California Public Health Department Closes ALL Churches Until “I Determine it is Appropriate”

Before this, singing worship to God was banned inside churches.

Now, indoor services are banned. Period.

Local San Francisco CBS Local confirms:

California Governor Gavin Newsom on Monday major rollbacks of the state’s reopening plans as the coronavirus outbreak worsens in the state, extending the closure of all bars and indoor dining statewide and ordering gyms, churches and salons to be shuttered in counties on the state’s watch list.

Effective Monday, all indoor activities are being shut down across the state in the following sectors:

Bars (all operations)
Wineries and tasting rooms
Movie Theaters
Family and Entertainment Centers
Zoos and museums
Cardrooms
Newsom said the new statewide action applies to all counties, not just the counties on the state’s monitoring list.

In addition, the health department is requiring all counties on the state monitoring list to close:

Fitness centers
Worship services
Offices for non-critical sectors
Personal care services
Hair salons and barbershops
Shopping malls

“We’re seeing an increase in the spread of the virus, so that’s why it’s incumbent upon all of us to recognize, soberly, that COVID-19 is not going away anytime soon until there is a vaccine or an effective therapy,” Newsom said.

The state’s list of counties being monitored due to rising COVID-19 cases had grown to a total of 31 counties encompassing about 80 percent of the state’s residents. Alameda, Sonoma and Santa Clara joined Bay Area counties Contra Costa, Marin, Monterey, Napa and Solano that were already on the list.

At least two more counties are expected to be added to the list in the next day or two, said Newsom.

“We’ve made this point on multiple occasions, and that is that we’re moving back into a modification mode of our original stay-at-home order, but doing so utilizing what we’ve commonly referred to as a dimmer switch, not an on-and-off switch. The point of a dimmer switch was to make the point that as data and trendlines, as the experience of reopening in different parts of the state and people beginning to mix in different parts of the state begin to manifest, different conditions would present themselves,” explained Newsom. “As a consequence, we wanted to be prepared for those conditions based on the trendlines, based on the data, based on the science to modify our stay-at-home order subsequently. Meaning not on — open economy — or off — shut down — but a dimmer switch, looking at conditions throughout the nation’s most populous state.”

Despite the new restrictions, California has long been one of the strictest states in regards to lockdowns.

While many other states moved to slowly and safely reopen their economies, California still had major limitations in effect.

Now, however, California appears to be going back to stage 1.

Church leaders are beginning to worry about the overreach of the state government.

Local leaders are beginning to speak out and question the authority, wisdom, and legality of such broad orders throughout the state.

The Sacramento Bee has more details on church leaders beginning to speak out:

As California Gov. Gavin Newsom once again bars houses of worship in much of the state from conducting indoor religious services, some Christian leaders are critical of the governor’s decision.

The order restricting indoor worship services applies to any county on the state’s COVID-19 monitoring list. On Monday, Newsom said that encompasses 80 percent of Californians.

Jonathan Keller, president of the conservative California Family Council, said Newsom’s order shows that the governor “trusts big box stores like Costco and Target more than churches and synagogues.”

As California Gov. Gavin Newsom once again bars houses of worship in much of the state from conducting indoor religious services, some Christian leaders are critical of the governor’s decision.

The order restricting indoor worship services applies to any county on the state’s COVID-19 monitoring list. On Monday, Newsom said that encompasses 80 percent of Californians.

Jonathan Keller, president of the conservative California Family Council, said Newsom’s order shows that the governor “trusts big box stores like Costco and Target more than churches and synagogues.”

“Coupled with last week’s ban on singing during worship services, people of faith are increasingly alarmed by Sacramento’s disregard of their constitutional rights. We have to ask ourselves: where do we draw the line?” Keller said in a statement.

In Lodi, Pastor Jon Duncan of the Cross Culture Christian Center, which had defied Newsom’s previous order and continued to hold indoor services, said the latest order conflicts with the First Amendment right to peaceably assemble and practice religion.

“We believe it’s God-given, as did the (Founding Fathers),” Duncan said.

Duncan said that church provides a necessary outlet for people who are feeling hopeless or depressed.

“People do need church. I think church is an essential service. I think it’s a necessary service,” he said.

Echoing that sentiment was Senate Republican Leader Shannon Grove, R-Bakersfield, who urged Newsom in a letter not to close down houses of worship.

“We must continue to work to protect public safety and health. Effective and data-driven guidelines should be implemented, but a restriction on our First Amendment rights in the form of the government closing down houses of worship cannot be tolerated,” Grove said in the letter.

Dean Broyles, chief counsel and president of the National Center for Law and Policy, which represents Duncan’s church, said in a statement that Newsom’s authority “stops at the church house door.”

“We strongly encourage pastors and religious leaders to follow the teachings of holy scripture and the guidance of their conscience regarding whether and how they worship God, rather than the arbitrary edicts of the state,” Broyles said in a statement.

The move has also struck a nerve with many voters.

Liberal and Democratic leaders allowed BLM protests to flood the streets with little social distancing. 

Multiples images and videos showed protesters shoulder to shoulder protesting against the police and the "system."

Now, however, people can't even practice their freedom of religion by going to church to worship.

While most citizens are expected to peacefully comply, the hypocrisy and double standard does not go unnoticed.