12/11/2023 0 Comments Pastor john hageeWhen you hear about the president getting it and Hagee getting it, I’m not sure.” “Our numbers look good now, but we’ve been here before. “We’re doing tracking and contact tracing, but it’s awful hard to know where someone got it,” Judge Wolff added. But local authorities have no ability to enforce mask-wearing, distancing, or capacities at churches. In fact, it is almost certain to rapidly spread the virus to the congregants, their families, and the wider community.”Īny other organization or business that violates rules in the area might be subject to monetary fines and other citations. This is a superspreader event waiting to happen. “The fact that people are singing and shouting amplifies the risk more. “I can't think of a higher risk setting than being indoors, crowded together, and without masks,” said Lawrence Gostin, director of the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University. “Churches are off limits.”Īs superspreading events at churches in Arkansas, Illinois, and Maine have shown in recent months, churches are not somehow immune to spreading the virus to hundreds-and even killing people who didn’t attend services. “We encourage them and give them health advisories, but of course they don’t have to follow it,” he told The Daily Beast. Wolff said that, after a lengthy back and forth with Abbott over local mandates, public health authorities and judges’ hands were tied when it came to churches. Greg Abbott announced that local health agencies lacked the authority to close classrooms. In July, Hagee and his ministry-along with four parents of Cornerstone Christian Schools-actually sued San Antonio and Bexar County officials, including Wolff, in an attempt to force schools to begin in-person instruction before Labor Day.Īccording to the Express-News, the suit argued that the order to postpone in-person classes “unconstitutionally infringes on the religious freedoms of private religious schools.” The issue was resolved when Gov. Hagee has also called the Roman Catholic Church a “false cult system.” Hagee, who took a meeting with Vice President Pence at the White House in 2017 and reportedly met with the president while he was visiting the Oval Office, notoriously called marriage equality “two disturbed people playing house” and referred to Hurricane Katrina in 2005 as “the judgment of God against the city of New Orleans” because the city’s “level of sin” was “offensive to God.” The megachurch has more than 22,000 members, according to The San Antonio Express-News. ![]() Requests for comment from The Daily Beast were not returned by Cornerstone Church officials on Monday. ![]() “We have several large churches here in town, but I think most of the pastors are being very careful,” said Wolff, calling it “unfortunate” that Cornerstone’s services appear to show very few people following recommended protocols. In some cases, Abbott has been accused of actively working against local politicians to prevent what several cities have said are necessary safeguards.īexar County Judge Nelson Wolff told The Daily Beast on Monday that he felt the exception for houses of worship in Texas was “a big mistake” and “just not smart,” especially when facilities like Cornerstone Church are gathering hundreds of people without masks in close proximity. Greg Abbott, who has repeatedly come under fire for being slow to embrace coronavirus restrictions. The current restrictions for San Antonio’s Bexar County require anyone over the age of 10 to wear a mask inside any commercial entity or business “wherever it is not feasible to maintain six feet of social distancing.” Even outdoor gatherings above 10 people are prohibited.īoth rules exclude churches, thanks to an order from Gov. 13 in which he urged congregants to vote with the Bible in mind.īut Hagee is perhaps best known outside of Evangelical circles for his long history of outlandish statements, and, more recently, coronavirus shutdown skepticism. It was not clear on Monday when the senior pastor was last spotted at the church himself, though he has given sermons in recent weeks, including one on Sept. Hagee’s diagnosis made waves locally, with many San Antonio residents commenting on social media that they were-at the very least-unsurprised by the news, considering how few masks have been seen at the church. “As it is a reality in our lives, we also have a promise that we serve a God who is a healer,” Hagee added, addressing the massive crowd.
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