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TOPLINE
A megachurch outside Los Angeles filed a lawsuit Thursday challenging California’s coronavirus restrictions, escalating tensions between the state and places of worship during the pandemic.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks during a a news conference about the state’s efforts on the … [+]
Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
KEY FACTS
Grace Community Church argues California unfairly restricts churches while allowing peaceful protests against racism and police brutality in the wake of George Floyd’s death, violating the state’s constitution.
Though the Supreme Court ruled in May that California’s coronavirus restrictions do not discriminate against religious groups, the church’s lawyers specifically use the protests to argue the state is now showing “blatant favoritism.”
The lawsuit comes after the church started holding indoor services with thousands of people last month, with Pastor John MacArthur telling CNN Tuesday that 6,000 or 7,000 people showed up because congregants “didn’t buy the deadly narrative” about the pandemic.
The services flout state law, which allows indoor religious services at 25% capacity or 100 people, whichever is lower, and bans singing and chanting inside.
Los Angeles County attorneys sent a cease and desist letter in late-July to the church that threatened arrest or $1,000 per day fine.
The church argues that no members have thus far been infected, and that government officials who issue orders regulating worship “arrogates to himself authority that God expressly grants only to the Lord Jesus Christ as sovereign over His Kingdom, which is the church,” according to a statement on its website.
Newsom’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Forbes.
Crucial quote
“When many went to the streets to engage in ‘political protests’ against ‘racism’ and ‘police brutality,’ these protestors refused to comply with the pandemic restrictions. Instead of enforcing the public health orders, public officials were all too eager to grant a de facto exception for these favored protestors,” the lawsuit says.
Key background
This isn’t the first time churches in California have challenged the Covid-19 guidelines. When churches were ordered to shut down early on in the pandemic, a group of pastors successfully pressured Newsom into allowing places of worship to open with restrictions. The Supreme Court ruled in May ruled the state wasn’t discriminating against religious groups, and the highest court issued a similar ruling against a church in Nevada last month. Meanwhile, other southern California churches have also defiantly held services. The sheriff’s office in Ventura County, California, for example, is currently fighting a legal battle to take action against a church that held large services indoors.
Further reading
Read the full lawsuit here.
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