Report: Bible Belt Christians Are Dying After Ignoring Social Distancing Guidelines [View all]

[progressoid]

AlterNet reports:

Many Christian fundamentalists and evangelicals have been irresponsibly downplaying the dangers of COVID-19 and doing so with deadly results…

Evangelical fundamentalists who openly defied social distancing guidelines are dying of coronavirus in frightening numbers…

According to a recent report from the U.K.-based Independent, the current coronavirus pandemic has claimed the lives of more than 30 pastors in the Bible Belt, and many more parishioners, after church leaders “actively encouraged churchgoers to flout self-distancing guidelines.”

Writing for the Independent, Alex Woodward notes:

Dozens of pastors across the Bible Belt have succumbed to coronavirus after churches and televangelists played down the pandemic and actively encouraged churchgoers to flout self-distancing guidelines.

As many as 30 church leaders from the nation’s largest African-American Pentecostal denomination have now been confirmed to have died in the outbreak, as members defied public health warnings to avoid large gatherings to prevent transmitting the virus.

more...https://www.patheos.com/blogs/progressivesecularhumanist/2020/04/report-bible-belt-christians-are-dying-after-ignoring-social-distancing-guidelines/?utm_medium=social&fbclid=IwAR1edQ42necPliG3oyi8DoUgvTBD7I7YTxjXDbWF7ahpo1kZe7iDrKyeIZE