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| Pastor Michael Jacobsen. |
Loving thy neighbour as thyself, which according to Matthew 22:37-40 is second only in importance to loving God, doesn't seem to extend to protecting thy neighbour against deadly viruses, if Pastor Michael Jacobsen, leader of Palermo Bible Family Church in Butte County, California is anything to go by, according to this report in Sacramento Bee.
According to Ryan Sabalow and Tony Bizjak:
Last month, a Butte County church defied Gov. Gavin Newsom’s statewide order and opened its doors for services, despite warnings that people without symptoms could unwittingly spread the disease to others in crowded spaces.
Health officials discovered one of the parishioners had tested positive for COVID-19, potentially exposing more than 160 people at the church. They dispatched a team to track and contain the disease.
They didn’t get far. The county’s efforts were stymied almost immediately because the church and most of its members refused to share information with health officials, a Sacramento Bee review of county emails and interviews with officials show.
As a result, the six health workers assigned to the “contact tracing” investigation were only able to speak to 25 of the 163 parishioners who attended and the church — just 15 percent who were at the Mother’s Day service.
The county’s health director said her staff has no idea how many of the parishioners and their close contacts got tested. It’s not clear how many quarantined themselves.
Pastor Jacobsen was unapologetic, comparing himself to Jesus, he tried to justify his reckless endangerment of his his entire congregation with:
May I just say to all of our church, you don’t need to defend us. When Jesus went before Pilate, he didn’t defend himself. So I don’t feel the need. I don’t feel the like the decision we made was irresponsible.
If you can bear to listen to it, his long-winded whining self-justification can be see on his Facebook page. (Fast forward to about 6:30).
Butte health director, Danette York said the reluctance of the congregation to cooperate was probably because they knew they and Pastor Jacobsen were breaking the law and felt protective towards one another and Jacobsen. In other words, Jacobsen encouraged his congregation to be criminally irresponsible then hid behind their collective embarrassment.
Earlier, the Sacramento Bee had carried a news item about the Bethany Slavic Missionary Church near Rancho Cordova which has become a major epicentre of Covid-19 infections after 71 people were infected following a lockdown busting service. As with Jacobsen's Palermo Bible Family Church congregation, the efforts of health officials to trace contacts is being similarly resisted.
Religions, with their arrogant assumptions of privilege and delusions of magic protections from Covid-19 are now becoming a serious, clear and present danger to humanity. Tweet
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