Letters to the Editor: My fellow evangelicals, we don’t have to risk death by COVID-19 to follow God

To the editor: Please don’t paint all evangelical Christians with a broad brush. I realize that incendiary statements like “I don’t believe in COVID, and God will never allow me to contract it” sell papers and make for “fun” reading, but not all believers are so one-dimensional. (“In California’s ‘Bible Belt,’ churches find ways around state’s coronavirus lockdown orders,” Aug. 1)

I also believe that “I am covered by the blood,” but I don’t believe that gives me the right or mandate to ignore COVID-19.

I am social distancing, wearing a mask and have not yet been back to our church. And, our church is having services outside on the lawn, with a scaled-down worship team, no singing, mask wearing, distancing of six feet and screening as the people arrive. I am part of the worship team and miss singing like crazy.

I have tested negative because of my precautions, but I don’t relish having to struggle for breath or putting my beloved fellow church members at risk. My God is bigger than in-person worship.

Ritajean Strauss, San Diego

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To the editor: Possibly the most important yet crumbling foundation of our Constitution is the separation of church and state.

Please, do come to worship in your church, maskless, with all the fervor and fellowship you require. Then stay there, to shield the innocents of the state from the virus you’ve acquired. Some of you will survive the illness, some will not.

Jesus demands that you love your neighbor, and spreading the coronavirus among them will kill.

Secular America: Speak up.

Greg Hilfman, Topanga

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To the editor: The high-risk behavior of some Southern California “Bible belt” churches reminds me of the old Presbyterian joke about young people who sow their wild oats on Saturday night and then go to church Sunday and pray for crop failure.

Cynthia Hart, Culver City