LA County rescinded all COVID-19 outbreak related requirements and restrictions on Grace Community Church on November 12.
What if the church is a place where lives are transformed from the inside out, where people make decisions to follow Christ, and find not only find community, but actual real and powerful solutions to their failing marriage, their chronic mental illnesses, their abject loneliness, their anger and fear and judgment, and pain?
Contempt of court is a quasi-criminal act, and the court cannot punish someone for breaking a regulation if that regulation is not constitutional.
Los Angeles County lost another battle in its bid to stop Grace Community Church from meeting indoors today. Judge Mitchell L. Beckloff found that, contrary to the County’s representation, the Sun Valley megachurch led by Pastor John MacArthur did not violate any court order because no court order prohibited the congregation from meeting indoors.
Five months into the pandemic shut-down, Los Angeles County is asking for the courts to find that Grace Community Church Pastor John MacArthur acted in contempt of court for holding services this past weekend, and for fines of $20,000 against church leaders and the congregation.Â
On August 2, 2020, the church again met indoors and Pastor McCoy said he was “willing to go to jail” and “willing for them to take our building” rather than comply with the state and local orders.
Although the Small Business Administration typically works with for-profit enterprises, the CARES Act does not exclude non-profit organizations from this funding, including churches. Banks will distribute these loans to qualifying organizations on a first-come, first-served basis.Â
It is more than fear. It is more than uncertainty. It is even more than mere misinformation. The Coronavirus has some people making suicide runs with religious fervor such as we have not seen since Jim Jones and his poison-spiked Kool-Aid.
Although Luther wrote it nearly 500 years ago, his advice on how to handle an epidemic is still valid. Trust God and take precautions.Â
It is greater and more defining than the shootings of JFK, Reagan or even 9/11 because it is, for the first time, a global marker in time; one of a shared moment of terror they all experienced together.