70 | When do Christians cross the line on civil disobedience?
In this podcast I discuss the tensions in the Christian community over acts of civil disobedience. Are there times when believers should disobey governments?
All posts tagged: civil disobedience
Growing support of civil disobedience for church services: Poll
According to a recent poll conducted by Public Religion Research Institute, and Ryan Burge, an Eastern Illinois University professor, there is a growing support for churches to defy the COVID-1984 lockdowns and start holding church services. But here is what is really bizarre. The poll showed that while over 60% of Americans were fine with church’s defying COVID0-1984 lockdowns, only 34% of church attenders supported such acts of civil disobedience.
‘Let my people go’
When God was ready to deliver Israel out of Egypt, He gave these instructions to Moses: Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of the Hebrews, says: “Let my people go, so that they may worship me.” (Exodus 9:1 NIV) What we often miss in this passage is that God uses people in the fight for freedom. And several churches in California are facing similar battles as different levels of government are using legal means to try to stop churches from holding worship services during the COVID lockdowns. And churches and pastors are standing up to them. Perhaps the most ludicrous involved a $1,000 fine levied against Lady of Angels Catholic Church based in Arcadia, CA, after 11 people were caught leaving the 500-seat building after a time of prayer. The church was actually fined $500 for allegedly breaking COVID regulations and $500 for not allowing an inspector to enter the building. On the other side of the fine spectrum, Calvary Chapel …
UPDATE: Pastor John MacArthur disobeys court order and holds church service
A few days ago I reported how John MacArthur’s Grace Community Church based in Los Angeles, CA won a court case allowing the congregation to resume church services. The church took the city and state officials to court arguing that the state mandated limits on the number of people attending a church service was unconstitutional. The Covid lockdown limited church attendance to 25% of a church’s capacity or 100 people, what ever was lower. On Friday, Aug. 14, 2020, a Superior Court judge ruled that Grace Community Church could continue services provided that families social distanced and everyone wore masks. They could function under these conditions until a full court case was heard on the matter on Sept. 4, 2020. However, the Los Angeles Health Department immediately appealed the Friday decision to the California Court of Appeal and won a stay against the ruling the next day. This meant the church must abide by the state’s current lockdown regulations until the court hearing in September. But in response, the church defied the second ruling and …
California churches battle back against Gov. Newsom
There is a battle brewing in California between Gov. Gavin Newsom and Christian churches. According to the state’s lockdown rules, churches are limited to 25% capacity or 100 people, depending on what is lower. This means churches that can seat three to five thousand people can only have 100 people attending a service at one time. But what is bothering churches is that this 100 person cap is not applied equally to other business, including restaurants. And in acts of civil disobedience, several churches have announced that they will be returning to public services and purposefully violate the cap, with or without the government’s permission. One of those churches is Grace Community Church located in Los Angeles. Pastored by John McArthur, the church’s auditorium can seat 3,000 people, and prior to the Coronavirus was handling two services a day, with both running at full capacity. Even though there are threats that the city would cut off power to the church, in a letter posted on its website, the church said it would move ahead with …
50 | Christians in the age of civil disobedience?
In this podcast I want to talk about Christians and civil disobedience and I even include women in this discussion because of what is happening in Iran.
OpentheWord.org 