You can sue. Whether you get any money would be up to a jury. I would guess that negligence can be proven if stay at home orders are ignored by clergy and especially if they are preaching "do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together..." in a church whose doctrinal statement claims that Bible is inerrant and furthermore infallible...

I don't know. It still comes down to an individual who chooses faith over science. However, if the person who went to the service caught it then went on to infect others, who didn't go, that could change things; but it seems that the person who went would then be the one held accountable.

That said, I think these pastors need to be arrested. Everyone has a right to assemble and a right to freedom of movement in this country. The fucking churches aren't being singled out--everyone is expected to comply.

It would depend on th laws of hte country services were held in. For the most part, no, peopel cant' generally sue the churches. YOu may be able to sue the persons who decided to hold the services individually though. At least in the U.S. I think that would be more legally viable.

Just for the record I am no a lawyer, so you should consult a lawyer if you are thinking of going that route. Churches have the deeper pockets, but I think the individuals are more likely to be held personally culpable.

The biggest legal difficulty would be in providing evidence that it was at a church service that infection occurred. That would be very difficult to prove.

Is it wrongful death if they willingly and stubbornly go despite being advised not to by professionals everywhere?

It should be possible since the Church or what ever encouraged the person to attend by possibly offering up false promises/hopes of immunity since they are in a house under the Protection of God.
Therefore, the Preacher/Minister, etc, etc, is morally and ethically responsible for falsely promising immunity and God is 100% responsible for not delivering on that promise.
So, imho, SUE the shit out of both of them.

They won’t do it. They will say that person is so lucky to be with God now.

First to understand is that anyone can sue for any reason. It happens all the time. Can a family sue a church if a person went to a service and got covid? The person who got covid went voluntarily I suppose. Proving just when and where they got this infection would be hard to do. Maybe impossible. Can they sue the pastor? You can always sue somebody but the real issue here is does the church actually own the building. If not and they pay a landlord it would be in his best interest to lock and bar the doors in these bad times of covid so that he, the landlord, could not be sued later.

The church isn't forcing anyone to attend. They make the decision on their own and accept the consequences on their own.

Well, don't we live in a litigious society? Anybody can sue anybody for anything. Another thing is to win.

I shouldn’t think so...if an individual decides to ignore the official advice and attend a church service it’s entirely at their own risk.

Unless they were hog-tied & dragged there, I doubt it.

I wonder how the courts would treat the following: My neighbor goes to church and gets infected. They get somebody from the neighborhood sick (not related to them). They believed, in good faith, that they couldn't have gotten sick in church because of the pastor's promise. The family of somebody in the neighborhood sues for wrongful death or decreased standard of living due to the illness that they didn't take risky actions to acquire. (Yes, the assumptions needed for this should be, well, assumed or this all goes to pot.)

I suppose you could make a case under the trades descriptions act, since they keep promising to save you, and have obviously failed to do so.

I personally would like to see some facts and data showing the number of church goers who have been infected.

How about a charge of Depraved Indifference To Human Life?
In United States law, depraved-heart murder, also known as depraved-indifference murder, is a type of murder where an individual acts with a "depraved indifference" to human life and where such act results in a death, despite that individual not explicitly intending to kill.

As I said in reply to Tom: Anybody who goes to church, in full knowledge of the risks, can only blame themselves for the consequences.

It only occurs to me that someone might sue for fraud, given the number of churches who've promised that their worshipers are under "holy protection" from the virus when they come through their doors, or that they have some kind of special spray device set up that excludes viruses from the premises, when there's no such thing and the churches should damn well know it. But then again, so should those attending.

You could sue (you can always sue for any reason), but as my brother used to say when he was a private practice lawyer, it doesn't mean you have a case. Most courts would say that anyone who showed up at the service was assuming their own risk for getting infected or suffering harm, so they wouldn't have a case against the church.

If you are an adult, you have no one but yourself to blame. Blaming is classic chump, Trump behavior so if that’s what you are going for, well done.

Anybody can sue anybody for anything.

As far as the likelihood of having a good case, I think if there was an order to cease public gatherings and that order was ignored, a church is likely to be held liable.