The megachurch in suburban Los Angeles had finally closed its doors after an unsuccessful legal battle in connection with the coronavirus pandemic. Two months later, it reopened.
“I’m so happy to welcome you into the Grace Community Church peaceful protest,” MacArthur said from the pulpit last Sunday when his congregation, some of whom appeared to be wearing masks as a social distance , came out in applause.
The pastor said his church offers an open tent for worshipers, but photos and videos posted on social media by church officials leave services for inside and tightly packed rows of congrants, most if not all without masks.
When holding church, MacArthur bets on divine protection in a pandemic hotspot. Los Angeles County reports 1,500-2,000 new Covid-19 infections per day.
The pastor told CNN on Tuesday that no members of his megachurch had contracted the virus. MacArthur also said he doubted the accuracy of California’s coronavirus numbers.
“We open the doors because that’s what we are,” he said. “We are a church, and we will trust these people to make adult decisions about the reality of their physical and mental health.”
Why MacArthur Matters
As the coronavirus swept across the U.S. this spring, locksmiths for churches followed suit. Just 6% of Americans who regularly attend services say their community works as usual, according to a recent survey. Most of the pastors who have bucked the rules are frank figures in American Christianity.
MacArthur is not. While he rarely deviates from a theological argument, the longtime preacher is considered a respected as a bird-tongued figure among many evangelists, especially conservative Calvinists.
From his megachurch in Sun Valley, MacArthur’s biblical commentaries, books, and online sermons have influenced countless evangelists. He was president of Master’s College in Los Angeles and founded a related seminary. MacArthur’s media ministry, including the long-running radio program “Grace to You,” earns more than $ 20 million a year in cash donations.
MacArthur’s status has led to some prominent voices supporting his cause.
“I pray and thank you for Dr. John MacArthur,”
tweeted Ronnie Floyd, chairing the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention, “(and) other ministers throughout the country who are concerned with government intervention on the fundamental rights to religious freedom and freedom of assembly. ”
MacArthur also has friends in powerful secular places. The Thomas More Society, a conservative legal firm specializing in religious rights, said Jenna Ellis, a senior legal adviser to President Trump’s 2020 campaign, will be among the attorneys representing the pastor and his congregation.
The Thomas More Society also said the city of Los Angeles sent a cease and desist letter to Grace Community Church with arrest as a daily fine of $ 1,000. Lawyers for the company refused requests for interviews and refused to make a copy of the letter public.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti’s spokesmen referred questions about the letter to the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, which did not respond immediately.
This is not MacArthur’s first brush with civilian authorities. In the 1980s, he and four other pastors at Grace Community Church were declared malpractice by the parents of a church member who committed suicide. In what became a closely attended case, the Supreme Court sat down with the pastors.
What Christians who do not say it with him say
Evangelicals like JD Greear, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, have encouraged their congregations to form smaller huts instead of the large, hand-raising sun services that megachurch is famous for.
Andy Stanley, a megachurch pastor in Atlanta, has said his North Point Community Church would not reopen until 2021.
MacArthur, a famous Reformed preacher whose piety comes with a healthy dose of pugnacity, had strong words for those pastors.
“They do not know what a church is,” the pastor said in a message to his congregation, “and they do not hope their people.”
Other Christians claim that church on Sunday is larger than a shrine. A number recently prompted MacArthur to change his mind.
“It is true that the church of MacArthur cannot meet, but the church of Christ can meet,” wrote Jonathan Leeman, a Baptist preacher and editorial member of 9Marks, a ministry for “building biblical faithful churches.”
“Right now, members of his church can meet in the open air,” Leeman continued. “There is nothing sacrosanct about the particular and present forms of our churches.”
Churches follow all kinds of government guidelines, from fire codes to maximum occupancy limits. Sure, trying to contain a pandemic falls into that category and is not too much of a new government or trying to close churches, other evangelists have argued.
Brad Littlejohn, president of Davenant Institute, a collection of reformed Protestant scholars, wrote a 7,500-word reprint to MacArthur earlier this month. He claimed the pastor was endangering his herd and possibly thousands of other church leaders who might be galvanized by his civil transgression.
“Rev. MacArthur is without a doubt of the opinion that he is taking a courageous stand,” Littlejohn wrote. “I’m afraid he’s rather a confused shepherd who leads countless sheep directly into the firing line.”
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