Back in October, we learned that John Hagee, the
senior pastor of Cornerstone Church in San Antonio,
Texas, tested positive for COVID.
His son Matthew said at the time that his father was
“receiving extremely good medical treatment.” He’s
lucky he could afford it. That’s not necessarily true
of the congregation he was putting in danger by
hosting in-person, indoor, mask-optional, not-very-
socially-distanced services.
When Hagee returned to church in November, no changes
were made reflecting the seriousness of the virus. The
pastor didn’t tell anyone to take it seriously,
either. Instead, he told them to just trust Jesus.
… I’m sitting in this chair today as a testimonial to
the healing power of Jesus Christ. I spent 15 days in
a hospital with double pneumonia, and I’m still
supposed to be home gasping for air. I’m on this
platform speaking of the glory of God, for the healing
power of God.
…
… I bring under the authority of Jesus Christ every
sickness and every disease and especially the COVID
thing that’s sweeping this nation. We have a vaccine.
The name is Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God.
Let Him sweep through this country and heal the
righteous who dare to ask for it. Heal our church
members. Restore them rapidly. Let the name of Jesus
Christ be exalted, because He is Lord over all…
Just trust Jesus and you won’t need a vaccine, he
implied.
Interesting thing about that: Since Jesus has lost
countless battles to the virus so far, given the
horrifically high death toll, Hagee is now urging
everyone to get the vaccine. Turns out God isn’t good
enough.
In a statement to ABC News, his staff “clarified” his
comments:
Hagee Ministries later clarified Hagee’s comments,
saying in a statement to ABC News that the pastor’s
words were taken out of context.
“Pastor Hagee himself is taking the vaccine,” said
Hagee Ministries spokesperson Ari Morgenstern. “Pastor
Hagee believes in both the power of prayer and modern
medicine. These are not mutually exclusive.”
His words weren’t taken out of context. And those
things are mutually exclusive. You’ll be just fine
with the vaccine and no prayer. You will not be fine
with prayer and no vaccine.
Hagee spent the past year putting people in danger
because he was too stupid and stubborn to care about
the lives of his congregation. Only when faced with
the prospect of public embarrassment in the face of
the vaccines’ obvious success is he trying to
retroactively claim he was on the side of science all
along.
But we saw the lack of precautions his church took. We
saw the lack of masks on their faces. We saw them all
huddled together in a building.
You know what you won’t find?
A sermon from last year in which Hagee urges his
congregation to take the vaccine because it’ll do more
for them than Jesus ever could.
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