Evangelical pastor mocks ‘pansies,’ won’t close church for coronavirus

New York Post/March 17, 2020

By Lee Brown

An Evangelical pastor mocked the “pansies” who are scared of the coronavirus — as he insisted his packed church will only shut its doors “when the Rapture is taking place.”

“If you cannot be saved in church, you in serious trouble,” Pastor Rodney Howard-Browne told Florida’s River Tampa Bay Church, as he encouraged congregants to hug in defiance of health warnings.

“Listen, this has to be the safest place,” the leader of the Florida-based Revival Ministries International pronounced, as shown in a video he retweeted from the group Right Wing Watch.

“We are not stopping anything,” he said. “I’ve got news for you, this church will never close. The only time the church is closed is when the Rapture is taking place,” he said to laughter.

“This Bible school is open because we’re raising up revivalists, not pansies.”

In another video he posted Sunday, he said he was “excited” and “emotional” at the prospect that the pandemic could be “the end of days.”

“For me, it doesn’t matter … Jesus is coming really, really soon,” he said, saying he has for years “prepared our people for what’s coming.”

“If you don’t believe God, and trust God, you will not make it in the days coming,” he said, adding he would continue to “lay hands” on fellow believers.

“God will protect our people,” he said. “And if you die to be with Jesus, so what’s the problem?”