MARY MARGARET OLOHAN
California Pastor Rob McCoy says the thousands of people who attend services at his church in violation of California coronavirus restrictions are not only coming to worship — they are coming to exercise their liberties.
The pastor discussed action that authorities have taken against him and Godspeak Calvary Chapel in a Thursday interview with the Daily Caller News Foundation. The conversation came after the County of Ventura sought an additional restraining order after Godspeak Calvary Chapel continued to hold worship services despite an initial emergency restraining order issued August 7.
“They’re just upset that we’re not following their protocol,” McCoy told the DCNF.
“All of us are sick of it in the community,” he added. “We’ve lost our businesses.”
McCoy formerly served as a city councilman in Thousand Oaks, but resigned when Governor Gavin Newsom made clear that he was not backing down on the determination that churches were nonessential.
“As an elected official I am in conflict and thus must tender my resignation from the council,” the pastor wrote in a letter obtained by the Los Angeles Times. “I have no desire to put our community at risk and will not. … However this is portrayed, please know I am obligated to do this.”
McCoy told the DCNF that his church has continued to hold church services and stopped social distancing and wearing masks when they perceived that Newsom was allowing protests to go on while banning religious services.
The pastor’s decision to carry on with worship came despite California’s coronavirus restrictions — and despite an emergency temporary restraining order issued against McCoy Friday by Ventura County. A court hearing for the restraining order is currently scheduled for Aug. 31, according to CBS News.
Ventura County Superior Court Judge Matthew Guasco granted the restraining order, which requires the church to cease holding indoor services, to move services outside, to wear masks, and to socially distance, CBS News reports.
The county also sought an additional restraining order against the church after Godspeak Calvary Chapel continued worship services Sunday, a request which the judge denied. This additional restraining order attempted to authorize the Sheriff of Ventura County to take any reasonable action to shut down the church, according to a press releasefrom the church’s legal representation.
McCoy told the DCNF that the services have been attended by thousands, many of whom do not normally go to church but now wish to stand up for their liberties.
“On Sunday when we opened the doors of the church, a very large segment of the attendees were people who never go to church,” McCoy told the DCNF. “They had come to this place because their Liberty had dried up and they went further upstream to find its source. And they realized that God is the author of Liberty and they want it back.”
“Instead, they came to church,” he continued. “It’s a great place to worship. We had skaters and surfers because they had lost their beaches and their skate parks have been filled with sand.”
Both McCoy and the chapel are represented by the nonprofit legal organization Tyler & Bursch, LLP and Advocates for Faith & Freedom.
“I never thought I would see the day where local officials give testimony in the American court system that has the ring of a communist inquisition more than a fair judicial process where the defendant is allowed to prepare and present his evidence,” Attorney Robert Tyler said in a statement.
Influential Pastor John MacArthur and his Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California, are suing the state of California, Governor Gavin Newsom, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, and several other public health officials.
The lawsuit, filed by Thomas More Society Special Counsel Jenna Ellis and Charles LiMandri, seeks to stop the state from enforcing its order forbidding the megachurch from meeting for indoor worship services, arguing that the regulations violate the California Constitution.
The suit seeks to prohibit California from enforcing its unconstitutional and onerous coronavirus pandemic regulations against Grace Community Church and seeks a judgment that the health orders violate the California Constitution.
The complaint states that the American people have begun to see that they are being cheated by their own government. "They have witnessed how the onerous restrictions imposed on them by public officials to allegedly fight the COVID-19 pandemic simply do not apply to certain, favored groups. When many went to the streets to engage in ‘political protests' against ‘racism' and ‘police brutality,' these protestors refused to comply with the pandemic restrictions. Instead of enforcing the public health orders, public officials were all too eager to grant a de facto exception for these favored protestors."
Community Church decided that it would no longer sit by and watch its congregants and their children suffer from an absence of religious worship and instruction. Perhaps unsurprisingly - perhaps not - this led the County of Los Angeles to submit a demand letter to Grace Community Church, ordering it to comply with the restrictions that Los Angeles County deems unnecessary to enforce against so many others. Grace Community Church does not intend to comply."
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