MARCH 26, 2020 BY MICHAEL STONE
Religious Ignorance Kills: Landon Spradlin, a Virginia pastor who claimed the “mass hysteria” around the coronavirus pandemic was part of a media plot against Trump, has died from the virus.
ABC News reports:
Landon Spradlin’s family never got to say goodbye.
The 66-year-old father and husband from Virginia died due to complications from COVID-19 on Wednesday morning in North Carolina.
While on the way home from a mission trip, Spradlin collapsed and was taken to a hospital in Concord, North Carolina. He was eventually put on a ventilator as his condition worsened.
According to reports, Spradlin, a 66-year-old Christian “musical evangelist,” fell ill while on a missionary trip to New Orleans with his wife.
Friendly Atheist reports Spradlin went to New Orleans to “wash it from its Sin and debauchery.”
On his Facebook page Spradlin shared a misleading meme attempting to minimize COVID-19, comparing the virus to the swine flu, and suggesting that the response to the coronavirus pandemic was media created “mass hysteria” to damage Trump:
Spradlin also shared a post from a pastor claiming that a missionary in South Africa “protected” himself from the bubonic plague with the “Spirit of God.” A quote from the post reads:
As long as I walk in the light of that law [of the Spirit of life], no germ will attach itself to me.
The stupid, it kills.
The following is a sample of the reactions to Spradlin’s death via Twitter:
Bottom line: Landon Spradlin, a Virginia pastor who claimed the “mass hysteria” around the response to the coronavirus pandemic was part of a media plot against Trump, has died from the virus.
