Don’t believe me? Just watch right here…
Y’all, I can’t anymore. I seriously just can’t. Kenneth says it happened at “exactly 12 noon on the 29th day of March.” Turns out “It’s dead. It’s done. It has ceased to exist” (In much the same way that I am dead, done, and ceased to exist after watching that video), so I’m sure that will come as good news to the families of all the people who have died since noon on the 29th, as well as the 100,000 or so people who have contracted the virus since then…
You really think the virus is dead, Kenny? I’m betting you don’t believe what you’re saying enough to go hang out in a New York hospital right now… You fraud.
I suppose we should at least give him credit for not filling his holy TV recording with a live (for a while, at least) studio audience? There are many Churches around the nation and around the world who are convinced their magical Jesus powers will protect them from COVID-19. A small Pentecostal church in Illinois decided to have one more service this month before going along with social distancing recommendations. More than half of the people who attended the service ended up sick with this deadly virus.
I want to be understanding and compassionate to people who buy into this way of thinking, but it’s so clearly dangerous. If the only people affected by this harmful theology were the people who are valuing their interpretation of the Bible over the word of the medical and scientific communities, that’d be one thing… But this continued pass we are giving people for their harmful superstitions and religious beliefs AFFECTS US ALL. Their actions are every bit as abusive as parents who refuse to get their kid’s cancer treatments because they’ve been convinced that God is going to heal them, and taking medicines or going to the doctor is showing a “lack of faith.”
These people are mainstream snake-handlers… Proving their faith by putting people in danger. But kids are being bitten. People outside of their communities are being bitten. Healthcare workers are being bitten. And it needs to be shut down.
I know people like this. I used to go to church with these people. There are people who have bought into this belief system who I genuinely love. But it’s got to be stopped… Just like the government stopped Alex Jones from selling his snake oil COVID cures. Up until recently, most people act like they don’t need to concern themselves with this abusive theology… They think “they’re not hurting anybody. They can believe what they want.” But what we are seeing with churches endangering others with their preaching of supernatural protection is the natural consequence of the sect of Christianity which is focused on God’s (and our) ability to work miracles. They ARE hurting people.
When this is over, there needs to be an accounting for all of the abuse that has taken place and the harm that was caused by churches and church leaders who have gone against the directions of the governing authorities. There should be civil suits. Take away their tax breaks… Make them pay property tax like everybody else. There also needs to be an accounting for governors who dragged their feet while valuing business profits over the lives of their citizens. This has cost, and is STILL COSTING people their lives. And there needs to be an accounting for the immoral idiot in the White House who did nothing other than dismiss concerns and claim to have things totally under control for TWO MONTHS before taking this seriously. The same man who a month ago forecasted the number of cases soon getting to zero and promising the virus would disappear “like a miracle,” is now claiming that 200,000 deaths in America would be a success. A SUCCESS! That’s 66 times more than the number of people who died in the 9/11 attacks, and he’s calling that a success…
Please listen… America and South Korea had their first case of COVID-19 on the very same day (January 20). South Korea took it seriously and immediately took action with testing and mandatory quarantines. Trump spent 8 weeks bragging about what a great job he was doing while telling the public not to worry, claiming there was no cause for alarm, and dismissing any other narrative as a “democratic hoax.” Now, more than two months later, America has over 140,000 confirmed cases and 2500 deaths… Do you know how many cases and deaths South Korea has? Right now they have 9661 cases and 158 deaths. Our first cases were on the same day, and 14 days from now the United States will have had more deaths than South Korea has had total number of CASES… And the idiot in charge would like you to believe that this is a SUCCESS.
And somehow — SOMEHOW — the people who support him keep on believing what he is saying… Like a congregation showing up to charismatic church in the middle of a pandemic.
These preachers and churches who believe God is miraculously in control of all this are the same ones who believe that God is the one who blesses people with riches… And those same people have the ear of the president. And though I very much doubt that he believes any of it (he doesn’t believe in a power higher than himself), Trump is aware that these ignorant, superstitious religious folks are the reason he got elected. This group’s loyalty to the immoral monster in the White House mirrors the religious devotion that disregards evidence. They are the same brand of disastrous, dangerous religious fervor.
If this pandemic has made anything clear, it is that we must commit ourselves as a nation to prioritizing science, rational thought, and integrity when electing leaders. When charlatans like the private jet-owning fraud Kenneth Copeland support a candidate, that should be the clearest “sign from God” that that candidate is unfit for office. These people don’t represent the citizens of America. They represent the abandonment of critical thinking… and the consequences that follow. There is a place for faith in American life, but that place is NOT in the seats of the people who are making policies which affect the lives of our population. And when those people who dismiss scientific consensus in favor of an archaic understanding of scripture are finally out of office, THEN we will be able to join Kenneth Copeland in raising our hands and saying, “Praise Jesus… It’s over.”
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