Popular Virginia Bishop, Gerald Glenn, who had defied the lockdown order and vowed to continue preaching except he was thrown into prison or bedridden in hospital had died of COVID-19.
It would be recalled that the Bishop had showed off his jam-packed congregation on March 22 at his New Deliverance Evangelistic Church in Richmond, Virginia telling followers to stand up and prove their numbers despite social distancing guidelines and warnings against large gatherings in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.
The service was in clear violation of the policy introduced by the authorities in Virginia which proscribed a gathering of more than 10 people.
On April 3, his daughter, Mar-Gerie Crawley, explained in a live Facebook video that her father had been hospitalised and in “pretty serious condition.” She said the next day that her father and mother had tested positive to the deadly virus.
The Bishop, who was fond of referring to himself as an essential service preacher, died a week later.
Several religious institutions around the world have been defying coronavirus protocols and becoming the virus’ ‘super-spreaders.’
Recently, a 61-year old woman in South Korea, who had been positive for coronavirus, attended a church service leading to a dramatic increase in the country’s coronavirus cases.
In India as well, an event organised by the Tablighi Jamaat in Delhi became a coronavirus cluster and infected hundreds of people.
In Nigeria, the founder of Winners Chapel, one of the biggest of the country’s many megachurches and capable of holding up to 250,000 people, had recently defied government advice by running services on its sprawling campus in Ota, Ogun State before a lockdown was ordered on the city on March 30.
That is how he brought his ministry to an end…Maybe their Bible doesn’t have Isaiah 26:20 in it.