If history has shown us anything, it’s that it regularly repeats itself. One of the most repeated historical phenomena is that Christianity is anathema to totalitarian states. Persecution becomes the norm, as happened under the Caesars in Rome, under Islam in the Middle East, under the Nazis in Germany, and the Communists everywhere. Today, California is showing roots of totalitarianism by attacking Christianity.
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, state governments have shut down churches across the country. While most states have since eased their restrictions, California has gone into full persecution mode, according to Republican California Senate Minority Leader Shannon Grove, in a recent interview with Stephen Strang, CEO of Charisma Media.
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Grove explained,
We have churches where the governor is telling people how they can worship, how long they can worship. He says, “No singing or chanting,” which means worship and prayer. He says no instruments that are horns or that use physical exertion and air to blow through. He says everybody must wear a mask. He says you have to open at 25% capacity. He’s telling not only worshippers and the church how to worship; he’s telling them when they can worship and how they can worship.
The governor has passed policies that have hurt families. You have unemployed, 1.6 million people still not receiving benefits from the unemployment office since he took their jobs away 208-plus days ago. He still hasn’t offered any benefit to them because the unemployment office is so messed up. The churches are essential, and they should be partnering with the government, and the government should be partnering with them to fill those gaps and fill those holes. Wholeness and counseling and things that the church can offer would be beneficial to those who are hurting in the state of California. But the governor is not taking that route. He is hostile; he is attacking the churches.
Grove goes on to attack California Governor Gavin Newsom for allowing abortion clinics and private businesses to continue to operate with few restrictions while clamping down with severely oppressive limitations on the state churches:
Every abortion clinic can operate. They had businesses: Target, Walmart, Lowe’s, Home Depot. So, it’s safe. It’s safe to go to an abortion clinic and a liquor store. Why isn’t it safe to attend church? Gov. Newsom didn’t even allow the pastors and churches to help create guidelines to keep people safe. Instead, he just said, “No, you cannot operate,” and what he did say was that they could operate in a certain percentage of capacity based on the county they’re in, which made it very difficult.
Grove, one of the thousands who attended the Christian “Let Us Worship” event outside the State Capitol, said:
They estimated 8,000 people showed up at the California State Capitol to worship the Lord, and Sean Feucht led it, and pastors were making declarations, and prophetic words were spoken over our beautiful state. And the governor actually put out guidance on those types of gatherings just because of what Sean Feucht did that day with those pastors. It is now against the guidance and against state policy for the Department of California Public Health to have any type of those gatherings like we had as a worship service to protest the governor not allowing us to worship. So, it just keeps going further and further and further away from what God’s values are.
Grove then spoke about the churches in California that are fighting Newsom’s draconian assault on the church:
I can tell you that I’m very, very proud of over 2,800 churches that opened May 31 and said, “We are worshipping our God, and you’re not going to tell us how to do it.” Now some of those churches you’ve heard about in the media — John MacArthur, Rob McCoy, and others are being persecuted by their county governments and the state government — they’ve been dragged into court; they’ve been fined.
Grove then goes on to warn Christians in other states that their religious liberties are under direct assault by the government, and how actions must be taken against this tyranny:
The counties are coming after our pastors, and the government is coming after our pastors. And what’s sad to recognize is that it’s not being shown in the media. And if people understood that pastors were being persecuted in this way — that they were being fined, that they were being threatened with jail time, that they have to have attorneys to defend them to preach God’s Word and to operate as a pastor in a church — I think America would wake up because that happens in countries where you have no religious freedom and religious rights. You don’t have a Constitution that protects you. It should never be happening in the United States of America.
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