Baptist Church That Prominently Resisted COVID Lockdowns Passes Church Bylaw Pledging to Defy Gov’t

[mountaineer]

Baptist Church That Prominently Resisted COVID Lockdowns Passes Church Bylaw Pledging to Defy Gov’t on Future Constraints
Protestia
Sept. 11, 2023

A Baptist church known for being one of the first churches in the country to be fined for opening their doors during the Covid lockdown, (if not the first) and who made international news after their pastor publicly tore up a governmental ‘cease and desist letter’ from the pulpit, has unanimously passed a new church bylaw formalizing that they will never again close their church under threat by any government.

In June 2020, the Baltimore County Department of Permits fined Calvary Baptist Church in Dunfalk, MD, led by pastor Stacey Shiflett, $500 for their May 17th service. The government accused them of having “unsafe structures” for having more than ten parishioners in their building, even though they had a 600-seat auditorium. Stacey, in turn, publicly tore the edict up, declaring, “Newsflash: Pharaoh doesn’t get to dictate to God’s people how they worship their God!”

Though many people at the time offered to pay the fine, Shiflett refused all aid offers. The case against them was eventually dropped, but it wouldn’t have mattered if it hadn’t. When we reached out for comment, he told our reporter: “I told my church I would go to jail before we paid a fine. This is America” and that “bottom line, we determined never to shut our doors again. It violates our understanding of Scripture and is a flagrant violation of our First Amendment rights.”

The church, which presently runs 350 congregants in a Sunday morning service and had 150 qualified voting members during their evening service, passed a bylaw that said just that: receiving UNANIMOUS support from the entire church in a secret ballot, belying the church’s unity on the matter. ...