Out of 3 Million U.S. Coronavirus Cases, Only 650 Are Linked to Churches

A New York Times story meant to prove churches are a major source of COVID-19 outbreak actually did just the opposite, some Christian leaders say.

The story referenced cases tied to churches in Texas, Louisiana, Oregon and other states and said “more than 650 coronavirus cases have been linked to nearly 40 churches and religious events across the United States since the beginning of the pandemic,” with “many of them erupting over the last month as Americans resumed their pre-pandemic activities, according to a New York Times database.”

The news aggregator website The Drudge Report linked to the story, which ran under the headline, “Churches Were Eager to Reopen. Now They Are a Major Source of Coronavirus Cases.”

But as author and blogger Ed Stetzer noted, the 650-plus nationwide church cases are only a sliver of the total number of cases nationwide.

“There are now 3 million people infected in the United States,” Stetzer wrote in his blog at Christianity Today. Stetzer is the executive director of the Wheaton College Billy Graham Center. “Furthermore, there were 60,000 cases each of the past two days in America. That’s almost 100 times the 650 cases that the New York Times reports in churches – and that is since the beginning of the pandemic.”

Others agreed with Stetzer’s take.

“This NY Times story is a joke. 650 cases = ‘major source’ of cases,” tweeted…