At risk of sounding like a broken record, it is simply reckless to be holding large gatherings in the wake of the coronavirus scourge, even without hard-and-fast executive orders or ordinances banning them. But as incredible as it may seem, there are still a number of churches who haven’t gotten the memo.
We’ve already been introduced to quite a few of them. For instance, earlier this week Tony Spell held a service for hundreds of people at his Oneness Pentecostal church in Baton Rouge and claimed calls to flatten the curve were “politically motivated.” And Keith Gomez not only continues holding regular services at his independent Baptist church north of Chicago, but is keeping his Christian school open despite threats of a closure order from local prosecutors.
But perhaps the most crass example yet of a pastor openly flouting calls to stay home is Jennifer LeClaire, a popular author on the hypercharismatic circuit and former editor at Charisma magazine. She now leads the Awakening House of Prayer in Fort Lauderdale.
Earlier this week, Hemant Mehta of the Friendly Atheist red-flagged a message she preached last weekend. She claimed—with a straight face—that churches should be gathering in large numbers to snuff out this virus. No, this isn't snark. Watch here.
LeClaire told her audience that Christians shouldn’t “run away and isolate ourselves” in the face of this virus. On the contrary, they should “run to the church” and “take authority over this demonic entity invading our city.” As she saw it, if “we get all of us here and praying together … ain’t none of us going to get attacked by this dumb thing.” She claimed it was no different from the apostles continuing to stand and fight even in the face of being persecuted.
Apparently LeClaire has some really bad, really frustrated or really subservient lawyers. True to her word, LeClaire opened the doors of Awakening House of Prayer today. About the only concession she made was to call off children’s church.
Um, Jennifer? Have you been watching the news lately? There are two real-life examples of why holding ANY services in person at all at this point is absolutely reckless.
Two weeks ago, the Church at Liberty Square in Cartersville, Georgia—on Atlanta’s northern fringe—discovered that a number of people who attended the Church of God megachurch had caught coronavirus. Reportedly, those cases are a big reason why surrounding Bartow County has the third-most cases of coronavirus in all of Georgia, despite having only 100,600 people—a fraction of the population of the big four counties in the Atlanta area. Thankfully, that church’s pastor has had the good sense to shut down all in-person gatherings for at least the next two weeks—though given the CDC’s new guidance of not having meetings of more than 10 people, it will almost certainly be longer. He also strongly advised those who attended services earlier in the month to self-quarantine for two weeks.
Additionally, University Church of Christ in Murray, Kentucky held a regular service last weekend despite Governor Andy Beshear strongly urging churches in his state to stay home. Wouldn’t you know—someone caught it. A woman who works at the area hospital came with a friend who is a member of that church, and got infected. Now everyone who attended has been advised to self-quarantine for at least 10 days.
LeClaire’s obstinate stand is especially galling to me, since like her, I’m a charismatic Christian—or a “spirit-filled Christian,” as we sometimes call ourselves. She talked about how one person can put 1,000 to flight and two can put 10,000 to flight—a common theme among those who believe in spiritual warfare. Well, Jennifer, have you considered that any Spirit-filled, fire-baptized Christian can do the same from his or her own home? After all, the Bible doesn't say “where two or more are gathered in the church building.” My charismatic church here in Charlotte has held services on Facebook Live for the last two weeks—and we don’t have even a fraction of the resources that you have.
LeClaire’s obstinacy could potentially put much of South Florida in danger of being infected. And a bunch of other places too. It turns out that LeClaire has set up satellite Awakening Houses of Prayer in nine other cities across the country—including my hometown of Charlotte. She also has locations in Hong Kong, Singapore, the UK, and Australia as well. If anyone in those cities gets infected and it can be traced back to a member of these satellite churches, that video should be Exhibit A in any lawsuit.
At least two of the more infamous scofflaw pastors still holding services last week appear to have seen reason. Rick Joyner, whose MorningStar Ministries is based just 20 minutes south of me at Jim Bakker’s old complex, has gone online only until further notice. And Guillermo Maldonado, the Trump-worshiping pastor who publicly wagged his finger at those who stayed home last week, moved his services online “due to the specific requests of the CDC.”
The more I think about it, LeClaire’s mentality is no different from that of John Allen Chau, the missionary who tried to preach Jesus to the Sentinelese, a people who live on a remote island off the coast of India. For those who don’t know, the Sentinelese are among the last uncontacted peoples in the world, and have been isolated from society for so long that they have no genetic immunity. That’s a big reason why it’s illegal to come within three miles of their island. He could have wiped out the entire tribe just by being there. Chau and the missionary group that trained him almost certainly knew this—and sent him there anyway. What did they get for it? The Indian government ultimately concluded that it was far too dangerous to even attempt to recover his body.
What LeClaire is doing is no different. She is showing appalling disregard for the safety of the people of South Florida, as well as that of the other cities where she’s planted her flag. This, more than the religious right’s obstinate loyalty to Trump, is Christianism in its most unacceptable form.