6 members of a JAX church died in 10 days

[JoanofArgh]

Last edited Sat Aug 7, 2021, 10:44 AM - Edit history (2)

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🚨In 10 days, 6 members of Impact Church in Jacksonville #Florida died from COVID. Four members who died were under the age of 35, all of them healthy, and the only thing they had in common was they were NOT VACCINATED, said the pastor. #SoulsLostToCovid news4jax.com/news/local/202…

He says 15 to 20 members are now in the hospital, another 10 or so are at home with the virus and three to five vaccinated members also tested positive.


The church held a vaccine event in March where he says 800 people were vaccinated.

With the surge in the greater Jacksonville community, and in his church, they’re now holding another event on Sunday. The event is open to the public.



This church tried to do the right thing and it still didn’t work. The pastors of this church are African-American so I’m not sure we should assume these are right wing evangelicals .

https://www.weareimpact.com/contentpages.aspx?p=c50c287c-e499-4c43-87aa-b4b18839ab26

[TheBlackAdder]

1. I doubt that will make an impact with the clergy at Impact Church.

.

The only thing they'll probably regret is the temporary drop in tithings.

.

[DBoon]

10. The church *did* hold a vaccination event

The deceased were apparently not participants.

[NurseJackie]

12. It's a "Mall Church" ... the moved in to a defunct mall-anchor retail space.

I've been watching that HBO series (dark-comedy) called the "Righteous Gemstones" ... and even though a lot of it seems to be ridiculous and over-the-top, I think it's probably a very realistic portrayal of what these grifting organizations are all about. Total fraud.

[jimfields33]

22. It's a predominantly African American church

I haven’t heard many fraud claims by African American churches. I’m surprised you seem to think it’s fraud.

[NurseJackie]

24. Okay.

[NurseJackie]

2. Pity. But on the bright side...

... they won't serve as incubators for mutations of new strains. Also, they won't be serving as vehicles to spread the virus to others. AND, they won't be around to poison the minds of others who are gullible enough to fall for all the anti-vax bullshit.

Their refusal to mask-up and get the vaccine was done willingly. Pity they had to use hospital resources that could have been used for UNWILLING victims of Covid.

[TheBlackAdder]

8. These modern deviant Christian churches are tribal and cultish, only concerning with their own.

.

Christ is now just a tool to fleece and control congregants.

.

[NurseJackie]

3. PS: Best username ever. I love it!

[malaise]

7. Saw it yesterday and did think

what a wicked username

[JoanofArgh]

9. Thanks! I couldn't stand my old name

and was so glad we were able to change them.

[malaise]

4. Well to be clinically cold

They felt the IMPACT of their own stupidity.

Dat is all

[Clash City Rocker]

5. The right thing would be not to meet indoors

Either meet outdoors in a park, or do the church service online only. My church has done both and it worked just fine.

[JoanofArgh]

11. Good point. With Florida raging with Delta ,

services should have been virtual.

[Celerity]

6. baby jeebus willed it so

[TheBlackAdder]

13. Brace for Impact

.



.

[live love laugh]

46. +1 .... Incoming! nt

[TheBlackAdder]

47. Closed door choir and congregant singing is akin to that church outbreak in Washington last year.

[Rustyeye77]

14. WOW

15-20 IN the hosp with covid
10 or so at home with covid
3-5 tested positive

And 6 DEAD

THATS quite a record

And all presumably not vaxxed.

[NightWatcher]

15. They are hosting another vaccine drive Sunday at the church during church and the Pastor

says this is beyond politics, religion, and divisiveness. More and more are starting to get the message.

[Tanuki]

32. Did you even read the linked article?

https://www.news4jax.com/news/local/2021/08/06/in-10-days-6-members-of-jacksonville-church-die-from-covid-19-pastor-says/?outputType=amp&__twitter_impression=true

..."During church services, Davis said the church requires masks, the auditorium is thoroughly cleaned in between services, it practices social distancing and offers hand sanitizer.

Davis said Friday he’s certain after speaking with the families of those members they contracted it from somewhere outside of the church.

Even though the church follows CDC guidance, Davis is pushing to get more people vaccinated.

The church held a vaccine event in March where he says 800 people were vaccinated.

With the surge in the greater Jacksonville community, and in his church, they’re now holding another event on Sunday. The event is open to the public.

“All I know is my heart’s passion is to help the people that I’m called to serve and do whatever I can to help see to it that they are in a healthier place,” Davis said.

Davis encourages everyone to get informed and get vaccinated. The free vaccine event is Sunday at the church from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. The church is working with UF Health and offering the Pzifer vaccine."...(more)

[Hekate]

17. DEAR DUers--PLEASE READ THE ENTIRE OP. THE CHURCH DID THE RIGHT THING ALL ALONG, OK?

Can we please be better than this?


In 10 days, 6 members of Impact Church in Jacksonville #Florida died from COVID. Four members who died were under the age of 35, all of them healthy, and the only thing they had in common was they were NOT VACCINATED, said the pastor.

The church held a vaccine event in March where he says 800 people were vaccinated.

With the surge in the greater Jacksonville community, and in his church, they’re now holding another event on Sunday. The event is open to the public.

[GPV]

19. But piling on in self-righteous indignation feels so much better

[JoanofArgh]

20. Thanks. I just googled Impact church and this is a Black church.

https://www.weareimpact.com/contentpages.aspx?p=c50c287c-e499-4c43-87aa-b4b18839ab26

Or the pastors are Black anyway.

[Hekate]

25. I have a friend who lives in JAX, & during the past year I sent her some links to DU articles. ...

I won’t be doing so again — I’d be ashamed if she saw crap like the responses to your OP.

[ramen]

30. Thank you!

Lumping a church who held mass vaccination events six months ago in with grifting megachurches is utterly bonkers.

[hay rick]

31. Lots of disappointing responses in this thread.

[smirkymonkey]

18. What a creepy looking "church". Looks like it should be the entrance to the workplace of a

Biotech startup or something.

[Thomas Hurt]

21. the new christofascist churches are entrepeneurial going concerns.

Mall space, hawking christian merch in foyer, conning it members into giving bequests to the church when the die.

Revival tent Bible thumping gone big box retail.

[jimfields33]

23. It is an African American church

I’m thinking the six who passed away could have been Biden voters. This church participated in Souls to the Polls during the voting period. Just saying.

[NurseJackie]

26. Stupid is still stupid. Passing the virus in the community is still stupid. Allowing one's self...

... to willingly be a human incubator for mutations and new strains is stupid. Who they may or may not have voted for is irrelevant, isn't it? That certainly doesn't protect the innocent and unwilling that they probably TRANSMITTED their strain of Covid to, does it?

You know... just saying.

[jimfields33]

27. I get it. You are right.

I just think African Americans are a bit more skeptical about liquids going into their bodies. It’s not like the government hasn’t screwed them in the past. Just saying.

[JCMach1]

48. There is a lot of vaccine resistance in African American and African diaspora

Communities ...

People that knew better, I had to testify about my personal horror with the illness to help get them vaccinated this summer ...

Unfortunately, motivation, suspicion, and disinformation work hand in hand

[NurseJackie]

52. Thank you...

I had to testify about my personal horror with the illness to help get them vaccinated

Thank you. I hope your experience/s were enlightening and that they made a difference to someone.

[JCMach1]

60. It helped they were family aquaintances, trust is a huge, huge part of it

So yeah, anti-vaxxers and Trumpers make a lot of noise, bit just plain every day resistance can be overcome and that group is larger than the first two.

[lark]

28. Wow, I go past there every time I go to the vet.

It's really spiking here, really really bad. All the hospitals are full, one is frantically enlarging their Covid unit and the others just say they are at capacity and don't come to ER unless it's a heart attack, stroke or head trauma. The head of Baptist made that announcement and Mayo said they are at 125% of capacity and quit reporting the next day and still won't say what's going on. There are major spikes with cases in both my sisters and husbands jobs, some of the folks out because their children are sick with Covid.

So glad my hesitating son finally got his second shot on Thurs. He's not feeling well and had to miss the last 2 days of work, but better that than having Covid!

[IronLionZion]

29. COVID is the rapture

It's great that the church held a vaccination event but the dead folks chose not to get vaccinated. Vaccines are widely available in Florida at grocery and drug stores too.

[LisaL]

33. I am surprised DeSantis haven't banned vaccines yet.

Considering he is trying to ban all other preventative measures.
Ban the vaccines, kill even more people.

[IronLionZion]

36. He's vaccinated and publicly encouraged people to choose to get vaccinated

he's against masks or vaccine mandates or any proof of vaccination. It's pretty dumb.

[LisaL]

38. He is objecting to vaccine mandates for hospital staff.

"Now, the governor says he also doesn’t support hospitals requiring their staff members to get vaccinated."

https://www.news4jax.com/news/florida/2021/08/05/gov-desantis-objects-to-vaccine-mandates-at-hospitals/

[Tiger8]

37. Wouldn't lose supporters

There's honestly nothing Trump or DeSantis could do to turn away supporters.

[LisaL]

39. I beg to differ.

Some of his un-vaxxed, un-masked, Trump loving supporters are going to get infected and die.

[IronLionZion]

44. He might lose supporters in more than one way nt

[BobTheSubgenius]

34. I thought "Impact" was a terrible name for a churcn - very commercial-sounding.

But I decided it was more along the lines of grimly accurate. I'm sure CHILDREN go to that church; what the hell were those roughly 50 (and quite possibly more) have been thinking??? Not to mention the pastor(s) and....elders(?) if they have those at that church?

It wouldn't even have to be an edict. Frame it as a moral obligation, and it would reach at least some of them, I'd think. Or possibly that was tried and it still had no effect on the antis.

[RockRaven]

35. What is this nonsense about the church doing everything right? Being pro-vaxx isn't the sole

criteria of judging right-ness.

They are still having three in-person services every Sunday (8AM, 10AM, 12PM) according to their website. That is NOT the right thing to do vis-a-vis COVID -- but it is the right thing to do vis-a-vis revenue.

[LisaL]

41. Pastor thinks they got masks and socially distance, so it's all good.

He is also convinced the infected got it somewhere else and not in the church.
I am far from convinced of that.
There are a lot of people infected belonging to the same church. Did they all attend these services recently?

[haele]

43. Their constituency may not have internet access except via cell phones

If it's a mall church for Blacks in Jacksonville, the parishioners are probably not very well off and the church itself may not have access to the infrastructure that would allow for remote services.
Whenever the Navy sent me there, I noticed it was a very segregated city. Just my observation.

Haele

[LisaL]

45. Sounds like they got massive infection rates going among the members.

Continuing with in person services doesn't seem like a good idea to me, but what do I know?

[live love laugh]

40. They were liberal posers trying to scare the rest of them.

[BannonsLiver]

42. Doing the right thing would have been to halt in person services.

[twodogsbarking]

49. Sorry to hear more have died. Stay safe.

[FakeNoose]

50. It sounds like this pastor is doing the right thing

He's trying to raise the consciousness of the parish members. It's tough to overcome the brainwashing of the entire community AND the media, but they successfully vaccinated 800 people back in March. Now that the church members have seen people they know die from Covid, maybe it's hitting home. Maybe they can understand that vaccinations are a GOOD thing for everyone.

It's a difficult message for African-Americans because they tend to be distrustful of government programs, even when the ones for their own benefit.

[scipan]

53. A reminder that not all unvaccinated are Trumpers.

Please get vaxxed people. This time, you can trust the government.

[Straw Man]

54. That's a church? It looks like a J.C. Penney's.

Shouldn't they be having a back-to-school sale pretty soon?

[Demovictory9]

55. " This church tried to do the right thing and it still didn't work" - more would have died without

their efforts

[JoanofArgh]

56. I meant for all of them. 800 people have been vaccinated so far and that's a BIG accomplishment

in JAX.

[crickets]

57. 👆 This. They are caught in an area where the pandemic is raging.

It sounds like they are trying to do the best they can. Good on them for setting up a second vaccination event, and here's hoping they reach another 800 or more with shots.

[Skittles]

58. I wonder how many people they passed it on to

ugh

[Progressive Jones]

59. Well, it must have been "Gawds Will". nt