California's All-Out War on Church Worship Intensifies With Bans, Fines, and Sending In Spies

[PeteS in CA]

California's All-Out War on Church Worship Intensifies With Bans, Fines, and Sending In Spies

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/victoria-taft/2020/08/24/californias-all-out-war-on-church-worship-intensifies-with-bans-fines-and-sending-in-spies-n834623

In Santa Clara, county officers sent in agents to spy on North Valley Baptist Church, according to documents the county gave to the court. That church has been fined $10,000 for illegally singing in two worship services. Singing.

Santa Clara County taped a four-page letter to the front door of the church announcing that the county was displeased with the singing.
...
(Pastor) Treiber appealed to the local health director and the governor, saying that they are “out of bounds” in issuing the no worship and no singing orders.

You can’t make laws against the church. We have the right to worship. But more than the right to worship under the Constitution, we have a command from God.

In the edict that came to us, we have tried to obey what has been written, the protocol. One of the things that was amazing that we were cited for was we’re not permitted to sing. So, Sunday morning a fine of $5,000 and Sunday night a fine of $5,000; they’re ratcheting everything up.

We have a situation where the county health director said now I’m in charge of the health of the people, and God bless you, you’re not elected, but God bless you. I appreciate you. But I’m in charge of the spiritual health of the people of this city and this area and I’ve been trying to do it for 45 years.

[…] I plead with you, back off.

If you arrest me this week, and I know that is a possibility, that’s not my desire. My desire is to preach God’s word.

I beg you, please stop.

I beg you, look at the stats. Look at the science, Mr. Governor. There’s not a pandemic here. Yes, let’s be safe. Let’s be careful. But this area needs the church.

This article touches on the situations with three churches. The two in SoCal already have threads about their situations. The situation about which I quoted is near where I live, in Santa Clara. Like John MacArthur's church in SoCal, I think North Valley Baptist could accurately be described as a Fundamentalist church. While imperfact like all other Christian groups/movement/denominations, I very much respect Fundamentalists. I do not use the term denigratingly. Godspeak Calvary Chapel could accurately be described as a charismatic church.

FWIW, singing apparently produces no more vapor/aerosol/droplets than does speaking at the same volume level. So singling out singing while allowing speaking is both contrary to "science" and the commands of Scripture.

All in all, this is another case of government applying to churches a different standard than to other large scale gatherings (IIRC, there was a protest several weeks ago in Los Gatos, and AFAIK, neither LGPD not SCCSD interfered). Government should have the wisdom not to force churches into a, "We must obey God rather than men," corner. Doing that benefits no one. If the USC is upheld, the relationship between local governments and churches that provide a wide variety of spiritual and human needs services will be strained. The result will be worse still if governments get their way.

[PeteS in CA]

An update:

Calif. Church That Faced Fines Moves to Outdoor Services: 'I Do Not Want to See People Lost on My Watch’

https://www.christianheadlines.com/contributors/michael-foust/calif-church-that-faced-fines-moves-to-outdoor-services-i-do-not-want-to-see-people-lost-on-my-watch.html

North Valley Baptist Church in Santa Clara, Calif, had tallied more than $50,000 in fines, with its pastor, Jack Trieber, recording social media-style videos urging the county to back down.

But on Sunday, Trieber led the congregation in an outdoor service and indicated the church would be in the parking lot for the near future, although he still hopes the two sides can come to an agreement. Attendees stayed in their cars and tuned to a radio station to hear him, honking their horns in place of “amens.”
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Santa Clara County had filed a lawsuit against the church but has dropped it in light of the church moving its services outdoors, he said.

“To me, that's a victory,” Trieber said.
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The congregation had been social distancing during services by sitting in every other row, Trieber said.

“We reduced a 3,000-seat auditorium down to 1,500 seats, and then we reduced it more than that,” he said.

Trieber said he disagreed with those who want the building opened up as normal, without social distancing. He is responsible, he said, “for the safety of those that come into that building.”
...
“I wonder if we could go every third row [in the building],” Trieber said, addressing the local health department. “I wonder if I can put X amount of people in there and preach two and three times on a Sunday morning.”

“I have confidence that they're going to try their best … to help to get the churches open at the right time,” he said of government officials. ...

The article doesn't make it clear, but Trieber was one of several pastors who met with the health department people last week, a pastor from my church being among them. Also unmentioned is that at least one church (mine) demonstrated a couple of weekends ago that outdoor meetings could be done while doing all the distancing and masking thingies. I'm very sure my church was not the only one that did this.

Many Silicon Valley pastors have long had very good relationships with each other, including giving struggling congregation significant assistance (e.g. "loaning" a struggling pastor-less congregation a pastor with the "loaning" congregation still paying that "loaned" pastor's salary). Conversely, many Silicon Valley churches have long been involved in community projects, to the point that some city and county officials come to certain churches when there is some sort of community need.

The point of that long-winded set-up is that I think these established relationships played a huge part in the health officials and pastors working out a modus vivendi. Frankly, I suspect some some city and county officials had a pointed chat with the health department people in which they detailed the established relationships and community benefits that the hard-nosed health department peoples' bureaucratic pride threatened to impair or destroy.