How Local Hospitals and Churches Have Been Handling the Pandemic Wrong
Churches around the country have been coordinating events where they ask as many people as possible to show up at hospital parking lots to pray for the hospital staff and patients. It has been happening locally in spite of Governor Holcomb’s repeated stay-at-home order. Responsible hospitals have been asking them to stay away and pray from home because filling up the parking lots with people singing and praying is endangering the patients and staff who work there and creates crowd issues that the hospital security have to deal with. It also takes up critical parking space for patients and sometimes blocks emergency vehicles from accessing hospitals. It's an all-round bad idea; it serves no actual purpose because prayers said from home are just as effective as prayers yelled from the top of one’s car in a crowded parking lot.
OFFICIAL STATEMENT FROM NIA
The "Pack the Lot" initiative that our Christian community members are participating in at local hospitals is using the same lots that patients use to access hospital services. Packing them to pray not only harms patients, it also endangers doctors, nurses, aides, and all other heath-care workers. Northern Indiana Atheists trusts scientists, who are suggesting that six feet isn't enough for social distancing. Singing and talking spreads saliva droplets that can travel as far as 27 feet. NIA suggests that community members who want to pray for hospital staff follow the governor's stay-at-home order and do it from there.
GOSHEN HEALTH
GOSHEN, Indiana — On Thursday, April 2, a local prayer group hosted a “Pack the Lot” event where they planned to pack the Goshen Hospital Parking lot with cars to pray for the staff and patients. Packing the parking lot that patients have to use to access hospital services sounds like a bad idea to a reasonable person. They said they would practice safe social distancing and stay in their cars before the event, and after the event they were proud of themselves for doing just that. What they didn’t count on was Goshen Hospital staff reporting to us that they were out of their cars, and the pictures we have were supplied by local photographers.
When we heard the prayer group planned to congregate at Goshen Health, we reached out to administration to let them know what was planned and the potential dangers of such an event. We also posted our official statement on their Facebook page.
The event took place, and it was everything we had warned the hospital about. People out of their cars, congregating, not wearing masks, taking up spaces, creating a gauntlet of potential virus-laden air that patients had to navigate through to access hospital services. The opposite of what we should be striving for.
Then an interesting thing happened. After the “Pack the Lot” event, we posted the pictures above that show people congregating out of their cars, not wearing masks, in the hospital parking lot, and Goshen Health deleted its Facebook post where it promoted the event. It later posted the image below of nurses holding signs that say “WE STAY WORKING FOR YOU, YOU STAY HOME FOR US.”
MEMORIAL HOSPITAL OF SOUTH BEND
SOUTH BEND, Indiana — On Monday, April 6, the Covid prayers descended onto the lot at Memorial Hospital. We notified hospital staff, shared our official statement, and sent them the photos from the Goshen event to show them what they could expect.
It was more of the same. People were out of their cars, not wearing masks, shouting at people, and potentially spreading the virus.
CAMERON MEMORIAL COMMUNITY HOSPITAL
ANGOLA, Indiana — An NIA member in Angola tipped us off to this event that took place on Thursday, April 9. They sent us screenshots and a concert poster. In this case, the group not only intended to fill the parking lot, they were going to perform a concert.
We notified hospital staff and posted the NIA official statement on their Facebook page. They strongly defended their festival with the post below.
We reminded them that it was their parking lot, and they were responsible for activities that took place there. We also shared the information from the police department and hospital who were doing the responsible thing and asking people to stay home. We also shared pictures of the Goshen event where they said they would stay in their cars, social distance, and wear masks. None of that happened. If they truly wanted people to stay as safe as possible, they should have asked everyone to pray from home and stay away from the hospital.
Underneath their video post from Governor Holcolm instructing everyone to stay at home, they again defended their decision to host the Covid-19 festival.
So the festival happened, complete with 12 people in a huddle around the band, not practicing social distancing, and not wearing masks. Festival attendees were out of their cars, not wearing masks, and cheering on the band.
KINGDOM IMPACT CHRISTIAN CHURCH
ELKHART, Indiana — Kingdom Impact has been congregating every Sunday with a full church since the stay-at-home orders have been in effect. NIA has notified the Elkhart County Health Department, the Elkhart City Police Department, the Elkhart County Sheriff’s Department, the Indiana State Health Department, the Indiana State Police Department, and Elkhart City Mayor Rod Roberson.
A member drove through the parking lot on Sunday, April 5, and captured video of over 30 empty parked cars.
That evening, another member of NIA received an ominous direct message from the Facebook account of Kingdom Impact Christian Cultural Church.
We’re happy to report that the church held Easter services in its parking lot. Although the people didn’t maintain the governor’s recommendation of every other space, at least they didn’t cram all those people in the tiny building again.
THIS IS A CORRECT RESPONSE WE’VE SEEN FROM A RESPONSIBLE POLICE DEPARTMENT
"We understand and agree with the intended meaning behind the event, however we don't want the result to be counterproductive, or to violate orders issued by the Governor. Please keep this in mind as we move forward with this pandemic. Be safe, be smart, and PLEASE stay home."
THIS IS A CORRECT RESPONSE WE’VE SEEN FROM A RESPONSIBLE HOSPITAL
"We ask those who planned to attend these events to please continue to lift up our staff in prayer, from your home. In addition, we have created a secure online form so that you may share your inspirational messages with our team. We will post these messages within our facilities to share your love with our amazing physicians and associates."
NIA commends the hospitals that are putting the health and safety of citizens ahead of Christian entitlement by encouraging Governor Holcomb’s essential travel guidelines and discouraging large gatherings in their parking lots. We also want to thank the countless churches that are taking the responsible route of live streaming their services and keeping their members safe by encouraging them to take Governor Holcomb’s stay at home order seriously.
Northern Indiana Atheists is a nonprofit established to fight state/church violations on a local level and defend the rights of atheists and other marginalized communities across Northern Indiana.
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