Name: California Pastor Sued Over Church Opening
Uploaded: 2020-12-10T20:24:38.000Z
Description: A public health officer in Northern California has filed a lawsuit against a pastor and his chapel for holding church services for hundreds of people. Congregates held a protest, citing infringement on First Amendment rights.

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A public health officer in Northern California has filed a lawsuit against a pastor and his chapel for holding church services for hundreds of people. Congregates held a protest, citing infringement on First Amendment rights.

Religious freedom came into question when a Santa Clara County’s health officer filed a lawsuit against the Calvary Chapel San Jose.

The court hearing for the suit happened yesterday. The defendant is Pastor Mike McClure. County officials imposed fines on McClure for opening his church on May 31. He did so in defiance of Governor Gavin Newsom’s restrictions on public gatherings.

“We have a lot of people in our church who have had someone that’s either a relative or neighbor who's committed suicide. This bothers me. It should bother all of us. What we want to do is help people, we want to minister to people. We don’t want anyone to get sick. No one in our church has gotten sick. No one’s gone to the hospital, and nobody’s died,” said Pastor Mike McClure of the Calvary Christian Fellowship.

“I respect the judge. I understand what the laws are, but there’s a bigger law. I have to get told 'you gotta either follow God or you gotta follow man.' I have to follow what God’s word says.”

The judge ordered the church to pay sanctions for not complying with its previous restraining order. McClure’s lawyer said the sanctions are $2,500 per day, and may amount to $55,000 and that it’s in addition to the previous fines of over $700,000.

“We are gonna appeal, and we’ll address the fines through the court system. And I think, I believe in the end, all the fines from the county and the sanctions issued today. I believe they’ll all be wiped away,” said President Robert Tyler at Advocates for Faith & Freedom.

A rally was held outside the courthouse. Attendees included supporters of the First Amendment, members of the chapel’s congregation, and other pastors.

Two of McClure’s sons spoke about the necessity of people’s freedom of choice and the First Amendment.

“So we should have the freedom to be able to decide what’s safe for us, and if the people think church isn’t safe, then they should just not come, the government should have nothing to say in that whatsoever. They're going against the First Amendment when they do that, they’re not going against necessarily with my father or me, so they have to beef that out almost with the founding fathers,” said one of his sons.

“Their job, the people in authority, our government, is put in place to protect our rights, and right now they are not fulfilling—for most parts—for most parts of the government, they’re not fulfilling that duty, so I’m just amazed that we’re allowing them to do that,” said another one of his sons.

An attendee mentioned that suicide has been a problem during the lockdown. He said denying people access to churches is not good.

“For Gavin Newsom to turn around and say we can not sing or chant, and basically saying we can’t worship or pray, in church, I think that’s ludicrous, that’s very bad stuff, it’s just a direct attack against Christianity,” said the attendee.

One mother said she was grateful that her sons, ages 13 and 10, were able to get baptized in-person a few weeks ago.

“We believe strongly in the First Amendment and our rights. We’re a homeschool family. We got 6 kids. And we’re constantly teaching them about their rights with freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom to assemble,” said Anna Puffer.

“I would say the same thing as my mom, but basically, if there wasn’t, if church wasn’t open, not many people would be able to get baptized like me and my brother,” said Puffer's son.

The legal team representing Calvary Chapel said they filed a federal hearing for Dec. 17.

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