Pastor on new California COVID lockdown: Enough is enough
Churches are not part of the problem, Pastor Arthur Hodges of the South Bay Pentecostal Church in San Diego tells Brian Kilmeade on 'Tucker Carlson Tonight.'
A network of California churches filed a lawsuit against Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday, defying the state's coronavirus lockdown orders against holding indoor church services while state officials encourage protests.
Che Ahn, the lead pastor of Harvest Rock Church, addressed the Democrat governor in his message Sunday at the Pasadena location, CBSLA reported.
CALIFORNIA PASTOR RIPS NEWSOM'S WORSHIP LOCKDOWN: 'CHURCHES ARE NOT THE PROBLEM'
“I want us to pray right now that we will win that court case. No one is above the Constitution. No one is above the law," Ahn told his congregation. “As a pastor, I believe we’ve been essential for 2,000 years."
Liberty Counsel is representing Harvest International Ministry, which also has churches in Corona, Irvine, and is connected to thousands of ministries around the world.
“I just feel the hypocrisy of encouraging protests. We are all for that but let’s just be consistent,” Ahn said.
CALIFORNIA PASTOR TO DEFY NEWSOM'S SHUTDOWN, POSSIBLY RUN FOR GOVERNOR
"Newsom encourages tens of thousands of people to gather for mass protests, he bans all in-person worship and home Bible studies and fellowship. Such repression is well-known in despotic governments, and it is shocking that even home fellowship is banned in America," Mat Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, said in a statement on the lawsuit. "This outrage will not stand!”
Ahn's congregations are the latest to join the battle between Newsom and houses of worship over coronavirus restrictions.
Three Northern California churches – Calvary Chapel of Ukiah, Calvary Chapel of Fort Bragg and River of Life Church in Oroville – filed a lawsuit Wednesday, represented by the American Center for Law & Justice, seeking to block Newsom's July 1 ban on singing in houses of worship to stop the spread of coronavirus.
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After facing another spike in COVID-19 cases, Newsom announced last week that all bars across the state must close and that restaurants, wineries, tasting rooms, family entertainment centers, zoos, museums, and card rooms must suspend indoor activities.
Some houses of worship had to shut down again, too. The governor announced that all gyms, places of worship, malls, personal care services, barbershops, salons, and non-critical offices in counties on the state’s “monitoring list” had to shut down under the new order. The order affects more than 30 counties which are home to about 80 percent of California’s population.
Fox News' Morgan Phillips and Andrew O'Reilly contributed to this report.
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