On September 23, 2020, police in Moscow, ID, arrested three members of Christ Church, the church led by Pastor Doug Wilson, because they were singing hymns in public without social distancing in violation of the city’s newly created Emergency Public Health Ordinance No. 20.03. The arrests occurred at a Psalm Sing event where around 150 people, primarily congregants, gathered to sing three acapella hymns and then the doxology at Moscow City Hall in an event organized by the Church. See more background here.
One of the men arrested was Gabe Rench, host of the Cross-Politic TV show, Co-Founder of the Fight Laugh Feast Network, and a deacon at Christ Church.
Following the arrest, along with Sean Bohnet and Rachel Bohnet, they sued the city, claiming city officials violated their First and Fourth Amendment rights.
A judge ruled in their favor, and now the city is paying up. According to reports:
The lawsuit came to a head after U.S. District Judge Morrison England Jr. ruled against the city and in Rench’s favor, dismissing the city’s motion for summary judgment and handing Rench a massive win by ordering the city to settle out of court. England wrote in his decision.
Somehow, every single City official involved overlooked the exclusionary language included in the Ordinance requiring that the mayor make explicit that the Order was intended (to) apply to all constitutionally protected expressive and associative activity as well…
Plaintiffs were wrongfully arrested, the City indisputably erred in interpreting its own Code, the City consequently misadvised its officers as to the Code’s application, and Plaintiffs are so far reasonable in their damages requests, this case should not need to see the inside of a courtroom.
….It would behoove everyone involved to take a step back from their respective positions and prepare to negotiate in good faith.”
A man who was arrested and charged for singing worship songs in public, unmasked and without social distancing has had all charges against him dropped, according to a January 09 court ruling.
Gabriel Rench, a deacon of Christ Church in Moscow City, Idaho and host of Cross Politic, was arrested last September for worshipping in public at a Pslam Sing gathering. The event consisted of around 150 congregation members assembling to sing three acapella hymns and then the doxology at Moscow City Hall. Details of the case went almost instantly viral and gained even more national attention when President Trump tweeted about it.
Rench was cited for violating Public Health Emergency Order 20-03, which stated that:
“Every person in the city of Moscow must wear a face covering that covers their nose and mouth when in any indoor or outdoor public setting where the 6-foot physical distancing is not able to be maintained with non-household members.”
In accordance with Moscow City Code Section 1-11-10, any person who knowingly violates the provisions of this order may be charged with a misdemeanor. The maximum penalties for this offense are up to 6 months in the county jail and a $1,000 fine.
Special Counsel Michael Jacques, who is part of noted religious freedom defender Thomas More Society (Who also are representing John MacArthur and Grace Community Church) said in a press released that the City of Moscow “violated its own ordinance when police officers wrongly arrested Rench and the others.”
The city of Moscow, Idaho, appears to have been so anxious to make an example of Christ Church’s opposition to their desired COVID restrictions that they failed to follow the mandatory exemptions articulated in their own laws.
The Moscow City Code allows the Mayor to issue public health emergency orders, but exempts ‘[a]ny and all expressive and associative activity that is protected by the United States and Idaho Constitutions, including speech, press, assembly, and/or religious activity. Mr. Rench and the other worshippers who were arrested had their constitutionally protected liberties violated and their lives disrupted – not only by the inappropriate actions of law enforcement officers, but also by city officials who did not immediately act to correct this unlawful arrest.
There is no word yet on the other two people arrested and whether or not their cases will likewise be dismissed.
We’ve written for you before about Karen Swallow Prior, how we continually find ourselves vexed and nonplussed that she’s viewed so favorably and regarded as conservative within Christian circles despite the plethora of problems with her. The list is extensive and has been enumerated below.
Recently, however, she took to calling out Christians who don’t want to wear masks at Church and those arrested while engaging in public worship as not really being persecuted, but rather profaning “True Martyrs” who suffered more severely.
It’s at this point that it’s hard to imagine that the gatekeeping Prior is an English professor, as she seemingly doesn’t understand that there is a semantic domain and range of meaning for the term “persecution” and that’s not all about having one’s toes chopped off or being boiled alive.
No one is saying that the persecution endured by participants in the Psalm Sing event, in which the government arrested Christians for singing hymns in public while not social distancing, despite allowing all sorts of secular public gatherings without the same constraints, is akin to the sufferings of Hugo Jacob Kraen, his wife Mary, and two other unknown souls of Asserow.
In their case, after they became converted they were persecuted by the Roman Catholic Church who captured Mary and drowned her in A.D. 1532. Hugo and the two others were likewise soon apprehended and taken to prison into Gravenhage. They were made to renounce their faith through hideous torture but refused to do so. Consequently, they were tied to the stake and burned alive.
No one is saying that the two are comparable. It’s not comparable to having a lion take a hunk out of one’s neck and then feel its bite shatter bits of skull and spinal tendons, but it is indisputable that they are on the same broad spectrum of meaning, particularly when we understand it to include forms like “harassing treatment,” “oppression” due to “religious beliefs and practices” and “persistent troubling.”
Was it persecution when Churches were forbidden from singing in church at all? How about when police threatened to fine churches and arrest pastors having drive-in services where the congregants never even left their cars? Is it persecution when the government said Christians cannot meet in groups of more than 6 for bible studies in private homes and that if they do meet they must wear masks at all times under threat of arrest or fine?
When there is one rule for Churches and Christians, and another for pagans and secular businesses, that is a form of persecution, even if it doesn’t rise to the level of having one’s skin flayed and salted.
As news breaks nationally and internationally about the arrest of several congregants at Christ Church’ Psalm Sing, an event designed to be a brief time of public worship (three songs and a doxology) that took place at Moscow’s City Hall and attended by nearly 150 Christians singing acapella hymns, the usual mélange of harpies and professional tut-tutters have perked up and come out to play.
Predictably, out of their indignant displeasure for what one has called ‘Muscovite cultists’, one of the biggest falsehoods being passed around is that the congregants were arrested for not showing his ID to the police. Critics have been making the case they purposefully provoked the officers by not giving their ID, that they were arrested for not giving their ID, and that if only they would have shown their precious identification and complied with all Law Enforcement Officer directives they would have not been arrested.
The narrative is this: ‘You are not being persecuted and your rights are not under attack. You are being arrested for not showing your ID, and not some perceived slight or ‘violation of your constitutional rights.’
While it is true that at least some of the arrested attendees did not give their identification, reasoning that they were not committing a crime by singing worship publicly and therefore the police had to right to ask them that, that’s not the reason they were arrested. They were specifically arrested for violating “PUBLIC HEALTH EMERGENCY ORDER No. 20.03”
By way of background, the city passed that ordinance back in July and then announced on Monday that they were extending the mask mandate until at least January 5th, 2021. On Tuesday Gabe Rench, one of the men eventually arrested, emailed the chief asking him to refuse to enforce the order, telling him this was his “Daniel Moment” and pleaded for interposition and for the chief to stand up for them. On Wednesday they had Psalm Sing, with Pastor Doug Wilson telling attendees that if they didn’t plan on social distancing during the event, they may get a ticket or get arrested.
Rench explains what happened with his arrest- comments edited slightly for clarity.
“The cops just walked up to me and my mom first because we were kind of the closest to them- they weren’t signaling anybody else. And they asked my mom ‘are you guys together?’ and my mom’s like ‘we’re family’ and she grabs my arm. And then I grabbed my buddy Tyler’s arm…and I said to the cops ‘but we’re not.’
After that, the cop came to talk to me and said ‘give me a license, I’m going to write you a ticket.’ So I said to the cop ‘you don’t need to do this, you don’t need to write me a ticket.’ And the cop repeated himself ‘give me your license.’ And I said ‘look, you’re better than this. It’s your job to actually defend the people… your job is for the citizens, not the mayor.’
And so we kind of went back and forth on this, and then he said ‘this is my last time. I’m gonna arrest you’ and I said, ‘you don’t need to do this’ And then I looked at [Police Chief James Fry] as they’re starting to arrest me, (They’ve had Chief Fry in the studio before and have met in person) and told him this could be his ‘Daniel Moment.’
As Rench was taken into custody, one of the videographers asked what crime he was charged with. Officer Thueson answers:
“He’s been charged with a violation of the city’s ordinance 20-03“
“Every person in the city of Moscow must wear a face covering that covers their nose and mouth when in any indoor or outdoor public setting where the 6-foot physical distancing is not able to be maintained with non-household members.”
In accordance with Moscow City Code Section 1-11-10, any person who knowingly violates the provisions of this order may be charged with a misdemeanor. The maximum penalties for this offense are up to 6 months in the county jail and a $1,000 fine.
Not only do we have confirmation from the arresting officer, but we also have their police report from the city of Moscow. Notice how there is nothing about the refusal to show an ID or resisting arrest.
Contrary to unpopular wokefolk opinion, this story is as egregious as it sounds, and the violation of social distancing, not the refusal to present ID, is the reason at the worshippers were arrested.
“Upon confirmation that the individuals were unwilling to comply with the Order by either social distancing from non-household members or wearing a face covering, five attendees were cited for violating the Order. Of those cited, two individuals were also cited for Resisting and Obstructing, and three individuals were arrested and released from custody the same day. The five individuals that received citations will be prosecuted according to law. “
