COVID death threats
I read in the Bangor Daily News today that Pastor Todd Bell’s lawyers claim there have been death threats against him. That is outrageous, and unacceptable. There is never any place for death threats. It must stop.
https://bangordailynews.com/2020/09/09/news/york/sanford-pastor-connected-to-coronavirus-outbreak-getting-death-threats-lawyers-say/?fbclid=IwAR1vnhdAZMxWpTDn0d1J1JubSzcUqD0c9zQ4bwvRYMZBZw-jzxgguKSQnyM
However, COVID 19 threatens death to vulnerable people every day. Even otherwise healthy young people have died of COVID 19. It is very contagious, and it can be deadly. That is exactly the reason that most of us have altered our lives so much over the past 6 months. We can’t hire lawyers to protect our lives from COVID. We just have to follow some pretty simple life saving rules.
I remember the first rumblings about COVID. I went to Sam’s Club and a woman ahead of me was scrubbing off the handle to the shopping cart. I use to walk by those wipes in stores, and just cleaned my hands when I got home. That day was different. I felt a startling shift in the need to do such things, religiously. I told that lady, “that is a great idea” and I scrubbed the shopping cart handle. AND I washed my hands when I got home.
It wasn’t long after my Sam’s club visit, that all hell broke loose. The cases went from 1 case and Trump saying it was a hoax, to now about 6,000,000 cases and 200,000 deaths. We had blissful days in Maine while Seattle was exploding with COVID. Maine didn’t see any cases for quite a while. But, we knew it was coming….
Then we got our first case, and our second. etc. Then we had our first death and our second, etc. But, all things considered, Maine has done very well to stem the spread of COVID. That was until a Pastor Todd Bell joined with other science deniers and rule breakers to officiate a wedding in Millinocket, Maine, my home town. That was the start of the largest COVID 19 outbreak in Maine, and it keeps growing.
Less than a week after the August 7 wedding I started hearing some things about an outbreak up home. We are one month and 2 days out from that wedding, and now about 160 people, possibly more have been affected. 3 people have died, none of them attended the wedding. They were secondary or tertiary contacts. Others have been hospitalized. And fortunately many have managed their illness at home. This story has not ended.
Unless Todd Bell has been living under a rock, (and we KNOW he hasn’t because he thrives on attention) , he has seen, heard and read about the havoc that wedding caused in our State. He has been educated and warned by State officials about what is expected of Churches AND schools in this state, under executive orders from our Governor. The rules are for ALL churches and his isn’t excluded. Those orders are to protect each and every Mainer, including Pastor Bell and his flock. Yet, he defiantly holds church services, without masks or distancing. He did this knowing that his own personal church outbreak had doubled last week from 5 to 10 victims. His choir, crowded in the front of the church without masks, sings hymns. Singing is known to spread COVID droplets efficiently, especially when no masks are worn.
What will it take to bring this pastor into compliance? Will it take a death in his own Church? Will they have to cough, and choke and collapse right in front of him? Will he go to them to help or will he stand back because he knows they have COVID? Will he pray over them? I don’t know that he has prayed for the others who have died, or their survivors, or all of the other people he has left in his path.
He has publicly scoffed at the executive orders of the State of Maine. He has laughed at all of us.
Pastor Todd Bell’s actions threaten the lives of his flock. So, could his actions be considered a “death threat”? Members of his flock leave that church and go back into the community to their homes, jobs, stores, and other public places. My guess is that most of them don’t wear masks. That is a clear display of their selfishness and disregard for others and preventative rules. They have likely learned well from their science defying pastor.
Should they be allowed to continue this defiance and spread of disease? I don’t think so. I think they have been handled with diplomacy, education, warnings, and fairness long enough. I think they have wreaked enough havoc on our State. I think it is time to shut them down.
But, certainly not with death threats.
