As iron sharpens iron,
one person sharpens another. (Proverbs 27:17)
“After reportedly receiving over $100,000 in fines and facing a lawsuit, North Valley Baptist Church (NVBC) in Santa Clara, California, has decided to drop its legal battle with Santa Clara County and to worship outside instead of indoors.” - C.Leaders
“I believe it is possible for the California State Government and communities of faith in California to have a more coordinated and united effort in addressing the Coronavirus pandemic and civil unrest in our society.” - Kendall Laughlin, Jr.
My heart goes out to churches in places where COVID-related health orders have made it impossible to “gather in a normal way,” to use a phrase from Grace Community Church’s (GCC’s) “Statement from Pastor and Elders.”
Much of the debate over whether churches should submit to COVID-related rules in California has been inaccurately framed. “We must obey God rather than man,” they say (drawing from Acts). Using phrases like “ban on indoor worship” or even “ban on worship,” they represent the options as totaling two: We can (1) obey God by continuing to meet, disobey the manmade rules, and stand up for our rights or we can (2) disobey God by not meeting at all, comply with oppressive orders, and watch our liberties be slowly stripped away.
“While I knew that restrictions have made it harder to immigrate to this country by crossing the border illegally from Mexico or applying for a work visa from China, I didn’t realize that new rules also affect those who flee persecution for their religious faith.” - TGC
“…there is one exception that is clear. When our biblical responsibility to obey government authorities (or any other earthly authority) conflicts with our responsibility to obey God, we must choose to obey the higher authority…..May we too have the grace to disobey government authorities when they command us to do things contrary to the clear teachings of God’s Word.” - P&D
“I can only think of three times in the entire Bible where believers were openly, civilly disobedient—twice in Daniel and once in Acts (Daniel 1, 6, and Acts 4-5). But in all three instances, they simply took a quiet (even silent) stand without going on the offense.” - Rooted Thinking
“To have any chance of seriously mitigating common misperceptions of religious freedom, Evangelicals must publicly demonstrate a sincere commitment to religious pluralism and its necessary counterpart, religious literacy.” - Public Discourse
“The California Court of Appeal late on Saturday set aside a lower court order and reinstated a ban on indoor worship services [in groups larger than 250] for Grace Community Church pastored by John McArthur in Sun Valley.” - WORLD
Reprinted with permission from As I See It, which is available free by writing to the editor at dkutilek@juno.com.
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