California pastor rips Newsom's worship lockdown: 'Churches are not the problem'

Pastor Arthur Hodges, a Pentecostal minister in San Diego, told "Tucker Carlson Tonight" Thursday that California churches are collectively finished with Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom's continued restrictions on houses of worship.

Hodges told host Brian Kilmeade that his church has never shut down in adherence to Newsom's fiat, and said the governor and other politicians should recognize that worship plays a role in the health and well-being of people just as a hospital does.

"We are looking at all of our options right now but the church continues," Hodges said. "We do have a problem with this."

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In response to an increase in the number of coronavirus cases, Newsom announced Monday that indoor worship services can no longer be held in 30 counties on the state's "monitoring list." San Diego County is among those on the list.

"There are over 10,000 churches in California," Hodges told Kilmeade, "and basically we have gotten to the point where we are saying, 'Enough is enough.' We were told in the middle of March the goal that the goal was to flatten the curve and not overwhelm hospitals.

Well, guess what? In San Diego County we flattened the curve in three weeks. It has headed downward and hospitals are underwhelmed."

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Hodges also insisted that churches "are not part of the problem, they are part of the solution" during difficult times.

"While hospitals are treating people with this medical condition, which is needful, the other parts of people's well-being is left out," he said. "Their spiritual well-being and mental well-being, emotional well-being. The church will not be marginalized any longer."