Lawyers for John MacArthur filed paperwork on Friday in the L.A. Superior Court, asking that the injunction that ordered them to cease holding indoor services and making masks and social distancing be dissolved, as well as repudiating testimony from Julie Roys after it was used by the County’s lawyers to claim MacArthur has been lying about COVID breakouts in his congregation, and that they weren’t being reported.
Among the paperwork filed was a declaration from MacArthur, noting that his lawyers were trying to make her testimony/report against them inadmissible and that even if it was admissible, it was full of falsehoods.
Grace Community Church and their legal representation will be in court on April 9th to have their motion heard.
Grace Community Church (GCC) has had their recent outbreak restrictions lifted by the LA County after three part-time associates and two staff members became ill with COVID, according to a press release on the Church website, but the County is saying, “Not so fast,” when it comes to whether or not the Sun Valley megachurch is complying.
The LA Times released a story a few weeks ago mired in hysterics, to which they claimed that an “outbreak” had occured at GCC. It was later revealed to have been three part-time associates, and then later two more staff.
Jenna Ellis, special counsel for the Church, said this at the time:
Three very mild positive tests among more than 7,000 people is hardly news. 0.0004 or 0.043% is not an ‘outbreak.’ The L.A. Times and others’ grossly misleading and fear-mongering headlines aim to mischaracterize Grace Community Church as irresponsible and a superspreader.
Now that several weeks have passed, GCC released a statement on their website, informing that the outbreak restrictions have been lifted:
Outbreak Restrictions Lifted
We are glad to announce that we received a notice from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health on Thursday, November 12, saying that we have been cleared of COVID-19 outbreak. After a thorough investigation, Public Health officials have decided to rescind all outbreak related requirements and restrictions on Grace Community Church.
We don’t exactly know what particular and specific precautions were being applied, but we do know that the Church is not complying with most previous restrictions, as they are still holding church services indoors, filled to capacity, and are not social distancing or wearing masks.
Warren Throckmorton reached out to LA County to get a comment on GCC’s news, and they sent this statement:
Public Health’s investigation into the Grace Community Church worksite COVID-19 outbreak was recently concluded. The Church is still required to follow all current Health Officer Order requirements for places of worship, which include outdoor services, as well as all applicable infection control protocols for all activities that occur on the Grace Community Church campus. Public Health has found that Sun Valley has among the higher rates of COVID-19 transmission in the County of Los Angeles. Compliance with the required infection control protocols by Grace Community Church will lessen the risk of COVID-19 transmission to its employees and visitors.
So even as the “outbreak” at Grace Church winds down, things are beginning to heat up at The Master’s University and Seminary- which is overseen by GCC. While not particularly as public as the Church itself, they have 14 cases between 130 staff and some 2100 students.
At this time there have been no reports of hospitalizations or deaths.
To see a good commentary and more information, check out the video below:
Los Angelas County is deadly serious about bringing John MacArthur’s Grace Community Church to the knee, moving to hold the California megachurch in contempt after they held three separate morning services on August 16th, defying a last-minute court order that specifically forbade them from doing so, saying that even they must comply with the state’s lockdown restrictions.
The county is alleging that Grace has committed eight separate acts of contempt, to which they owe $8,000 for those acts (at a fine of $1000 each) as well as an additional $12,000 in fines for violating the court orders (at a fine of $1,500 each) – bringing the total owed to $20,000, and growing if they go ahead with any more services, which MacArthur has indicated he intended to do this Sunday.
The order, which lists both Pastor MacArthur and his church as defendants, also rakes them over the coals for flaunting the violation and thumbing “its nose at the court when decisions don’t go their way.”
Jenna Ellis, the lawyer representing MacArthur and the Church, responded in a press release:
“The LA County Board of Supervisors has decided to continue their unconstitutional attack against Pastor John MacArthur and Grace Community Church. They are now asking the court to hold the church in contempt for simply being open for worship last Sunday. Pastor MacArthur is standing firm that church is essential and has no plans to yield to this tyrannical board, which is clearly defying the constitution’s mandate to protect religious liberty.”
John MacArthur and the Elders at Grace Community Church defied government orders and held their regular Sunday morning services yesterday, without masks and without socially distancing, after a late-night, last-minute appellate court decision removed an exemption they were given on Friday by Superior Court Judge Gregory Alarcon to have service, so long as they complied with masks and social distancing.
“We’re having church. It’s actually hard to figure out exactly what the city is trying to do, with us and to us, but we know they don’t want us to do exactly what we’re doing right now.”
Said MacArthur, during his opening few minutes, further explaining what was happening and the current state of Grace Community Church as it pertains to the government.
“And we’re not meeting because we want to be rebellious. We’re meeting because our Lord has commanded us to come together and worship him. There was a court order that granted this church and this church alone the right to meet indoors, and the powers of the city were not happy about that. They were going to be asking us to do two things; social distance and wear masks, that was until yesterday when city…we agreed, look, we’ll comply for a few weeks, they asked that for three weeks. We’re not wanting to be defiant. We will do what is reasonable.
That was not enough for the city, so they went to the appellate court at the last minute on Saturday late and had that order removed.
The California Court of Appeal, led by Judge James Chalfant, issued a stay of the previous judge’s order, ruling that the dangers and risk of catching and transmitting the novel coronavirus outweigh the right to hold services, with the 4-page report summarizing:
“As between the harm that flows from the heightened risk of transmitting COVID-19 (namely “serious illness and death”) and the harm that flows from having to conduct religious services outdoors instead of indoors, the balance at this early stage favors issuance of a stay.”
In a statement, Los Angeles County said it was “pleased that the California Court of Appeal recognizes the vital importance of our Health Officer Orders in protecting the lives and health of our residents as we work to slow the spread of the deadly COVID-19 virus.”
The county so far has shown every indication that they will pursue their July 29 cease-and-desist order, where they declared the church would be subject to fines up to $1,000 and 90 days in prison for each indoor service.
Pastor MacArthur continued:
So, the good news is you’re here, you’re not distancing, and you’re not wearing masks. And it’s also good news that you’re not outside because it’s very hot out there. So the Lord knew you needed to be inside and unmasked. So he did us that gracious favor.
They don’t want us to meet, that’s obvious. They don’t want to work with us, they just want to shut us down. But we’re here to bring honor to the lord. They’re not our enemy, we understand that. The bible tells us to pray for their salvation, and we need to be faithful to do that.
