A California pastor defied a judge’s order and held in-door services on Sunday amid coronavirus concerns.
A Ventura County judge issued Godspeak Calvary Chapel a two-week temporary restraining order last week, preventing the church from holding further in-door services.
“The Constitution is not a suicide pact,” Judge Matthew Guasco said Friday of the decision. “The exercise of individual liberties has to be consistent with public health, otherwise, the one would cancel out the other.”
On Saturday, however, the church’s pastor, Rob McCoy, announced he intended to hold services in his Newbury Park church despite the order.
“I wish you didn’t have to come to this, I really do. But we will be violating the judge’s order, we will be open this Sunday,” McCoy said in a video posted online. “Now, I don’t know what that means as far as who’s gonna stop us, but we’re planning on having services at 9, 11, and 1.”
“We’re going to keep worshiping God, if they seek to arrest me and the thousand of you, it’s almost like the first thousand get a prize: You get a citation. It’s a misdemeanor. You want to be one of the thousand? Come,” he added.
McCoy said that county rules concerning worship services are “draconian” and that no one in his congregation has been diagnosed with the coronavirus.
Local California outlet ABC 7 confirmed Sunday that the pastor did, in fact, hold services, which attracted a counterprotest denouncing the lack of face masks and social distancing during the event.
At the end of July, a similar situation unfolded after Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered all counties on the state’s coronavirus watchlist to close indoor activities, including church services. On July 26, more than a thousand people gathered on Cardiff State Beach for a two-hour service and to also protest the closures of churches.
“They miss their church families,” the pastor, Barry Sappington, said of the July beach service. “They miss worshipping. Worship is a core part of a Christ follower’s life, and as you can see, people don’t want to go anywhere. They want to gather, they want to worship, and this is a perfect venue for them to do so.”
Godspeak Calvary Chapel is scheduled for an Aug. 31 hearing on whether to replace the judge’s order or let it expire, according to the Ventura County Star.
