An Idaho Church Held an In-Person, Indoor, Maskless Service for 1,000 People

On Sunday morning, Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho decided to hold a joint service — one large service instead of several smaller ones — leading to more than 1,000 people in a single gymnasium.

No face masks. And based on the pictures, virtually no social distancing.

Pastor Doug Wilson, whose list of Christian hits includes saying same-sex marriage is worse than slavery and that Christian women are “a lot prettier” than unbelieving “lumberjack dykes,” is the guy running the show here.

As you might expect, he didn’t seem to care about putting everyone in harm’s way.

“We wouldn’t be there if we didn’t think it was safe,” Wilson said.

…

“Our church is growing and we’re looking at the prospect of planting churches,” Wilson said. “And we wanted to remain unified as we did so, and a periodic joint meeting is a good way to keep the unity.”

He doesn’t seem to realize a periodic joint meeting in the midst of a pandemic may, in fact, decrease the size of your church. Over time, anyway. Especially when all safety precautions go out the window.

It’s telling that video of the service itself is nowhere to be found on the church’s social media sites. They want to spread the gospel… but even they seem to get that this service was not a good look for them.

Wilson even admitted they didn’t care about precautions:

“The one thing we did not do is ask everybody to wear masks,” Wilson said.

Right. Because who needs face masks? (Satan, that’s who.)

By one count, Sunday’s event may have been the largest public gathering in Moscow since the pandemic began. Even athletic competitions have, at most, had hundreds of people in attendance, presumably spread out and wearing masks.

In their eagerness to go to church in person, how many people caught the virus, went home, and spread it to their loved ones? How many of them will be testing positive for COVID-19? We may know in a week or two.

This is religious delusion run amok. These people aren’t just putting themselves in danger; they’re a threat to their families and their communities. By rejecting science and perhaps believing that God would never allow the virus to spread during a church gathering, these people are the reason the pandemic in the U.S. is only getting worse.