Thread by @TheJackalope

So #witchtwt; I, a Pagan group leader, was called by a Christian think tank that was convening to participate in a talk about how Covid had affected their churches, and what they had done before, during, and currently, in response.

A thread

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We get calls like this a lot at @atcwicca. Every time they think they are calling a Christian Church. I let the person know that I was very interested, but that we were an Earth based religion, and not Abrahamic. The person on the phone, as always, told me that was fine.

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So I told him what we did. The head of the church is a Navy Corpsman Vet trained in Pandemic response, and she decided before the country did, that we needed to lock down and keep out of contact until we knew more about what we were facing.

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She told us that in Pandemic medicine, a pathogen that propagates by one infected person infecting two more, is called "A World Killer" (OG Cov was a 1 infects 2. Delta is a 1 infects 5, so take that for what you will).

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We decided that our congregation was too important. The ATC is in multiple countries and has congregations everywhere. Even though we dont govern them, we do advise, and we advised all ATC churches to go online. We have a robust online presence, so it wasnt too difficult

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I told the think tank rep that we lead by example. We knew that our people would follow our lead (mostly) and so we put everything online, stopped venturing out, did fellowshipping and storytelling, karaoke, movie time and mealtimes together online.

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Then I explained that we got the vaccine as soon as it was available and posted it live to our online feeds. We explained that your congregation looks to you for advice on how to live in concert with spiritual values.

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I finished by telling him that we hadnt lost a single church member, across all of our affiliates worldwide, to the pandemic. We told him that we believed it was because of the example we set from the onset.

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Guy on the phone loved it. He told me that when the think tank started the following Saturday to just tell it like I told him. That he thought it was great and was really an example of how he had hoped others had done it, and really wanted them to hear it from me.

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That Saturday I was up and ready to speak when I got The Text. I capitalize it because it is the same entity that shows up every time this happens. If I had a dollar for every time I was asked to work with a Christian organization for them to call it off at the 11th hour..

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And that is exactly what happened

"I am sorry to say that our programming got bloated and we had to bump your spot, but if you would still like to attend and listen, here is the link"

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"You need to keep your opinions to yourself and listen to Jesus"

is what it actually said.

But I was used to this. Being an example on doing the unfun, responsible, thing in the face of disregarding science and kicking the wall in protest, is never popular.

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It would not have done for a Pagan church leader of a multi national congregation of 1000's of people to come in and tell the Christians that they had 100% side stepped the tragedy their churches had experienced by listening to science and reason

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So other than just letting the void of Twitter know this happened, I have a single point:

What is right isnt always popular, and what is popular isnt always right. Being a leader isnt easy. You have to make the sacrifices needed so other can follow your lead.

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And I am still at home. I still wear a mask. I am going to get my booster. And as I watch boisterous church group, after prideful religious youth organization, after homogenous Christian Community fall to Covid, I watch our ranks hold steady, as I lead by example.

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@threadreaderapp unroll this please