I think that painting with broad strokes or thinking that I makes up a large percent of cases is a mistake. But there’s also no question that certain groups have insisted on making some poor decisions that have inevitably not worked out well.
In North Jersey there are several orthodox Jewish communities that have ignored social distancing and have had a lot of cases and deaths. In South Korea there largest area of outbreak was from someone attending a mega church service. A mega church in France continued to meet and they have had hundreds of people get it and like 22 deaths.
I get part of their thinking. They believe that God has called them to be a community and to worship him together. They see where Jesus said where two or more are gathered in his name, he will be there too. They put those things above everything else because they believe that God comes first.
I happen to think that they’re mistaken though in that I think that there are plenty of other things in Scripture that support following the government’s guidance and loving people and the community by not meeting in person right now. I say that as a deeply spiritual person who was part of leadership at my church having this discussion and stopping in-person meeting as soon as it became clear that that’s what was needed.
With all that being said, I don’t want to presume to know the mind of God. If God is absolutely telling them to continue to meet for some reason, then they should. But I think in the face of what we’re up against, it would have to be abundantly clear that it was something God was telling them and it should be confirmed by multiple people, not just the pastor/rabbi saying God told him. Further, it would then need to be abundantly confirmed outside the church in some way that God was working in that situation in some way. There’d better be something apparent that points people towards God.
Ok, stepping down off my soapbox.