There has been an undeniable and growing unrest among not just Christians, but citizens around the country — and the world for that matter — who are practically imprisoned in their homes by decree of their local and national government leaders amid the coronavirus outbreak. But for Christians in particular, the right and God-given duty to assemble and support the faithful has been at an even greater risk.
Police and local governments have been taking a particularly hard stance around the country on Christians who, for whatever purpose they deem fit, choose to assemble for church services and other gatherings despite the warnings from the government against doing so. Left-wing activists are pouring nails into church parking lots to stop church-goers from having drive-in services, cops are being forced to break up small church services who are following the CDC’s social distancing guidelines, and prominent Southern Baptist leaders are joining the chorus of the far left calling church service “reckless.” And as this publication warned last week, some churches are already being banned by corporate media giants from streaming their services online.
But one denomination is publicly making it clear that they will not comply much longer and has penned an open letter to the federal, state, and local governments around the country warning them that if they don’t re-open the economy soon and begin removing these restrictions, they will be forced to act in civil disobedience to the restrictions placed upon them.
“Our desire is to be obedient to the civil magistrate,” Virgil Hurt, the Presiding Minister of Council of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches (CREC) writes, acknowledging that the intensity of the pandemic did not pan out to be anywhere close to what was predicted by the medical experts, “However, we must also do what we believe God expects of us, what is best for our people and our communities, and what our consciences dictate. For our American members, The U.S. Constitution rightly affords us these rights of speech and assembly because they extend to us from God, Himself.”
The citizens of the United States and our congregants are already beginning to strongly feel the need to get back to regular living. While we do not currently have a date after which we will no longer comply with the extreme restrictions, we believe the time is now at hand for our leaders to stand down from the extreme isolation efforts, and the date after which we will no longer comply, is soon approaching, in days or weeks, not months.
The letter stated that the leadership and members of the denomination are praying for the governments and have acknowledged that many — including members of their churches — have been medically affected by the coronavirus, but that many more will likely be affected greater by the economic shutdown.
