Christian Churches and Covid Tyranny
When One San Jose Congregation Stood Up to the Lockdown Bullies
It was in early March 2020 that my family and I went out to eat to celebrate my birthday at a local restaurant. Little did I know at the time that it would be my last time eating out for over a year. About a week later, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine issued his lockdown orders and life as we knew it came grinding to a halt.
At that point, Covid had been in the news for about 2 months. At first, I wasn’t sure what to make of it. But the more I studied it, the more of a hoax the whole thing seemed. To be clear, when I say “hoax,” I don’t mean to say that it Covid wasn’t a real virus, although some people did make that claim. When I say “hoax,” I don’t mean that people didn’t get sick or die from it either. When I say Covid was a hoax, I mean that the entire narrative created around it was false. Everything from its origin, which still has not been adequately explained by official sources, to suspiciously conspiratorial undertakings events such as Event 201 held in October 2019, to the fact that it was made out to be much more deadly than it actually was by health officials using statistical legerdemain, to the fact that there was no attempt by the medical community to provide early treatment or preventative steps to keep from getting it, to the obvious attempt to censor anyone on social media who didn’t lockstep repeat the regime Covid propaganda, to the deadly hospital treatment protocols, to the forced vaccination campaigns using an obviously deadly shot, to the egregious destruction of civil liberties, to the obvious double standards – BLM and Antifa were allowed to riot while everyone else was expected to shelter in place, big box stores could remain open but mom and pop shops were locked down tighter than a drum, churches were closed but shopping malls and liquor stores could remain open – to the obvious attempts by nefarious individuals such as Bill Gates and organizations such as the Vatican, the World Health Organization, and the World Economic Forum to use Covid as an excuse to promote globalism. All these points were huge red flags.
But in my opinion, the reddest of all red flags that served as a tipoff that Covid was an engineered exercise in tyranny was how governments went after the churches. Christians are commanded in the Scriptures not to forsake the assembling of themselves on the first day of the week, the Lord’s Day, which is the Christian Sabbath. But governments everywhere were making it difficult or downright illegal for Christians to do what God had commanded.
Here in Ohio, the state recommended against churches holding services but did not outright ban it. But other states were more aggressive. One of the early, egregious violations of religious liberty took place in Kentucky. As CNN reported on April 11, 2020, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear warned that anyone attending Easter services that coming Sunday was would be ordered to quarantine for 14 days. How would Beshear’s administration know who attended Easter services? The state police would be taking down license plates, presumably in the church parking lot, and notify the attendees that this was a misdemeanor violation and require them to self-quarantine.
My reaction to this was outrage, and I don’t even live in Kentucky. Also, it was this action that removed any last lingering doubt that I had that we were not dealing with a virus, but with a deliberate, planned medical tyranny. When governments forbid what God requires, Christians should have no doubt about who is in the right and who is in the wrong.
One Church’s Heroic Battle with the Covid Tyrants
Many of us have read accounts of churches refusing to go along with the lawless government orders and suffering persecution for obeying God rather than men. John MacArthur’s Grace Community Church is perhaps the best-known example. But it’s not the only case.
I recently was made aware of another California church that went through something very much like MacArthur’s church. In a Substack article, author David Zweig recounted the struggles Calvary Chapel in San Jose, CA had with Santa Clara County, run by some of the nation’s most zealous lockdowners.
I highly recommend all Christians read Zweig’s article titled “When a Renegade Church and a Zealous County Health Department Collide.” For it serves as a cautionary tale of the type of persecution Christians can suffer, even right here in America, when they seek to obey God rather than men. But more than that, it’s also an example of God’s faithfulness to his people when they obey him and refuse in any way to be terrorized by their enemies.
Like many congregations, Calvary Chapel in San Jose initially went along with the lockdown orders. Christians are law-abiding people and are not the sort to go out of the way to cause trouble. So while one could argue that the church should never have closed its doors, it’s understandable that a Bible-believing congregation would make an attempt to abide by the law. But by May, the church and its pastor had had enough. According to Zweig’s article, on May 24, 2020 pastor Mike McClure announced that the church would reopen the following week and would not close again.
This put the church on a collision course with Santa Clara County, leading to two lawsuits one in federal court and one in state court. Both are still pending. One outcome of the church’s obedience to God is that it has been slapped with more than $2 million in fines. But as bad as the fines are, the surveillance of the church by local government officials is at least as disturbing. As Zweig put it, there was, “a multi-faceted surveillance program of the church and its members breathtaking in scope and reminiscent of totalitarian regimes…the spy operation included stakeouts, forced in-person monitoring of prayer groups and other intimate activities, and tracking the cellular mobility data of churchgoers.
Covid, it would seem, brought out the inner fascist in the case of some Santa Clara County officials.
One of the most disappointing facts recounted in Zweig’s article was the willingness of a neighboring church to allow the county’s Business Compliance Unit “to set up camp” on its property to spy on Calvary Chapel. “Enforcement officers, often working in pairs, conducted dozens of stakeouts, spying on Calvary staff and members by peering at them through a chainlink fence from the adjacent property.” This occurred after Calvary Chapel had barred the Unit from its premises in August 2020 after enforcement officers had attended a church service and “left to write up a Notice of Violation for masking, gathering, singing (gasp!), and distancing violations.” God forbid Christians should get together and sing “Amazing Grace” on Sunday morning. Why, you’re gonna kill grandma!!
Closing
On May 11, 2023, a little over six weeks from now, the public health emergency related to Covid-19 will come to an end. This is a good opportunity for Christians to reflect on the events of the past 3 years and their responses to them. What were some things we got wrong? What did we do right? How can we be more faithful the next time we’re faced with government overreach and tyranny supposedly in the service of some public good?
This is wise counsel under any circumstances, but perhaps especially under today’s circumstances. For the people who brought us the Covid scamdemic are still in power and most likely planning their next move. They still control the government, the universities, the schools, and the legacy and social media.
Very obviously, there are any number of potential flashpoints that could set off another round of tyranny here in America as well as around the world. The war in Ukraine, economic collapse, climate lockdowns, political unrest, a new plandemic, and the LGBT agenda. All these and perhaps other engineered emergencies we haven’t thought of could soon face us.
But whatever comes our way, Christians have the written Word of God and the right Man on their side to face it. Let us, therefore, not face the future in fear, but in faith. For as he himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”