by Tyler O’Neil, PJ Media:

On Thursday, Pastor John MacArthur and Grace Community Church in Los Angeles, Calif., filed a lawsuit against Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-Calif.), Mayor Eric Garcetti (D-Los Angeles), and other state and local officials, claiming that coronavirus orders prohibiting in-person worship services while officials encourage politically-favored protests violate the California Constitution. After Newsom ordered churches to shut on July 13, Grace Community Church announced it would remain open.

On July 29, the City of Los Angeles sent a cease-and-desist letter, threatening Grace Community Church and MacArthur with a daily fine of $1,000 or arrest. The letter gave him one day to respond. On Sunday, August 2, health officials came to the church, asking to inspect the premises. The church declined to let them in without a warrant and told them to speak with the church’s counsel. At that, they left.

The lawsuit filed Thursday seeks a court injunction preventing government officials from enforcing the order. “We stand firm to continue fulfilling our biblical mandate from Christ to proclaim the Gospel and assemble together, and I earnestly hope that our stance will encourage other pastors, churches, and the general public across America and the world to also stand firm for biblical Truth. Church is essential,” MacArthur said in a statement.

The lawsuit argues that the American people have witnessed that “the onerous restrictions imposed on them by public officials to allegedly fight the COVID-19 pandemic simply do not apply to certain, favored groups. When many went to the streets to engage in ‘political’ or ‘peaceful’ protests purportedly against racism and police brutality, these protestors refused to comply with the pandemic restrictions. Instead of enforcing the public health orders, public officials were all too eager to grant a de facto exception for these favored protestors.”

While government officials could have shut down the anti-racism protests just as Newsom banned anti-lockdown protests, they instead decided to encourage the anti-racism protesters to “express” their “rage” so the public could “hear” it. Officials even gave the protesters a pass on wearing masks.

John MacArthur Lawyers Up as LA Threatens Jail Time Over in-Person Church Services

This favoritism has “caused amazing harm,” the lawsuit alleges. “As explained by Los Angeles County’s Public Health Director, the ‘George Floyd’ protests caused a spike in coronavirus cases in June and July 2020.” Californians in the 20-50 age bracket also experienced “mitigation fatigue,” breaking pandemic restrictions and increasing the spread of the virus.

“But amazingly, although California’s and Los Angeles’s refusal to enforce their pandemic restrictions against favored protestors has led to a spike in coronavirus infection rates—with the causal connection undisputed by the parties—that refusal to enforce has not led to any spike in hospitalizations and deaths. Instead, the rates of actual harm flowing from the pandemic have continued to spiral downwards to negligibility,” the lawsuit notes.

This turn of events “irreparably damaged the confidence of Americans—and Californians
especially—who now realize that the pandemic restrictions are neither necessary nor good,” the lawsuit claims.

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