Warren Throckmorton

UPDATE: LA County Department of Health informed me this afternoon (12/21) that “No additional outbreaks have been reported by Grace Community Church to Public Health since” the earlier employee related outbreak in October.

………………..

Twitter user and Medium writer Modern Day Zorro posted a piece on Medium with news of another Grace Community Church COVID outbreak (there was one back in October). MDZ is close to GCC and has never been wrong with news on the church. (My question mark in the title is admittedly self-protective, and because I have not been able to get confirmation from Grace’s PR firm. – See the update below) Given the lack of mitigation measures and the ignorance about COVID which have been apparent at Grace, I don’t doubt the report. However, if corrections or modifications are needed, I will make them.

According to the Medium report, multiple Grace members and staff may be infected:

So, two weeks ago at the Grace Staff Christmas party lunch was served and maskless elderly and Elders sat shoulder to shoulder, hugged and shook hands and along with the Filet Mignon, were spoon fed the following from John MacArthur:

1. COVID PCR tests are inaccurate and should not be trusted.
2. Don’t take the vaccine as it’s just a money ploy.
3. Grace is welcoming 400 new members.
4. The giving is the best it’s ever been.
5. There are no long-term side effects to COVID.

Then, he acknowledge and thanked Clayton Erb for his many years of service, and that was that. Everyone there was exposed to COVID:

Bill Brandenstein, Mark Zhakevich, Clayton Erb, Elders and staff. John MacArthur.

• **One week later, 7 in attendance, now have symptoms and have tested positive for COVID.

• Yes <hits mic and blows into it> 7 people, elders and staff, have COVID symptoms and have subsequently tested positive as a direct result of going to a Staff Christmas party.

  While I await confirmation of specific numbers, I can note that one pastor at Grace, Will Varner, has tested positive for COVID and announced this publicly. He also said a musician affiliated with GCC’s Sojourners ministry tested positive.

Let’s not forget that MacArthur’s attorney Jenna Ellis tested positive for COVID-19.

As someone who has had COVID, I certainly wish the best for these folks. I post this because I sincerely doubt that certain church leaders at GCC will provide the congregation with appropriate information. At least, it hasn’t happened so far.

UPDATE: Julie Roys has an article out on Sunday with reporting that people at Grace are being discouraged from telling anyone about their COVID diagnosis.  She also has much more documentation of GCC members and staff who have COVID. It seems pretty clear that MacArthur’s rosy picture of a church meeting indoors without caution and without cases of COVID is false.

During church on Sunday morning, MacArthur did not comment on the cases identified by the sources noted above and by Julie Roys.

Another update from Modern Day Zorro:

Last night at the Christmas Music Service:

I was informed by a musician friend that Clayton Erb was directing it on behalf of his nephew, Bill Brandenstein, who was ill. The final rehearsal for Friday night was cancelled. Ultimately, the adult choir was too sick to attend, so pic.twitter.com/u538OR93W3

— Modern Day Zorro: Reporter and Muppet of the #WCT (@ModernDayZorro) December 22, 2020

MacArthur said everybody has a bug.

they had a few soloists. No…distancing, no masks when so many on that stage had been exposed to the virus.

John MacArthur in the video explains that people have the flu or the bug, "aside from this COVID thing".@reachjulieroys @wthrockmorton

— Modern Day Zorro: Reporter and Muppet of the #WCT (@ModernDayZorro) December 22, 2020

Yes, due to a copyright claim, the awful “Biden Did You Know?” parody is gone from YouTube. The video featured just about all of the false conspiracy theories about voter fraud making the rounds.

You knew this was coming. I am surprised it took so long.

I emailed Pentatonix yesterday and asked them for comment about being featured in the video. Metaxas used the group singing, Mary, Did You Know? in his parody presumably without their permission. I have not heard from their publicist and don’t know if that email had anything to do with the copyright claim.

In any case, get ready for the persecution cries.

No more will you see this at that link:

Eric Metaxas has become a parody of himself. Others have chronicled his journey down the Trump rabbit hole over the past weeks (see links below). This post returns to the fake Bonhoeffer quote he made famous. Now he apparently wants it for himself.

“Silence in the face of evil is itself evil. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act. God will not hold us guiltless.”
— Eric Metaxas

— Eric Metaxas (@ericmetaxas) December 11, 2020

Metaxas has bought into the election delusion of Donald Trump and taken a leadership role among those who are promoting it. This quote somehow is meant to vindicate his action supporting Trump. What is odd about it that he appears to be taking credit for it.

To my knowledge, he has never fully acknowledged that he attributed the quote falsely to Bonhoeffer in his books on the subject in the first place. He minimized his role in spreading the false attribution after I published a series of posts showing that the quote cannot be sourced to the great German pastor.

Now instead of to Bonhoeffer, he falsely attributes the quote to himself. Anything but set the record straight, I guess. What should we expect from a guy who has put his faith and trust in Donald Trump?

Others who have written regarding Eric Metaxas’ journey into election madness include:

Michael Gerson, Mark Wingfield, John Fea, Mark Silk, and Bob Smietana.

I haven’t posted for awhile because I tested positive for COVID-19. It started out mild but then hit me hard. While I was able to stay home, I did feel pretty sick for about a week. While I am off quarantine now, I am still tired and don’t feel quite back to normal. Overall though, I feel blessed to have stayed out of the hospital.

I feel more certain than ever that mask wearing is necessary and churches should stop clutching their rights to meet together. We only have a few more months until a vaccine is widely available. Surely, we can wait a few more months to get together in large groups.

On his Facebook page, author and Trump die hard Eric Metaxas is promoting Donald Trump’s last-ditch effort to get Republican legislators not to certify the election results in states where Joe Biden won.

**

Dear Friends!

I just did an interview with Dick Morris which is posted here, but the MOST important part of it is so important that I will stop at nothing to get this message out. It’s all at the bottom and I’ve made it as easy as possible for you, with all the email addresses and a SAMPLE LETTER.

Dick has DAILY been on the phone with the president, and BOTH of them are convinced that if the votes are counted accurately the president won this election. This is not partisan politics, this is about preserving our form of government. If we cannot trust that our votes are being counted accurately, we have lost the republic!

So here is what Dick and President Trump are asking EVERYONE to do, and what I personally am asking you to do.

Every American must please write an email — or an actual letter if you like — to each Republican Legislative Leaders (their email info etc. is ALL listed below for you) in GA, PA, WI, MI, and AZ, asking them to INSIST — which is their Constitutional Duty as you will see below — that ALL signatures in their states are verified.

I am begging you, dear fellow Americans, to do this one thing for your republic, because our republic depends on it. People have often asked me what can I do to KEEP THE REPUBLIC. You can do this now. Will you?

Please please do this duty now and tell everyone you know to do it. It is not asking very much considering the stakes.

God bless you.