Pastor Todd Dunn had been urging “Faith over fear!” since the COVID-19 pandemic started in March. Just before Thanksgiving, he posted a message on Facebook dismissing precautionary measures advised by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for people to keep wearing masks and avoid gatherings with family members who don’t live in the same house.
“I’m not wearing a mask when around my family like the CDC requests and we are traveling so we’ll take our chances,” Dunn’s Facebook post read. “And to top it off we are huggers so there you go! There will be no social distancing CDC. Faith over fear!!”
A few weeks later, both of Dunn’s parents were dead after entering the hospital with COVID-19 symptoms. Charles and Shirley Dunn died within hours of each other at Texas Health Harris Methodist Fort Worth hospital.
Dunn, who is the pastor of 2nd Mile Church in north Fort Worth where his parents were members, said that he was surprised by the sudden surge in COVID-19 cases in recent weeks in Tarrant County.
“I do feel like the numbers were different in the spring and summer. And my opinion on it was based on the numbers that I saw back then,” Dunn said. “I went seven months and didn’t know one person individually who had it. Now all of a sudden ... for some reason there’s been a surge.”
Strong opinions
All over the country during the pandemic, churches have wrestled with whether and how to stay open. Some have gone to online-only services. Others, like Dunn’s church, have stayed open as much as permitted while also streaming services online for those not willing to go to church in person.
Nobody else in his church has had COVID-19 as far as he knows, he said, and he’s not sure how his parents caught the virus.
Many religious leaders, including Dunn, have strongly spoken out against any government shutdown mandates and what they saw as overreaction by the government.
In May, Dunn posted on Facebook a video of Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul criticizing Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert.
Dunn wrote: “While we know people have suffered due to this virus, I have precious members in my congregation whose’ livelihoods have been greatly affected by this shutdown. At some point we must have faith and trust in God Who is in control whether you believe it or not and the Bible tells us that “Without Faith it is IMPOSSIBLE to please Him.” I’m not against anyone here, I’m for America!!”
In August, Dunn posted another Facebook message in support of a Southern California minister, Pastor Rob McCoy, whose church was one of several to defy that state’s pandemic orders and stay open. Dunn’s post read:
“Friends, it’s happening. The Government’s cure is worse than the virus itself.”
Protesters could take to the streets, he noted, “but churches are not allowed to have indoor services. On top of this, felons are being released back into the community but Pastors and Christians can be arrested for simply attending a church service. WAKE UP AMERICA!! WAKE UP CHRISTIAN PEOPLE!!”
As early voting started in the fall, Dunn’s Facebook messages took on a strongly partisan tone as it related to the pandemic. On Oct. 7, he posted:
“The Left is using this virus situation to methodically keep us in our place and to keep churches from assembling. ... If you are struggling with voting for an individual because of their background then for the love of God please vote for the platform. I truly believe God is in control but we need to do our part!!”
Thanksgiving gathering
A few days before Thanksgiving, after his Facebook post making light of CDC warnings about traveling over the holiday, Dunn and his wife headed to South Texas to visit with relatives, and he was looking forward to seeing his parents join them.
The day before Thanksgiving, he called his mom. “I asked how they were feeling,” Dunn told The News.
“She said, ‘We’re not feeling good,’” and wouldn’t be joining him, he said.
They had not been tested for COVID-19, but Dunn’s mother made it clear they wouldn’t be traveling. “She was crying and pretty emotional,” Dunn said.
Then on Thanksgiving Day, his mom dialed 911 after his dad’s oxygen levels had dropped below normal, and an ambulance took him to the emergency room.
The next day, when his mom felt bad enough to go to the ER, Dunn posted this plea on Facebook:
URGENT PRAYER NEEDED: Hey everyone, we just received word that my mom has now been taken by ambulance to the hospital because she’s been battling the same symptoms as dad and has had difficulty breathing and as many of you may know my mom has battled congestive heart failure so this adds to the situation. So now both of our parents are going to be in the hospital and I’m sure Mom probably has Covid as well so please please please continue to pray for them. This is unreal!
His mom was sent back home Friday evening. Dunn’s brother and sister-in-law had come to Fort Worth from their home near Lubbock to stay with her. They already had COVID-19, Dunn said, so they felt they could care for her.
She wasn’t home long. The Sunday after Thanksgiving, she went back to the hospital. Dunn’s dad remained in the ICU and was put on a ventilator.
“We were already preparing for the worst with Dad,” Dunn said.
Early in December, Dunn posted a video of himself holding a prayer rally with family, friends and church members outside the hospital where his parents were patients. He also made it clear that he was taking the coronavirus seriously.
“There’s a serious war going on here with this disease,” he said in the video. “I have pastor friends that are also fighting it.”
The hospital thought his mom was well enough to go home on Friday, Dec. 4. Unfortunately, she took a turn for the worse overnight and went back again to the hospital where she was placed in the ICU.
“The shocking thing is we honestly thought that Mom would pull through,” Dunn said. “We felt in our hearts it would take a miracle for Dad to pull through.”
On Monday, Dec. 7, a nurse arranged for Dunn’s family to say goodbye to his dad at 3 p.m. at the hospital. Not long after, he got another call telling him that his mom had gone into cardiac arrest. He raced to the hospital, where he was told medical personnel had found a heartbeat in his mom.
He and family members geared up with protective clothing to see their dad, who was only three doors down from his mother in the ICU. He was on a ventilator, and they were taking turns speaking to him, when nurses rushed in to tell them they needed to come quick to their mom’s room.
She’d gone into cardiac arrest again.
“She surprised us by going first,” Dunn said. “Four-and-half hours later, Dad went to heaven.”
Charles Dunn was 84 and his wife, Shirley, was 79.
Longtime pastor
His dad had been a pastor for 50 years, 40 years in the same place: Central Baptist Church in Deer Park, near Houston. That’s where Dunn, his two brothers and sister all grew up.
For the past three years, after retiring, his parents lived in Fort Worth, where they were members of their son’s church.
Their deaths brought a flood of condolences, Dunn said.
“Forty years in one church brought out a lot of people,” he said, “an outpouring of love, prayers and memories.”
Dunn said his parents’ deaths have tested him. He and his brothers and sisters have “cried a lot,” he said.
“I’m human. Night times are the hardest. I’m a pastor, but I’m human. And I’m a son,” he said.
“I’ve been trying to do everything I can to have the right perspective,” he said. “I just know by my faith and the word of God that I’ll see my parents again. And that’s what’s getting me through this.”
Tarrant County, like many counties in Texas, closed churches for about six weeks in the spring. Since the ban was lifted, Dunn has continued to hold services, and says he would still be against any mandate to close churches, even now when COVID-19 numbers have been exploding in Tarrant County.
“I’m not going to be on the side of government intrusion on places of worship,” he said.
He doesn’t regret anything he said earlier this year about the pandemic, he said. “The numbers were different than I believe they are now. I would say it’s something we need to take a look at in the current time frame.”
About 100 people attend services each week at his church, which is near Keller in north Fort Worth. Another 50 or so watch online.
He doesn’t discourage anyone from wearing masks, he said.
“Oh, sure. We have parishioners who wear them,” he said. His parents were careful and wore masks.
His parents “played everything safe,” he said. “My mom stayed indoors. My dad did the grocery shopping. They wore masks.”
He doesn’t think there’s anything more he could have done.
He’s got text messages that he sent to his parents suggesting they stay home and watch his services online.
“But they loved church,” he said. “It was their life.”
