Name: Evangelical Pastors See Pandemic As A Political Opportunity
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Evangelical Pastors See Pandemic As A Political Opportunity

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×U.S. EditionPart of HuffPost News. ©2022 BuzzFeed, Inc. All rights reserved.×This story was reported in partnership with .AdvertisementAdvertisementAcross the country, most houses of worship have obeyed the bans on large gatherings in place in more than 35 states. That includes many powerful white evangelical churches that are staunch opponents of government intrusion.“Some are asking if these sorts of health mandates are a violation of religious liberty,” Russell Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, on March 20. “The short answer is ‘no.’” Vice President Mike Pence, a longtime evangelical ally, has the public to limit church gatherings to 10 people and said that he, his wife and President Trump have been “enjoying worship services online.”But a small number of evangelical and Pentecostal congregations have refused to stop worshipping in person. And at least partly in response to political pressure, governors in a handful of states, including , have granted exemptions to gathering bans for religious services. Another dozen or so states have a patchwork of orders permitting some form of religious services to continue under various conditions, including size restrictions or requirements for social distancing. “Believers can die of disease, Pastor Caleb Ring said in a sermon. 'But the beauty of that is, as a believer, those that are born twice, die once. Death is not a miserable thing for us.'”AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementRepublican governors have reacted to the pressure from the party’s powerful base. On April 2, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) issued orders overriding local restrictions on large gatherings to grant churches a special exemption. Howard-Browne’s lawyers victory as Hillsborough County was its rules. At a of the county’s emergency policy group, Tampa Mayor Jane Castor and Hillsborough County Commission Chair Lesley Miller Jr. expressed dismay that the order did not include any social distancing requirements.“Please stay six feet apart,” Miller beseeched churches. “Because that’s the only thing we can see that will flatten that curve. But what I’m seeing here now, that curve in Hillsborough County and in this state is not going to be flattening anytime soon.” AdvertisementAnd yet on April 3, Howard-Browne announced in an email to followers that he was suspending in-person services. “I am not doing this because I am backing down,” he wrote, “but we are going to protect our people from tyrannical government. We don’t feel that we can trust our law enforcement agency at this time and we do not want to jeopardize our pastors and expose our congregation to false arrests and the like.” In addition to livestreamed Sunday services, he explained, he would air daily live broadcasts via YouTube and Facebook. Even online, Howard-Browne is undermining the measures that epidemiologists say are essential for returning to normal life. In his April 6 , he expressed concern that there might be “daily testing” for the virus.“We’re not going to succumb to this nonsense, because behind that, they want to bring in the vaccines. The vaccine’s going to hurt more people than ever before,” Howard-Browne said. “The president has already talked about the medication that can help,” he added, a reference to hydroxychloroquine, an Trump has promoted aggressively. (In the comments, a viewer wrote, “the blood of JESUS is the vaccine.”) “'The vaccine’s going to hurt more people than ever before,' Pastor Rodney Howard-Browne warned his congregants.”Advertisement# AdvertisementAdvertisementSuggest a correction

×U.S. EditionPart of HuffPost News. ©2022 BuzzFeed, Inc. All rights reserved.×This story was reported in partnership with .AdvertisementAdvertisementAcross the country, most houses of worship have obeyed the bans on large gatherings in place in more than 35 states. That includes many powerful white evangelical churches that are staunch opponents of government intrusion.“Some are asking if these sorts of health mandates are a violation of religious liberty,” Russell Moore, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, on March 20. “The short answer...

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Sarah Posner

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Evangelical Pastors See Pandemic As A Political Opportunity

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