Rev Jeffrey Whittaker: Michigan pastor accused of mocking man who died of Covid: 'He died…because he has no faith'
NILES, MICHIGAN: The video of a Michigan pastor has attracted a lot of criticism online for his “insensitive” comments during the funeral service of a coronavirus victim. Lead Pastor of Michiana Christian Embassy, Rev Jeffrey Whittaker, said the 71-year-old victim, Les Tom, who died on December 13 due to Covid-19, died because he “had no faith”, Newsweek reported.
YouTube footage of the service showed the pastor criticizing safety measures taken amid the pandemic and questioning people why they did not attend the ceremony in person. “We welcome masks, sit here, sit there. We answered people's questions for Sheri's funeral and for Les's funeral and guess what, they were liars and hypocrites and cowards. Why? Because 'I want to come but I want to make sure I can social distance,'” Whittaker said before adding, “If you wear something, you wear something for love. If you take it off, you take it off for love. And you are a slave to nothing. And you tell me if you have half of a brain left that our country is not being led by the nose into absolute slavery."
The pastor in question also compared America’s population of nearly 330 million with the death toll of around 300,000 as he noted, “that's point one percent." He then shifted his focus towards the deceased man as he stated, “He [Les] died of COVID because he's weak, because he has no faith.”
Several users reacted to Whittaker's comments below the YouTube video. One of the users said, “Sadistic people chose to worship a sadistic god made in their own image.” A second user wrote, “It is sad that this so-called pastor does not understand basic logic, math, or science. He is trying to calculate a mortality rate which cannot be done while the epidemic is still running. We do have a case fatality rate which is the number of deaths among those infected with the virus. That number will fluctuate daily based on a number of factors. It currently is running around 1.7 to 2%. The statistics show that if one is infected with COVID then you have a roughly 30% chance of experiencing symptoms of the disease strong enough that you end up in the hospital or at least should be in the hospital because, in many parts of the country, there are not enough hospital beds for people so some people are just being told to stay home.”
But Whittaker defended himself and claimed his two-hour sermon was not shown properly. One parishioner who attended the service was quoted as saying by Newsweek, “Sometimes Pastor is tongue and cheek and he will say things sarcastically or blatantly not true to get a point across. He would never blame somebody for their own death, he loved Les, they were good friends, it was God's timing." "He has spent countless hours having coffee with me on the couch in his office or at Martin's, never asking for a dime. He does this not just for our church body but the Niles, Michiana community,” another parishioner added.