Bizarre, Religion

“Jesus Died With COVID-19”: Arkansas Church Refuses To Close During Pandemic

We have been discussing churches holding mass services in defiance of orders for people to stay at home and avoid groups of larger than 10 people. Some of the churches insist that faith alone can protect against the virus. Now, the Awaken Church in Jonesboro, Arkansas has not only announced that it would remain open for services but assured the faithful that “Jesus died with COVID-19 so you didn’t have to bear it.”

The Church cites 2 Corinthians 5:21:

“For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”

Obviously, the church is not saying that Jesus actually had COVID-19. The Church posted that “The Bible tells us that Jesus took on every sin, sickness and every disease . . . Jesus bore it so you wouldn’t have to. Salvation provided forgiveness and healing . . . if you’ll believe it, you can receive it!” but its decision to stay open is based on a literal reading not of the bible but the public order. The church also said on Facebook that

“The Dept of Health has stated that all gatherings of ten or more do not apply to houses of worship and yet suggest to follow CDC safe practices, of which we are doing.

“For us to not have services due to a virus would be for us to go against our extremely strong convictions of the power of God to protect and the power of God to heal. Jesus knew the world He was sending us into contained sickness and disease. Instead of telling us to retreat from sickness, He told us to go into the world and to heal the sick.”

Pastor Chad Gonzales has posted claims of faith healing in the past, including repeated cures of “short leg.”

Unlike some, the Church is encouraging “those that are elderly, have weakened immune systems and/or those that have any concerns for their well-being” to stay at home. The problem is that the virus is spread by asymptomatic carriers who are unlikely to know that they are carriers.

In my view, states can close churches since online services are available. These pastors may well thin the ranks of the faithful by resisting the advice of health care professionals.

75 thoughts on ““Jesus Died With COVID-19”: Arkansas Church Refuses To Close During Pandemic”

  1. https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2020/04/pope-francis-addresses-italy-in-recorded-message/

    “Let us try, if we can, to make the best use of this time: let us be generous; let us help those in need in our neighborhood; let us look out for the loneliest people, perhaps by telephone or social networks; let us pray to the Lord for those who are in difficulty in Italy and in the world. Even if we are isolated, thought and spirit can go far with the creativity of love. This is what we need today: the creativity of love,”

    Pope Francis

      1. The virus is not a sin. And we are not to test God. We are to obey man’s law are we not? If you only preach part of the Bible to justify your actions you are giving false testimony. Wow my dad is a preacher and would never put others lives at risk with a promise of healing to those that disobey because Jesus died so you could disobey. That is not what the Bible shows us.

      2. Yes he was but He. Was beaten , bruised for or iniquities , by His stripes. He paid the price “in full”. For our healing.. people better read the Bible , and trust it and it alone. It has every answer ,to every question. Just watch and see. ,,, the coming of the King. You haven’t seen nothing yet !!!!!!!!

    1. I know this is my third comment but the reality is you can gather in very small group with great care and accomplish much more. Just think as you meet with 3 or 4 people you most likely will get to know each other and pray for each other with intelligence. This reminds me of the battle over prayer in schools. You can pray anywhere with your eyes open. That ends that. We need to respect the fact that others might die from your lack of reasonable responsibility. That is simple the point. So if your a Christian, respect the right for others to live.

      1. With any luck COVID will take out 100+ million Americans and give the fighters, the workers, the resilient, the doers a chance. As long as the Democrats are allowed to walk, talk, breathe and pass gas, our country is screwed

  4. April 8, 2020 is coming. Passover

    Passover commemorates the destroyer that smote the Egyptian firstborn

    Passover is divided into two parts:
    The first two days and last two days (the latter commemorating the splitting of the Red Sea) are full-fledged holidays. Holiday candles are lit at night, and kiddush and sumptuous holiday meals are enjoyed on both nights and days. Don’t go to work, drive, write, or switch on electric devices.

    1. If you were a Jew you would have never written that considering you did it during the Sabbath: sundown Friday to sundown Saturday.

  5. Most religions start out O’k. Then people get a hold of them and twist them and contort them to suit their needs.

    1. A starter religion whose founders were on the level would be the Heaven’s Gate cult. Customers of their side businesses spoke well of them. Didn’t end well.

  6. Pingback: “Jesus Died With COVID-19”: Arkansas Church Refuses To … | Latest news about (global) epidemic or disease outbreak

  8. What cowardly sheep we have become. The only brave ones are the pastors and their followers who ironically refuse to be lorded over. Quarantine is house arrest without the charge and we’re capitulating to it with a “pandemic” death rate of 1 in 200. We’ve become pathetic spectators to our own lives and have only ourselves to blame. You’d best be jealous of your freedom because it’s the only thing the globalists want that you haven’t already given them.

    2. I must there are a lot of confusing things about Covid 19. I work for a health care company that offered NYS more than a million masks and 400 vents for standard and fair pricing. This is where the governor was pleading for more masks and vents. The state turned them down stating that they were going in another direction. What direction would that be if just yesterday they were screaming that they would be short hundreds of beds and masks in 5 days. I would really like to know what is going on. My supplier sold them to Italy. This is not fake news. I am 70 and has stayed in. I just don’t know what to think.

      1. You should not be confused. Everything will work out. Stick to the now, what you know as to your immediate vicinity, your home, your loved ones with you in the present moment. Focus on you as you can do nothing, nor should you attempt, about those outside of your reach.

        It goes without saying disregard the commercial, profit driven news sources and predictions of tomorrow

        Concentrate on now which you can control. Tomorrow is another day.

    3. Boy you are 100% right . It’s time for God truth to come out. People will see. Jesus is coming back this time as king of kings. Not to lay His life down. Everybody better read the book ,,!!!!!!!

  10. In Spanish, Jesus, is pronounced Hey Zeus.

    Hey Zeus!
    Full of juice.
    Don’t let your meatloaf!

  12. (music)
    Jesus loves me, yes I know!
    Cause the Bible tells me so.
    When I sent to mass today..
    They passed the plate…
    And made me pay!

    1. Thanks, David B. Benson.

      One of the best lines:

      “The stupid hurts my head. And not just mine.” (Juan Cole)

      He continues:

      “I don’t think Kemp is stupid in the sense of lacking intelligence. I think he is stupid in the sense of letting things get in the way of his intelligence– whether they be ridiculous ideological commitments or slavish obedience to campaign donors or fear of angering Donald Trump and his rabid GOP base.

      “Because Kemp let the coronavirus run wild all this time, it will kill far more people than if he had early on adopted a shelter in place policy or had ordered large-scale testing and contact tracing. He not only did nothing. He ridiculed people like the mayor of San Francisco, who on March 9 closed down the Bay Area. San Francisco has a fraction of the cases of New York.”

      *****

      ‘Inexcusable’, to be sure.

  16. I agree that religious services should transition to online streaming only. And I agree that quarantine orders should be enforced.

    But do you you what industry is defying these orders, on a scale over and above any church? Grocery stores. There are photos of people lining up, blocks long, to wait for their turn to go shop and hunt the mythical toilet paper. Sure, they restrict the number of shoppers in some of these stores. Sure, they make people form lines, and they ask them to stand 6 feet apart. But SARS-CoV-2 remains aerosolized, and infectious, for hours. It remains on hard surfaces for days. So what good does it do to stand 6 feet apart if you’re all breathing the same contaminated air? You might avoid heavy droplets, but you’ll still breathe in fire aerosolized infectious particles. You’ll still buy items that innumerable people have breathed on. Coughed on.

    I’ve mentioned before that the last time I went to Trader Joes, there was an elderly lady with a wet, hacking cough between the produce and deli meat/cheese sections. Now, I, along with a bunch of other people, took some horrified steps back, and we shopped in another part of the store. But that poor lady went up and down the aisles, hacking and coughing with her mouth wide open. Coughing on the bread. On the lettuce. On the cereal. Coughing into the air. And no matter if we weren’t in the aisle with her, we’d still walk the same path she did at some point.

    What is it going to take for grocery stores to transition to safer shopping? Are they waiting for enough of their employees to get sick that the rest won’t come in, and our food supply stores close? Because that’s a little late to be thinking about transitioning to delivery only.

    Even the large chains that do delivery, do not offer basic necessities, such as produce and toilet paper, as an option for delivery. You are required to go shop in person…along with everyone else. There are thousands of positive cases in CA already. I expect thousands more as the private industry works through the testing backlog. My friend has it in Northern CA. My neighbor’s daughter and daughter-in-law have it. Another friend has multiple relatives with it.

    What is everyone waiting for? Grocery supplies to dry up? We have enough military, police, fire, medical personnel, judges, prison guards, all getting sick because of their exposure on the job. Plus after work, they have to go grocery shopping along with everyone else.

    This is how plagues spread. They spread through crowding and poor hygiene. Allowing the public to breathe and cough and touch food items during a pandemic is stupid. It’s irresponsible.

    Transition to delivery and no contact outside pickup only. No more in person shopping. Accept COD left in an envelope like a clandestine cloak and dagger deal. But for the love of Pete, can the grocery stores please stop crowding people into lines like cows at the milking shed?

    What do they think? That since grocery stores are an essential business that SARS-CoV-2 magically won’t stick to their goods and their carts or contaminate their air?

    1. Why don’t, I said this 2 weeks ago, bc I was perturbed, the grocery stores go Online Only. You order your groceries ahead of time, and then pick up the sealed bags and walk out. If you don’t have a cell phone, or no internet, or both, you get a form and you go to your car, fill it out, and then drop it off to an employee, and wait for them to get all your stuff into bags, then wave you down to come to grab your bags.

      Whole Foods already has Amazon lockers in store for folks to pick up the bags, the customers do not have to expose themselves at all.

      1. Oh I wish Whole Foods delivered to me. Alas, I am outside their delivery zone.

        1. Hi Karen, bummer 😥🙁

          But on the bright side, sounds like you live in a more rural area, with horses, etc. Sounds nice. Although, there a some places in LA with horses, like Rancho Palos Verdes, to name one.

          1. WW33 – we are lucky, overall. Rancho Paulos Verdes, where you mentioned, is a beautiful area, although not as horsey as it used to be. In CA, there is this phenomenon where people move to the outlying country areas that abut the suburbs, build a big house, and then promptly start a campaign against the smell of manure, donkeys braying, and roosters crowing of their neighbors. Eventually, the area becomes just another suburb, with zoning against livestock. The suburbs have slowly crept over and demolished most horse areas of CA. Norco is still a horse town. You can still find horse property in parts of Simi Valley. Property taxes get so great that sometimes the only access to horses you can find in SoCal are elite jumping and dressage barns, where the required training costs at least $1000 a month plus board. They cut the horse shows from many of the fairs and expos across the state.

            That’s why we moved further out into the country. Property values were a lot lower than where we were living, and there is actually still open space. We live right next to open space, which means we are able to get outside and excercise, get some fresh air, and not be stuck inside all day. It must really be frustrating for people in the city who can’t go out at all without running into people.

            Horse owners have been hit with wildfires. Feed costs have increased along with higher gas prices. CARB decreed that heavy vehicles older than 2010 may not be registered, so many are having trouble because their rigs to haul are no longer allowed. Or delivery trucks went under. We are now taxed on hardscape, including barns, horse shelters, and tax sheds, ostensibly because of water runoff, but it doesn’t matter if you have a rain barrel. Horses are some of the most vulnerable domesticated creatures. They are expensive to feed and house, and they require our time and labor. They are the first to get abandoned during financial hardship. People aren’t buying from breeders. And as more horse owners lose their day jobs, more and more find they cannot buy hay. Or pay for their older horse’s medical needs. I worry about the horses, along with all the people and other pets in dire straights during this pandemic. You can get an ear for how the economy is doing, by the number of distress sales or giveaways of horses. One industry that will likely boom from this is horse slaughter. When horses start getting dumped, they can end up on a truck bound for Mexico. There are so many distress calls going out already. Senior horse. Can’t be ridden. Needs a home by tomorrow or he goes to slaughter. Broodmare. Never broken. Needs a home tomorrow or she goes to slaughter. Lame horse. Can’t be ridden. Needs a home immediately. I’m grateful we can care for our little herd, but my heart goes out to all those in need.

    2. Hi Karen S,

      You said the same thing, before me. Grocery store online only. Don’t own a phone, no internet, fill out a form, in your vehicle, outside the grocery.

      Sorry to hear about your neighbor’s daughter and daughter-in-law testing positive. Yikes!

      I’m still wondering about my “flu,” from last year. I was so sick. I’m still coughing 5 months later.

      I’m wondering if that is part of the disease or if that is just scarring of the lung?

      The urgent dr thought 90 % lung capacity is back, and said no X-ray until the pandemic is over. And stay away from others, for myself, and for others.

      My 2 roomies are both asymptomatic, with the “flu,” I had last year. One roomie’s client was sick in hospital with pneumonia last November for 4 weeks, but he recovered. I’m assuming that is how I was exposed. Client –> Roomie (Asymp) —> Me. But it could be the reverse, who knows!

      I saw my brothers on the 21st of December for Xmas, and 1 brother left on a plane on 22 to Norway, and then onto Prague. On the 5th, the day he flew home, he was sick with the “flu.” Was in bed from the 5th – 26th of January, missing 3 weeks of work. Other brother, was sick, on the 7th, and has the “flu” for 2 weeks. But problematic bc the incubation of 14-16 days is there, however, one was traveling, the other lives in a house with other ppl. My parent, fine, but as world traveller, they have everu vaccine in the book, and experience no symptoms.

      And this is all not knowing if it is CV19 or not…

      1. Also, in that November time frame, my roomie’s nephew stopped by and went home to his mom, and his mom ended up in the hospital for 3 weeks with the “flu.” Yep.

        All last year 2019, not 2020. And it was the mysterious pneumonia-like “flu.”

        Los Angeles International Airport is massive. LAX, has lots of travelers every day. I assume some from China came to the U.S. and had no idea they were sick, went to El Segundo (a favorite hang out of mine) right next to LAX, lots of hotels there.

        Whatever the case may be, the solution can’t come quickly enough. I hate that the cough has lasted 5 months. Roommate asks me if I was okay today, and it’s like yes, I’ve been coughing almost half a year now, on and off, depending…

        1. Anonymous – some doctors are doing telephone appointments. I wonder if yours could have a phone consult with you. I agree that you should not go in for any X-rays or doctor appointments barring urgent need. You already have a chronic cough. You may have had Covid-19 already, but if you hadn’t, you don’t want to get it on top of everything.

          The longer you cough, the more irritated your throat will be, and the more difficult it is to stop coughing. Some forms of cough respond to a warm steam, which can also sooth the irritated lining of your throat. Nothing replaces going to a doctor, or getting the medicine you need. But if it’s really bothering you, have you tried turning the shower on hot, keeping the fan off, and sitting in the bathroom in the steam for a while? When you cough do you feel like you can’t catch your breath, or is it an irritated tickling cough? I wonder if he could go outside and listen to your lungs from your car. No, that woudn’t be any good either, if you don’t have an N95 mask. The doctor himself is a high risk vector. When you do talk to your doctor, let him know your triggers. Dry air. Cold air. Excercise. More when you wake up. Worse when you lay down. Dry or productive. Can you do diaphragmatic breathing. Etc.

          Get well soon.

      2. Anonymous – I hope you get well, soon. Some of my friends and relatives are now looking back at what they had last December and January, wondering if it was really Covid-19. After all, this was really going around the world since November. It may well could have been, and for you and your family, too.

        Get that chest X-ray when this is all over, just in case. You might need a bronchodilator, temporarily, to get you over that chronic cough.

        I am so looking forward to when this is behind us.

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