Open Letter To A Former Church Sibling

Dear brother/sister,

I write this now because the church we used to belong to together is no longer. Scripture tells us to bring our grievances to the church leadership, but we can’t do that, so I’m throwing this one out into the wind. But also in part because what you did was so very public I am making this public as well, not out of spite or anger, but because others were hurt by what was done and will continue to be hurt by similar actions either by you or others like you and this needs to be addressed.

On my public Facebook page, which I am pretty sure you were aware I was the owner/admin of, in spite of your statement to the contrary, on a post about my father-in-law's death from Covid-19, you commented some very covid-denying things, implying that the virus is fake and that he did not, in fact, die from it.

I have since deleted your comments and was just going to let it go. Trying to be the better person. But as time goes by, I’m more hurt.

I was there when your father died from Parkinson’s disease. Unlike other cases, it took him very quickly. It was really hard to watch such a strong elder in our church degrade so quickly.

And I imagine how you might feel if I said Parkinson’s isn’t real, that he died from too much junk food that he ate working as a car dealer. How would you feel if someone said that to you?

That’s how you made me feel saying what you did.

And I have to wonder what other people you’ve said something similar to on I-don’t-know-how-many other pages on the Internet thinking you’re just being an anonymous troll.

My father-in-law was in an extended care facility recovering from a procedure on his heart. He was getting better, but he was very at risk and had to be quarantined to protect him from the covid-19 virus until his heart was strong enough to go home. He had a lot of years left.

That is until a care worker, who thought the virus wasn’t that dangerous, broke quarantine, didn’t take proper procedures, and infected him and several others who were there in the high-risk ward. My father-in-law and several others died, not from the flu, which he would have been safe from because he was vaccinated, or anything else, but from Covid-19. He was effectively murdered by a care worker who didn’t care.

And you trolled my page with a heartless comment about how the virus is fake. Even though we watched him die from it over streaming video.

Why? What did you gain from it?

What happened to you? How did you become the person you are? Before our church closed you were at least a decent person. Maybe we weren’t really friends, but we were church family. We loved each other. We didn’t treat each other like this.

But here we are, 5 years later. And you say something like this to me about my father-in-law’s death.

What happened? Was it your own dad’s death that led you to this? Or was it the election? Politics? People you follow online?

Because I know it wasn’t the teachers at our church. Not Mr. Williams and not Mr. Lemonnier.

As I said, I deleted your hurtful comment. Before my wife saw it, because it would devastate her and she doesn’t deserve that from you or anyone from that church.

I really hope you reflect on what you said.

Sincerely,
A