A well-known conservative pastor with a large following in Iowa has spent the past weeks railing at Gov. Kim Reynolds’ order to halt large gatherings at places of worship, while making frequent Facebook posts questioning the severity of the pandemic.
Pastor Cary Gordon, the senior pastor of Cornerstone World Outreach church in Sioux City, has derided the shutdown order as an”egregious abuse” of power, said the government was “grossly overreacting” and the entire reaction to COVID-19 was “stupid” and “mass hysteria.” A Simpson College professor noticed the social media messages from Gordon earlier this week, which also included a number of racist posts and jokes aimed at Chinese people.
Many times in the past few weeks, Gordon has shared messages or stories that looked to downplay how serious the coronavirus’ spread was in Iowa. On March 23, he shared a quote of how Iowa’s numbers weren’t doubling like Italy and New York. Four days later, Iowa’s cases had doubled; five days later, they’d tripled.
On March 24, still early on in virus’ spread in Iowa, Gordon complained that Iowa was “grossly overreacting” considering he had heard of only seven hospitalizations in the state from the virus. Later that same day, Reynolds would announce that 18 Iowans had been hospitalized, a number that has since jumped considerably. It’s also a trend that’s been clearly seen in other countries and states where the virus spread to in the weeks and months before it came to Iowa.
Gordon’s skepticism of the severity of the outbreak mirrored many far-right outlets, like the OAN outlet he shared one story from, as well as President Donald Trump’s early statements on the coronavirus.
Also like some of Trump’s allies, Gordon took pleasure in calling it the “Kung Flu” virus to further “otherize” the pandemic. Early on in March, he said the virus was “allegedly created by gross Chinese people who decided to add whole bats to their egg-drop soup.” He also called those Chinese “culturally backwards” with a “culinary retardation.” For good measure, Gordon also theorized that the Chinese government, which locked down an entire province, may have intentionally helped spread the virus to its people, because of communism.
Gordon, however, has not fully dismissed the dangers of COVID-19 like some other right-wing personalities. He has repeatedly urged older members of his church and those with underlying health issues to consider staying home.
However, given the tone of his many other posts seen by his congregation on social media, it’s questionable which message is being heard louder by his followers — that you should be cautious or that it’s an overblown media spectacle with limited consequences in Iowa.
In an interview with conservative radio host Steve Deace on March 24, Gordon noted that they had added stainless steel brackets to bathroom doors so people wouldn’t have to touch the door handles and added many hand sanitizer stations. Gordon said his church was now “wiser and cleaner than any of the local hospitals that I live” and comparable to a NICU.
But what has angered Gordon the most is the directive from Reynolds, who he refers to as the “Governess,” that gatherings of ten people or more are banned in the state, including at places of worship.
In a call to the Governor’s office, Gordon complained that it was an “egregious abuse” of power.
“Now you’ve put me in a precarious position of having to become a civil disobedient person as a pastor in our community when people are scared and they need the church, and I’m being told I might be arrested if I go ahead and hold services according to the 1st Amendment of the Constitution,” Gordon warned.
Gordon argued it should have been optional instead of mandatory, in which case it seems likely he would have still held service. This past weekend, Cornerstone held a service, albeit in the parking lot with audio delivered over the radio. Though the photos show a full parking lot, it appears the worshipers stayed in their cars.
Last evening, Gordon argued that many state governments’ actions in closing church services was “more dangerous and frightening than a deadly virus.”
In other interviews, he does bring up important points about the difficulties that closing churches present to the faithful, from being less able to comfort people in a time of crisis, to being unable to baptize people online and noting, “You can’t bury the dead through a video screen.” He’s also concerned about the First Amendment precedents.
But interspersed in all of that is more attempts to downplay the severity of the current crisis.
In a March 26 interview, Gordon said, “there are lots of medical experts that say we’re grossly overreacting,” and referenced an English study that supposedly said, “banning mass gatherings of worshipers on Sundays would do virtually nothing to stop the spread of the disease,” contrary to the CDC and nearly every other country’s medical professionals.
And like other right-wing commentators, he’s accepted a certain amount of fatalism.
“I think you could make the medical argument that every single public gathering, you’re taking some reasonable risk of some communicable disease will come into the auditorium and someone will die,” Gordon said. “Shall we just close church and build a bunker? At some point, men have to be self-governed and do it within the constraints of the Constitution.”
Gordon is well-known in Iowa politics for his conservative views and opposition to marriage equality. This situation, however, has him planning to leave the Republican Party.
by Pat Rynard
Posted 3/29/20
6 Comments on "Prominent Iowa Pastor Downplays Virus, Wants Church Reopened"
Well it’s interfering with his grifting, c’mon!
trufax there, when i see “conservative pastor/minister” i automatically assume their version of the Golden Rule is “them that has the gold makes the rules”. (fwiw, my genuinely christian tumblr bud’s church did STAY THE F*CK AT HOME/tele-church with multiple google hangout support groups/very minimal in-person pastoral and lay ministry visitation well before their state had any formal “stay at home” orders. them i’m fine with.)
This church is having the funeral for my Great Aunt Babe today after months of not caring enough to protect her during this pandemic.
Jesus said to love one another. Is it loving to allow Virginia Ferguson to die alone after weeks and weeks of suffering in the ICU? Is it loving to hold a funeral service today knowing that the only child of the deceased cannot attend because she cannot enter the building for fear of her life? Is it loving when a church shows that they don’t care enough to honor a family, who gave so much to them, who told us every time we visited that we were their family too, but then flippantly denies the easiest way to show it?…by just putting on a mask for a little while?
I’m wondering, but I know it’s naive, because that would mean they’d have to put their morals where their mouths are, and stop lying to their trusting congregation about what this pandemic actually means in real life.
Only two people in my Aunt Babe’s biological family could risk traveling to be there today. My family didn’t deserve this, my Aunt Babe should have had us, her loving real family, all around her when she finally went to meet her maker years from now. Everyone involved, including the leaders, Larry and Eileen Gordon, and their sons, Cary and Chace Gordon, knows this is truth. They know it in their guts. This ‘church’ and the leadership treated her like a celebrity there, but they obviously didn’t love her. They are responsible for her early, painful, and violent death from suffocating slowly in a cold hospital after weeks of suffering alone.
I wonder how many other moms, grandmas, aunts, daughters, sisters, brothers, sons, uncles, grandpas and dads they could’ve helped save by just doing the bare minimum to protect one another? I’ve known this church is corrupt for many years, but this goes so far beyond what I could have imagined. I hope no one else who believed they were loved here has to die the way my Aunt Babe did, but I’m accepting the fact that they definitely will. RIP
Shalom,
Pastor , Greetings to you in the majestic name of our Lord Jesus Christ . I pray that this humble,friendly message finds you walking in the favor of God.
God,s minister, God has invested enough message of salvation in you to get out of your country to go all over the world to preach the gospel and win more souls to Christ.
God has called you out of many, chosen you ,anointed you and approved you for his great Job.
Pastor, God has a purpose with you life.He has created you to accomplish the great things for him.
Pastor, this specific task which God has for you and no body else! whether is to plant new churches, to start a bible school or a soup kitchen of the poor,is God,s vision for you.
Pastor,God Has called you and He placed you in a specific congregation or ministry,because He has a specific task that you support to fulfill here.
Pastor , God has a task and a purpose for you.He will be with you and He will accomplish the task through His power.He will equip you and give you the power to do it.
Pastor, He is faithful.if He calls you to a task that is greater than your own abilities,He will also give you the people to support the good work you are doing for Him.
Pastor, God has a plan with your life.yes! even before you were born,He planned you in the finest detail, humble yourself before the Lord He will lift you up[James 4;-10]
Pastor, you are God,s special workmanship.psalm 139,says that God knew you before you were formed in your mother,s womb!
pastor, your greatest blessings began when God said,He created you in his image in Genesis 1;26, everything you put your hands to, is going to prosper.
Pastor, you are so precious to the Lord,silver and gold wasn,t enough.God wanted to purchase you with something more valuable than any precious mental or mineral.so He used the blood of Jesus Christ.
Surely, in everything we do,we believe in positive changing and affecting the lives of people who we are constantly working towards inspiring change.
Pastor, working together is so fruitful growth and maturity in the Lord among us.
My good friend, we are thanking God that we are connected to an anointing servant ,ministry ,who are committed in spreading the
GOOD NEWS of spreading a salvation message and win more souls and many to LOVE Jesus Christ .
We are pray that one day God will open a way you to bring His message to us-here in Africa.
May the Lord be with you, please.plant your work here in Kenya, Covid 19 will be defeated, God is able and strong to heal the World, and this will be back to normal.
Thank you,
Pastor Steven Oyaro
Death is always hard to handle but one thing is for sure, we will all die. How and when is out of our control. But fear is something we can control and if the mask makes one feel safe, then by all means, wear it and if it actually works, then you will be safe. I do not advocate forcing others to believe and act the way I do and I would appreciate the same from them.
Thank you Pastor Gorgon for standing up for truth even when it is not popular. The Bible tells in I John 4, “there is no fear in love but that perfect love casts out fear”. God is Love. The more God you have the less fear you have. God is not bound by the natural laws of this world, He is supernatural. He overcame death so that we can overcome death. Have no fear.