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| Pastor Rodney Howard-Browne., facebook page. |
By Leonardo Blair, Christian
Post Reporter
Some legal experts,
however, disagree with using the First Amendment as a defense for disobeying
government authorities in the throes of a pandemic.
On Monday, pastor
Rodney Howard-Browne, leader of Revival International Ministries and The River
at Tampa Bay Church in Florida, became the first high-profile pastor in the
burgeoning movement to insist his First Amendment rights were being violated
after he was arrested for leading two large worship
services on Sunday.
Howard-Browne was
charged with unlawful assembly and violation of public health emergency
rules — both second degree misdemeanors — for intentionally and
repeatedly hosting church services with hundreds of members in attendance,
despite knowing he was in violation of a stay-at-home order issued by
Gov. Ron DeSantis for South Florida, the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s
Office said.
With legal help from
the Liberty Counsel, a nonprofit litigation firm, Howard-Browne has decided to
fight the charges.
“I know the sheriff
said we can’t hide behind the First Amendment, but we can because I was sworn
in as a citizen of the Constitutional Republic of the United States and I
raised my hand to pledge to defend the Constitution of America against enemies
foreign and domestic,” he said during a Facebook Live broadcast Monday
night. “The nation is under attack and whatever you give up this side you’ll
never get it back.”
He argued that it
makes no sense that churches are being closed while stores like Walmart, Costco
and Lowe’s Home Improvement were being allowed to operate. Restaurants, he
highlighted, are also being allowed to serve takeout despite a clear risk of
spreading the virus.
“As long as you can
keep Lowe's open and Walmart open and Costco and every other place and you go
in there, talk about social distancing. I mean it’s insane. There’s so many
holes in this thing. Even the people who deliver the food … how do you know
where the food’s been cooked? Who’s making it? How do you know that they don’t
have the virus?” he asked.
“Somebody said, 'Well,
they’re gonna catch it at the church.' I beg to differ, they’re at church one
Sunday morning and six-and-a-half days a week they’re everywhere else. How do
you know it wasn’t the last trolley where you put your groceries in that wasn’t
infected? How do you know it wasn’t the last restroom you went into? You don’t
actually know. I know America is fighting with each other right now, which it’s
the whole narrative man. Divide and conquer,” he said.
The Rev. Tony Spell of Life Tabernacle church in Central,
Louisiana, was also hit with a summons for the misdemeanor charge of violating
Gov. John Bel Edwards' March 16 order against gatherings of more than 50 people.
If convicted, Spell
could face a fine of $500 and up to six months in jail, Central Assistant
Police Chief Darren Sibley said in a Los Angeles Times report.
“He was very
compliant. He signed the summons with no resistance,” Sibley said of Spell’s
response to the summons delivered Tuesday. “He prayed for us before we left.”
Spell said he is not
ashamed of being charged with violating the governor's stay-at-home
order.
“Never been more proud
to be persecuted for the faith like my Savior,” he said of the charge against
him which includes six counts — one for every time he held a gathering
since the governor’s order.
Howard-Browne and
Spell are not alone in their conviction that churches should be allowed to stay
open to conduct business as usual during the coronavirus pandemic.
A private test poll of
226 pastors conducted by Barna Research on March 20–23 showed that while a vast
majority of pastors, 67%, have opted to close their churches to observe social
distancing orders in light of the pandemic, 5% said their churches will remain
open as normal. Another 17% said they plan on staying open for small gatherings
or meetings, and 11% will remain open to offer crisis services.
On Sunday, Erik Meares
of Evangel Bible College in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, livestreamed a confrontation on
Facebook between members of a church who were not practicing
social distancing and state police.
The Rev. Alvin Gwynn Sr., the outspoken, 74-year-old leader of
Friendship Baptist Church in Baltimore, Maryland, told The Baltimore Sun that
he has no plans of canceling his church services despite a directive from Gov. Larry
Hogan issued on March 19 limiting the size of gatherings in the
state to 10 people or fewer.
He said while he was
preaching to 10 worshipers on Sunday four patrol cars containing “eight or nine
officers” attempted to enter his church building but his security guards kept
them out until he was done.
“You should have seen
it, man, it looked like a police raid on a drug deal,” Gwynn said.
He explained that he
will continue to abide by the 10 person limit for his services on a first-come,
first-served basis, even for Easter, because he believes in the First
Amendment.
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