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Bishop Gerald O Glenn headed The New Deliverance Evangelistic Church near Richmond, VA, where he defied social distancing orders, declaring himself to be an essential service because he "talked to God." He insisted that God would protect him.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/bishop-who-preached-god-larger-dreaded-virus-dies-covid-19-n1183281
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https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/bishop-who-preached-god-larger-dreaded-virus-dies-covid-19-n1183281
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He has died of coronavirus.
His wife is also ill.
https://www.facebook.com/OfficialNDEC/videos/233789087982971/?__tn__=-R
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His wife is also ill.
https://www.facebook.com/OfficialNDEC/videos/233789087982971/?__tn__=-R
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Defying public-health orders is an interfaith affair. After Rabbit Tzvi Hirsh Meislish died of coronavirus, his Hassidic followers ignored social distancing orders to attend his funeral.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/coronavirus-hasidic-jews-rabbi-funeral-brooklyn-social-distancing/
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https://www.cbsnews.com/news/coronavirus-hasidic-jews-rabbi-funeral-brooklyn-social-distancing/
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And of course, the evangelical Liberty University megacampus refused to follow public health orders, then had journalists who ventured on campus to report on conditions arrested.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/liberty-universitys-shameful-crackdown-on-journalists/2020/04/12/d5499852-7b70-11ea-9bee-c5bf9d2e3288_story.html
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/liberty-universitys-shameful-crackdown-on-journalists/2020/04/12/d5499852-7b70-11ea-9bee-c5bf9d2e3288_story.html
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The point here isn't to mock ignorance or count coup, but rather to identify a trend: that the leaders of largely conservative faith communities are putting their followers at risk, even as conservative political leaders are also downplaying the risk.
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As wags have noted, if billionaires need you to go back to work to keep their fortunes intact, then it follows that your work - not theirs - is responsible for those fortunes to begin with.
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And conservative faith leaders have forged a 40-years alliance with conservative business leaders, making it difficult to disentangle to what extend their covid denial is scriptural or economic.
https://pluralistic.net/2020/04/12/mammon-worshippers/#mammon-worshipper
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https://pluralistic.net/2020/04/12/mammon-worshippers/#mammon-worshipper
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Whatever the mix, the combo is toxic. The worshippers of Mammon need evangelicals to supply turkeys who'll vote for Christmas. When religious communities subject us to risk (of thousands of more deaths and months of extra lockdown), political leaders won't stop them.
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Both power blocs want to believe. Wall Street wants to believe that it's safe to end social distancing to keep vast fortunes intact and forestall Keynsian spending and a discrediting of the whole project of replacing government money creation with finance money creation.
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The rise of science denial in faith communities has made them especially vulnerable. They want to reopen services, sure, but they also struggle with the theological implications of a pandemic, and to square their belief in divine protection with scientific best practices.
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