Michigan Pastor Tells Church Members to Get COVID and “Get It Over With”

Over 277,000 people have died of COVID so far. The virus has forced us indoors into relative isolation.

But Pastor Bart Spencer of Lighthouse Baptist Church in Holland, Michigan has some advice for everyone taking precautions during the pandemic: Get it and “get it over with.”

He made the remarks last month in a now-deleted sermon:

… [cough] Excuse me. COVID. [cough] It’s all good. Several people have had COVID. None have died yet. It’s okay. Get it. Get it over with. Press on.

It’s not all good. Hundreds of thousands of people have died from the virus. It’s not okay. Millions of Americans can’t “get over it” no matter how badly we want to. We can’t press on precisely because many Americans refuse to take the pandemic seriously.

The Holland Sentinel was the first to report on the video, which was posted on Facebook by a former member of the church who was disturbed by what Spencer was saying:

Spencer told The Sentinel he and several in his family, including elderly family members, have had the virus and gotten over it.

“It’s not fun, I lost my sense of taste and smell, but my bout with the flu was worse,” he said.

He said his church has been holding services in person after congregants asked to resume services in the spring. Some wear masks and practice social distancing, while others don’t.

“We trust our people to make their own decisions,” Spencer said. “We respect one another’s positions.”

It is the height of selfishness for someone to imply that he survived the virus, so everyone else should be able to as well, and there’s no reason for anyone to follow the best advice of epidemiologists. Spencer is lucky to have had a mild case, but the virus has killed or harmed many people who are elderly along with those who seem otherwise perfectly healthy. Just because the survival rate seems high doesn’t mean the death rate should be ignored.

How many people have to die before Spencer starts caring about them? Do COVID-deniers have to experience personal losses before that happens?

Needless to say, this sort of “encouragement” is not only irresponsible, but also arguably anti-Christian and the opposite of “pro-life.”