Quote Originally Posted by WillBrink View Post
I'm not sure how prevalent this is, but how has your churches handled this? I did see a church service ending in predominantly black church close to my place yesterday that was full of people coming out. It's obviously a difficult issue.

Florida Church Packed with Worshipers

The River Church in Tampa was packed to the gills with worshipers who clearly were looking for hope. Pastor Rodney Howard-Browne, who presides over the megachurch and has been reportedly defiant over social distancing, has claimed he'll cure coronavirus just the way he did with Zika.

He has vowed he will never close his church ... despite every doctor and scientist saying social distancing is the only thing that will prevent the disease from spreading even more.

The Pastor boasted his place was white-glove clean, saying, “We brought in 13 machines that basically kill every virus in the place, and uh, if somebody walks through the door it’s like, it kills everything on them. If they sneeze, it shoots it down at like 100 mph. It'll neutralize it in split seconds. We have the most sterile building in, I don’t know, all of America.”

Howard-Browne said on March 17, "We are not stopping anything. I've got news for you, this church will never close. The only time the church will close is when the Rapture is taking place.”

Cont:

https://www.tmz.com/2020/03/29/chruc...virus-worship/
Quote Originally Posted by Alpha-17 View Post
Sorry if this is a repost, I saw discussion on the service, but not on this:

https://www.fox13news.com/news/tampa...LbooLGoCO7e2qw




Hot Take: This is blatantly unconstitutional. Yeah, they should have stayed home, and not risk spreading the virus. There are other options for spreading the word, and fellowship could still be had by organizing small groups. That said, it's still not justification for a direct violation of the First Amendment. The Consitution can not and should not be thrown out the window every time there's an emergency, or there really are no limits on government. I don't know or care about the policies of this mega-church or pastor. Honestly, he could be as crooked as a dog's hind leg, and it wouldn't matter. This is still a clear and direct violation of the free exercise clause.

Sadly, I can't say I'm surprised by this. It's only a matter of time til we get another Waco out of this because not everyone will go quietly. This is the kind of overreach I've been worried about since before the initial restrictions were put in place. The number of people who are bootlicking over this is alarming, especially the ones that'll do so because of their hostility towards religion.
Disagree. You don't do mass functions during a pandemic. Religious or not. If you said Church functions only, or it extended past the pandemic, then you could get injunctive relief. Otherwise, one of societies and govt's base functions is the common health. Literally prehistoric.

All I know is, those people better go to the back of line for vents. A choir in the PacNW that met on March 10 has 46 of 48 people sick with two dead and they supposedly spaced and Purelled.

If you are banning all big events, it means all big events.