do church. Some churches are holding services via things like Facebook Live or having them as Zoom meetings. Some churches are holding services at drive in movie theaters. The creativity emerging in the religious communities to find a way to function in these challenging times is encouraging.

What’s not encouraging is that parts of Bethel Redding, Bill Johnson’s church, seem determined to expose everyone in the world to the possibility of COVID 19. They are going around leading outside worship sessions.

Okay, I hear you say, it’s outside and the CDC says that being outside is far less risky than being in an enclosed room with poor ventilation. That much is true. We saw that the Black Lives Matter marches and protests did not spike up infection rates for COVID 19 significantly.

But there is a reason that there were no increases due to the march.  Many people masked, even when social distancing was ignored people were masking. Masking works.

Do you see any masks in that photo above? Nope.

So now you have assorted worship leaders from Bethel Redding going out and about to lead worship outside. Outside you say, is that lot less dangerous? Well, yes, as long as you are either socially distancing or wearing a mask. Instead you have plague rat Sean Feucht from Bethel and “Hold The Line” leading hundreds of other plague rats unmasked, unsocial distancing, in singing, an activity that science shows puts the virus in super spreader mode. Add in unmasked packed crowds and this is how disaster movies start out.

They’ve now held more than a few of these events, once in San Francisco and this weekend at a Jessi Green event in Huntington Beach, California. Feucht has a whole pile of his unsafe super spreader events scheduled throughout the United States. Even one in the infamous Duggar’s backyard in  Siloam Springs, Arkansas at an all day long event.

I get wanting worship, but I don’t get why their need to sing is more important than others need for safety. You can just as easily worship at that drive in church service, or the Zoom one, or privately in your bedroom.

In the past thirty years I’ve been on many worship teams, and can tell you a lot of what goes on there is ego driven. Not all, not everything, but much of it is. We had this same conversation recently at the worship I am on. Church reopened just yesterday, and our Zoom service showed that worship team is now reduced to the leader and the pastor. I told them for my own not great health I would not be returning until the government said it was safe, and or there is a vaccine. I know the leader is very unhappy with the return to services.

Not wanting to spread a deadly disease to others is the only responsible response to a pandemic, no matter what your religion is or isn’t. You wear the mask, you socially distance. You do what it takes to kill this thing.

This is about the need for Christians to feel that righteous self-justified martyrbating they all love so much. Their need to push their views and wants down everyone else’s throats and flip the proverbial bird at anyone trying to make them behave for the common good of everyone. The church might have left the building, but so did love, caring for others and all common sense, just leaving ego, hubris and a persecution complex.

On another note evangelist Todd Bentley, that holds many of the same views on healing and resurrecting the dead is currently in the hospital battling what looks like issues related to diabetes and high blood pressure. While still selling hard his healing prayer ministry CDs. Oh sweet hypocrite!  Jesus wept.

Todd is an interesting case study in when you promote people beyond education and ability. I’ve met Todd many times through conferences attended during my years in Quiverfull. He seems nice, very charismatic like many super star pastors. But the reality is quite different. This is a guy on the sex offenders list who likely should not be in a position of leadership, or allowed around a huge pool of potential victims. Another toxic narcissist in sheep’s clothing.

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