Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves on Thursday condemned the burning of a church that had filed a lawsuit against state restrictions on large gatherings.
Reeves tweeted that he was “heartbroken and furious.”
“What is this pandemic doing to us?” he said. “We need prayer for this country.”
The church, First Pentecostal Church in Holly Springs, burned to the ground sometime early Wednesday morning, according to police. Grafitti was found in the parking lot reading, “I Bet you stay home now you hypokrits.” The burning is being investigated as arson.
“We’re in a time where I don’t think it’s any secret that there’s a growing hostility toward churches, across the board,” Thomas More Society senior counsel and lawyer for the church Stephen Crampton told Fox News. “And now, here are churches like First Pentecostal that are sort of stirring up the waters by being outspoken and somewhat firm about seeking to protect their constitutional rights.”
The church filed a lawsuit in April after the pastor was given a citation for holding a drive-in service on Easter. A district judge later ruled in the church’s favor, saying that “the First Amendment guarantee of the free exercise of religion is one of the most important ones set forth in the Bill of Rights, and, without question, it grants the church, in this case, the right to assert certain rights which, say, a barbershop would have no right to assert.”
The decision came shortly after Attorney General William Barr intervened in the case of another Mississippi church suing for the right to hold drive-in services.
