jmac – Protestia

John MacArthur appeared for a brief interview on the Todd Starnes show on Monday afternoon, posted below, to give a minor update on how his church is handling things and the latest word the progression of the court case.

At first, it was the threat of 90 days in jail, then the last time I saw it it was 6 months in jail, but that hasn’t been activated yet. In fact, we had the sixth hearing in court on Friday- six times the county has taken us to court- and the judge has still not ruled on that. So there’s really been no outcome yet that could be measured in terms of a fine or contempt or jail or whatever, so, they can’t seem to get what they want. The county can’t. They’ve been frustrated six times in court but we’ll see what comes next.

MacArthur mentions that two of the health inspectors were believers and they joined in the service during their inspection duties, as well as complimented MacArthur’s son in law on a singing piece. MacArthur mentions that 90% of the health department is disgusted at what they’re doing to Grace Church, a statistic that was first unearthed by Tim Hurd at the Bible Thumping Wingnut, which we also covered here.

MacArthur reiterates that none of his congregation of several thousand have died from it or have been hospitalized despite meeting for 8 weeks, commenting:

Well look, here is the latest statistic. This came out in court Friday. If you’re living in California, here’s the chance you’re going to die from COVID. This was presented to the court. One chance in 19.1 million. That’s the chance you’re going to die from COVID in California currently.

Starnes asks MacArthur what he thinks ultimately is happening with everything that was experienced in terms of COVID, the culture, and the role of the Church. MacArthur shares:

This is not a response to a virus…this is control. We all know that masks are basically a bacterial zoo you have over your face. They’re not healthy. Medical doctors have told me 30 minutes of one of those you gotta get rid of it. So this is about control. This is all part of the strategy. This plays into the same strategies that are being played out on a number of fronts to bring down the country that we’ve always known, to limit our freedom.

I think if you want a socialist country, you have to get rid of the capitalist and they’re doing a number with this on small businesses. It’s almost like a variation of the bolshevik revolution where you take everybody’s business over with the government and you can see moves being made in that direction.

But I think a lot of it has to do with the election. You would say, ‘well is this some kind of conspiracy being orchestrated by one person?’ I don’t know anything about that, but I do know these things play into the chaos, the utter chaos and disillusionment they have generated on other fronts, and this is just of one those additional operations that is making life miserable for Americans and I think they want to blame the president for it.

In further developments, PJ Media is reporting that:

“Los Angeles County has expressed its intention to haul Grace Community Church (GCC) Pastor John MacArthur back into court, attempting to secure a contempt ruling against him, which would involve hefty fines. On Monday, an LA superior court judge punted on contempt, but the county told MacArthur’s lawyers that it intends to refile charges in another court.”

Continue to pray for Pastor MacArthur and all the brothers and sisters at Grace Community Church.

A California Court has ruled that John MacArthur and Grace Community Church have a constitutionally protected right to remain open and hold indoor services in their sanctuary, upholding the church’s stance that they are indeed essential, but also imposing some restrictions for mask-wearing and social distancing, which GCC indicated they will comply with.

According to a press released by Grace Community Church

Hours after Grace Community Church filed suit to invalidate Los Angeles County’s unconstitutional restrictions on churches, the County filed for a temporary restraining order to force the church to stop holding indoor services and comply with every unreasonable and over-broad demand. At hearing today in Los Angeles Superior Court, Judge James Chalfant denied almost all of the County’s requests, agreeing with Pastor MacArthur and the Church that it is the County’s burden to show why it should be permitted to infringe on the constitutionally protected rights of churches to freely exercise religion. The judge did also express concern for some safety protocols.
To address those concerns and after explaining that the County was being unreasonable in its demands, counsel for Grace Community Church offered to comply with mask wearing and social distancing indoors until the matter could be fully heard, rather than the County simply rushing to shut down the Church. The judge agreed this was reasonable, set the full hearing for September 4, 2020, and ordered the Church to have congregants wear masks and social distance between family groups indoors.

Pastor MacArthur said he was pleased with the ruling, commenting

“I am very grateful the Court has allowed us to meet inside and we are happy for a few weeks to comply and respect what the judge has asked of us because he is allowing us to meet. This vindicates our desire to stay open and serve our people. This also gives us an opportunity to show that we are not trying to be rebellious or unreasonable, but that we will stand firm to protect our church against unreasonable, unconstitutional restrictions.”

The church’s lawyer, Charles LiMandri, said:

“This result is indeed a great victory for all citizens’ constitutional right to freedom of religion. Pastor MacArthur’s love of God and country motivated him and all the GCC church elders to resist the unjust government shut-down orders targeting people of faith. Their devotion and patriotism has brought about a result that respects the legitimate interests of both the church and state. This result makes it possible for the thousands of congregants of GCC to continue to gather together in their church to worship, while at the same time honoring the court’s requirement that reasonable and temporary safety measures be observed. This court ruling should stay in effect at least until there can be a full court hearing in this case on September 4, 2020. Please continue to pray that the courts allow this enlightened judge’s decision to stand so that all Californians can soon resume the worship of God in their respective churches.”