For much of March, the poster child for the few churches that were reckless enough to stay open during the coronavirus outbreak was Rodney Howard-Browne, better known as “the Holy Ghost Bartender” for his role in starting the “holy laughter” trend. Since rising to fame during the Toronto Boondoggle—er, Blessing—Howard-Browne has pastored The River at Tampa Bay outside Tampa. After repeatedly defying both basic common sense and a stay-at-home order for all of Hillsborough County, Howard-Browne was arrested on April 30 just 24 hours after holding two regular services to packed crowds.
Howard-Browne retained the services of Christianist law firm Liberty Counsel, who bleated and screeted about how Howard-Browne was the victim of tyranny. It initially appeared that Howard-Browne had won a sympathetic ear in Governor Ron DeSantis, who carved out a loophole in a statewide stay-at-home order big enough to fit a freight train. It not only declared churches essential an “essential activity,” but barred local governments across the state from taking any measures stricter than those stipulated in his order. This had the effect of sweeping aside all limits on how many people can come to a church.
So this cleared the way for Howard-Browne to resume regular services, right? Well, he announced that the Palm Sunday service would be online-only—supposedly to protect his flock from the furor it had generated. But it appears that the real reason is that The River had been dropped by its insurance company.
It’s hard to blame them. Loophole or not, no reputable insurance company would want to be associated with something this inherently reckless. I figured that it would be awfully hard for Howard-Browne to find another insurer. Turns out I was right. Per The River’s Facebook page, the Easter Sunday service—or “Resurrection Sunday,” as they call it (in line with a number of other services)—will be online only. Ditto for Good Friday as well.
Last week, I suggested that this prospect has likely kept large numbers of churches from following Howard-Browne’s lead even if they were inclined to do so. After all, if even ONE person were to get sick or die from this and it can be traced to a church gathering, that church and its pastor ought to be sued out of existence. The bar for acceptable behavior is set higher than the bar below which you get ticketed or arrested for reasons like this.
Liberty Counsel’s Website has been offline since Thursday night, but I couldn’t help but notice that it hasn’t wailed about how The River’s insurer trampled on Howard-Browne’s rights. That’s probably because he knows he wouldn’t have a leg to stand on. And it proves that he and Howard-Browne are nothing more than paper tigers.