California's All-Out War on Church Worship Intensifies With Bans, Fines, and Sending In Spieshttps://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-n834623In 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.
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(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.