Oregon church won't close after COVID-19 outbreak infected 74 members, pastor says

As Pfizer asks for full approval of its vaccine, the race to vaccination moves ahead as states finalize reopening plans.outbreak infected him, his wife and 72 members of their congregation, the senior pastor of an Oregon church said Sunday that he will not kowtow to pressure to close the doors to the house of worship.

“In the last several days, it is apparent that voices in our community and region want the church of Jesus Christ to be quiet and to be closed," Erickson told those in attendance at the church and others watching a livestream online broadcast. “Not us, not here, not now. That’s not what we’re doing."

Erickson, 70, who has been pastor of Peoples Church for 21 years, said his decision to keep the church open was, in his opinion, not an act of defiance."We'll press on and honor what Jesus said in his word. He said, ‘I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.’ I believe his word is true," Erickson said.

Just don’t go to that church anymore

Darwin got this. Healthcare should be rescinded for those folks. This is a choice now.

Good go meet your maker. Thin the herd

Praying is the strongest healing of any diseases. ...bt this is 21 century n changing the time wth every activities of ours. ..so respect the present time ....that dnt mean their pray is weak. ....pastors needed to understand it.

Someone in that congregation should sue his ass

They keep playin, and a lot of their members are gonna be seein god a lot earlier than expected

next Sunday they can pray for the sick & collect from 74 less givers

He’s on a pulpit far away from everyone. And let’s forget the money he would lose. Come on. This has nothing to do with covid. This is greed

Natural selection?

THERE IS NO CURE FOR STUPID

I hope they meet daily, hold hands in a circle and yell and sing at each other in a closed in tiny space.

But what about, “Thou Shalt Not Kill”.

Brings meaning to the saying 'Bringing you closer to God'

I don't get it God gave us common sense and he also gave us choices use your brain it's not hard

🔥🔥👇🐍🔥🔥👇🔥🔥 SATAN SPEAKS THERE.... GO LISTEN🐍

Darwinism.

That's fine as long as these people understand that they should also refuse help if needed when infected by the virus. It's not morally fair to put others in harms way due to their stupidity.

I guess they want to see heaven sooner than they should! Craziness!!

Simple enough... Plague positive and pastor needs the tithing. Myself, and I admit to be two standard deviations from the mean, I watch the pope on tv, in my underwear drinking coffee.

Until the tithing permanently stops

The problem for the rest of us is when all these 'Christians' start dropping like flys they are going to say it's an orchestrated genocide against them. Then their transformation to the dark side will be complete.

But they “owned the libs”, right?

Well then maybe it's time for the rapture.

We have stayed at work for you, please stay at home for us. Read more at

Sad, don’t they have a zoom account for meetings? If not they aren’t wise.

Lock him up.

The way you give your face to someone, the same way he/she will slash you.

Church is the last place you’ll find God.

What damn fools😡

Mmmm. Kool-Aid. 🤦

Let them pray away their illness and prohibit them from seeking medical care.

This pastor doesn't care about the health and well-being of his parishioners. He only cares about the money plate.

People should be allowed to sue.

GOD gave man hands he expects you to use them. GOD gave man feet he expects you to use them. GOD gave man a brain he expects you to use it. GOD expect these pastors to use that DAM brain for something.

Any situation where a bunch of religious folks stupidly let themselves get sick and die is fine by me. Did these people ever think that maybe god gave them masks and vaccines and social distancing to test their faith in their fellow man? Anti-Science nitwits don't impress me.

انقذوا_حي_الشيخ_جراح savesheikhjarrah ŞeyhJarrahmahallesinkurtarın SalvailquartierediSheikhJarrah RettedasViertelSheikhJarrah sauvezlequartierdesheikhjarrah لم_يمر_الاقتحام ولن يمر بإذن الله

OMG! A COVID19 OUTBREAK INFECTED 74 PEOPLE WITH THIS:

Insanity. Religious wackos!!

COVID19 fakepandemic FakeNews

Churches and church-goers are not the problem. Focus on where the real problems are, please!

They believe in a zombie jesus, coming back from the dead but Covid is fake?

Well there’s God for you. Come gather and be infected, they need the weekly donations!!

Aka 'Our profit is more important than these people's lives.'

Let’s see how the congregation shrinks. How foolish!

Church Pastor further stated that even if Covid, “kills all of us, we would not allow the disease to dictate our lives.” A funeral home is now being built in back of Church.

Lord, please protect me from your followers!

They collect too much money to close just like that. The pastor needs a new car.

Everyone is just blaming the pastor. What about the ignorant, irresponsible jackasses that are willingly walking into hell?!

They should not receive medical treatment.

Is anyone forced to attend?

Their god wants them to die obviously.

Wow....God helps those who helps themselves...and if you don’t care, hope you are prepared to meet your maker. Please don’t travel out of your state, as you or your parishioners are not welcome in mine...I’d like to live longer, thank you!

Let me think about this. Which is better closing for a few weeks or forevere when you no longer have any atendees?

Well he won’t be able to say anything when he’s the next casualty. 🤷🏾‍♂️🤷🏾‍♂️

Then those members should go home, no medical services and good luck. If you're so arrogantly idiotic to not get vaccinated then you're old enough to deal with consequences. These are adults who know better. They infect themselves, so be it. They infect others? JAIL COVIDIOTS

'That's not what we're doing' because we're all in the hospital on incubators along with all of the friends and family we infected.

Church needs their money. It’s worth risking lives for those tithes. Pastor needs a new Cadillac.

Of course it won’t 😡

WOW Stupid at it's best!

Challenge Accepted ☠️👹👿🤪

So money is all that matters

That's fine. Get all the parishioners in there, park a food truck outside the door, lock the gates around the place, and keep 'em all in there until 14 days after the last of those still alive has no symptoms.

hmmm, 'that's not what we're doing'..? 🤔

Cults should not be given tax exempt status. This “church” is a cult.

Thoughts and prayers

Hey. It's God's will.

When will churches start being taxed? All these so called religious institutions need to pay their share if they want to exist.

Then they get sick and potentially die.

America has become a mentally ill nation. There really isn't too much right about us anymore.

Terrible witness

I guess the church stands to profit from the funerals

Currently there are 329 Oregonians hospitalized with Covid-19. 84 of them are in intensive care beds. We should all be doing everything we can to beat this virus. The virus has no religious or political affiliation. It’s a virus🙄

Ok. People can choose not to go to church until everyone is healthy or can go and risk getting sick. And for those that are sick stay home. Pretty simple stuff.

That's mighty Christian of them. Guess they forgot the church is the people, not a building.

How Darwinian.

Go ahead drink the kool aid.

Their bible says 'Be fruitful and spread disease.'

...people are wicked

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Let the radical racist righties purge themselves, every single one refusing vaccines & masks is one less trumpanzee on our planet, they deserve what is delivered to them

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