I also blame the congregation for not taking the pandemic seriously but again maybe their faith made them believe they were doing the right thing. Maybe that is better than having no faith at all.
Agree. Everybody present was being irresponsible.
And thinking by faith is never a better idea than going with reason applied to evidence. Reason tells us that there would come a day when the virus has established itself in the community and begin incubating in the asymptomatically infected and being spread to previously unaffected people, but that there were not enough sick people yet for the community to realize that it was in this stage. People needed to be in lockdown before that began for lockdown to be effective.
This happened May 10th to a community already in that state, but unaware:
"
With the coronavirus quickly spreading in Washington state in early March, leaders of the Skagit Valley Chorale debated whether to go ahead with weekly rehearsal. The virus was already killing people in the Seattle area, about an hour’s drive to the south. But Skagit County hadn’t reported any cases, schools and businesses remained open, and prohibitions on large gatherings had yet to be announced."
So, they had their choir practice, about sixty strong. They used hand sanitizer and avoided hugs, but it didn't help them:
"
After 2½ hours, the singers parted ways at 9 p.m. Nearly three weeks later, 45 have been diagnosed with COVID-19 or ill with the symptoms, at least three have been hospitalized, and two are dead."
A choir decided to go ahead with rehearsal. Now dozens of members have COVID-19 and two are dead
They were thinking by faith instead of reason. They believed they were safe when they should have known that a day like that one would come to their community.
This was also a failure of leadership and good judgment based on hunch rather than reason.