Faithful North Carolinians are fed up with Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s stay-at-home order interfering with their ability to gather for worship.
Churchgoers from across the state gathered in Raleigh on Thursday to demand being able to hold in-person services despite the state’s lockdown in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
The group spearheading the gathering, Return America, is led by Christian educators and pastors. The group announced during the rally that they had filed a lawsuit against Cooper for restricting indoor assemblies in churches.
North Carolina has recently started phase one of its reopening plan, where small outdoor gatherings are allowed, but gatherings of more than 10 people are generally still prohibited, according to the governor’s office. The order encourages masks or cloth face coverings to be worn when outside of the home and coming in contact with others.
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There is no limit to the number of people who can attend an outdoor worship or wedding service under this phase, but the indoor restriction held to a maximum of 10 people bars indoor worship services.
The second phase of reopening would allow indoor worship services with limited capacity.
The legal team involved with the pending lawsuit comes from the Christian Law Association, with Baptist pastor David Gibbs Jr. being the leading lawyer involved in the suit.
“We have the ability to open our churches safely, with higher standards than they are asking us to do,” Gibbs told WRAL, a Raleigh-based NBC affiliate TV station.
Several Republican members of the state House also attended the rally.
The North Carolina Council of Churches, which includes 18 different denominations and 6,200 churches statewide, does not support the push to return to worship yet.
“We understand the danger of sitting beside an asymptomatic person for an hour or more, and until this pandemic is better controlled, the better part of valor is to continue loving our neighbors by keeping our distance from them,” a spokesperson from the church said.
