Pastor who said God will protect followers from coronavirus sees over 30 of his flock test positive

In the wake of multi-day bible conference held by Andrew Wommack Ministries that included over 1,000 attendees from earlier this month, the Colorado Department of Public Health has traced a coronavirus outbreak back to the event after 34 staff members tested positive for the virus.

Reports say Wommack’s Summer Family Bible Conference has had 15 employees and staff members test positive, along with another 15 conference attendees and four others.

In the midst of the conference, which started June 29 and ended July 3, Colorado Attorney Generals Office sent a cease and desist letter on July 2 to ministry officials informing them that they were violating state health orders.

“We want to protect everyone from getting sick, but this is a violation of our constitutional right to peaceably assemble. We feel like we have already gone to great lengths to do what we can do to comply, short of telling people they can’t attend,” Andrew Wommack said in a statement, according to Newsweek.

Wommack was represented by the evangelical law firm Liberty Counsel, which claimed he was being targeted by a “liberal state government.” Additionally, Liberty Counsel’s founder and chairman, Mathew Staver, denied that the outbreak was tied to the event.

“The conference staff went above and beyond any grocery store or commercial operation to protect the health and safety of the attendees. Commissioner Dettenrider is well aware that a surge in COIVD occurred prior to the conference. He also knows that 20,000 to 50,000 people visit the country every weekend,” Staver told Newsweek. “Such irresponsible finger-pointing also ignores the fact that COVID has increased across the state, and that Gov. [Jared] Polis continues to support mass crowds of protestors, most with no masks and none with social distancing.”

In April, Wommack declared that faithful Christians would be protected from the virus by God turning off their virus “receptors.”

“…we were promised that no sickness would even come nigh our dwelling,” Wommack said in a clip flagged by the Friendly Atheist. “And Daniel, something I’ve been studying just in the last couple of days, based on all of this, was Exodus 23:25, and that verse says that you shall serve the Lord, your God, and He shall take … all sickness away from the midst of thee.”

“He will turn off sickness,” he added. “And it was put in there twice, just to emphasize that, you know, whatever receptors you have in your body that make you receptive to sickness, He’ll turn it off.”

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Sky Palma

Before launching DeadState back in 2012, Sky Palma has been blogging about politics, social issues and religion for over a decade. He lives in Los Angeles and also enjoys Brazilian jiu jitsu, chess, music and art.