San Jose Will Fined a Way to Worship
America is in a desperate situation right now, and the Left wants to control and limit the church.
If someone asked you where Christians could be fined $300,000 for worshipping Jesus, most of you would probably say communist China. Try San Jose, California. That’s where liberal local officials have decided to make an example of any congregation willing to stand up to the governor’s ridiculous orders. They’re willing to bankrupt churches and even send Calvary Chapel Senior Pastor Mike McClure to jail for daring to safely gather God’s people.
“I don’t want to break the law,” he said to the congregation on Sunday, “but I’m called to preach gospel.” McClure also made it clear that by showing up, anyone could be in trouble with the law. “…[T]hey could arrest you, give you a fine, or a citation,” he warned. That didn’t seem to deter the 600 or so people in attendance. They cheered McClure’s bold stand, which attorneys defended yesterday in a Santa Clara County court.
“Over the past five months, not one person has contracted COVID-19, they have contributed zero to the infection rate of this county,” said Mariah Gondeiro, who’s representing the church. Despite that fact, Santa Clara officials have been relentless. County counsel James Williams told reporters, “We tried to work with them for a long time. They’ve admitted to the violations, and so we are seeking the help of the court in enforcing these really important orders,” he said. “The reality is, almost every congregation, regardless of faith tradition has been safely in compliance with the public health directives.”
Other area pastors have come to McClure’s defense, arguing that they’ve had 600 people in a space that holds almost 2,000. “What I see happening right now is cruel and unusual punishment — $330,000 in fines levied against a pastor simply for opening up,” said Hector Moreno with the Home Church in Campbell. Unfortunately, McClure said, the health department shows no interest in finding a fair solution for local churches. “They came here, got really upset and yelled at us and left, they never wanted to talk to me or work with me — and I’d love to, we’re trying to help the community.”
As several respected medical experts have pointed out, California’s virus situation isn’t nearly as dire as local officials have described it. Just last week on “Washington Watch,” Dr. Andrew Bostom was explaining that there are actually a lot of reassuring long-term COVID trends right now, showing that “we’ve really flattened out in terms of hospitalizations and deaths and even infections.” And unfortunately, the fearmongers in the media and liberals in the Democratic Party refuse to recognize any of that. “They will take any little uptick and stick that on the front of the web page. And I think this is being done all over the country.” But, with the exception of the elderly, the actual infection-fatality ratio is about 6.5 percent, “so five in 10,000 people under 70.”
Keeping people locked up and disconnected is what has actually hurt people — a fact that President Trump pointed out in the final debate. When Joe Biden — who vowed to lock everyone back down if he’s president — said ominously, “We’re about to go into a dark winter,” the president replied, “I don’t think we’re going to have a dark winter at all. We’re opening up our country. We’ve learned and studied and understand the disease, which we didn’t at the beginning… Ninety-nine percent of young people recover… We have to recover. We can’t close up our nation… or you’re not going to have a nation.”
America is in a desperate situation right now, and the Left wants to control and limit the church. I shared the reality of the choice that is before voters Sunday at King Jesus Miami church in Miami, Florida. As George Barna, a well-known pollster that has studied religious beliefs and behavior of Americans better than anyone has said, “This election is really not about personality, it’s not about politics. It’s about which worldview will dominate.” And I agree.
Which worldview will it be? A worldview that denies the reality and sovereignty of God through public policy? That promotes abortion and makes you pay for it, redefines marriage and human sexuality, and punishes any dissent? A worldview that seeks to quarantine Christianity within the four walls of our church — or as we’ve seen with the shutdowns, the four walls of your home — denying you the ability to live your life according to your Christian faith?
Or will we have the worldview that founded America and has sustained it for 244 years? The view that acknowledges we are endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights, among them life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? That’s what’s on the ballot this Tuesday. We know the Left’s answer. What about yours?
Originally published here.
Kamala Practices Socialism Distancing
More than a million people have watched Senator Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) try to laugh her way through one of the most serious questions of this election. Would she bring her “socialist or progressive perspective” to the White House? In the “60 Minutes” interview that’s making plenty of voters queasy, Harris’s face freezes in stunned surprise before she cackles like she’d been asked the most ridiculous thing in the world. But is it? Not according to her own Twitter account, where — two days before the election — she shared her Marxist vision for America.
The post, which carries more than its share of risk, was a surprising move. After months of deflecting questions about his running mate’s extremism, Joe Biden will now have to spend the last 24 hours before the election explaining why Senator Harris is preaching “equity” over equality.“ In the cartoon she shares on her feed, two men — one white and one black — are at the foot of the mountain. Only the white man can reach the rope and begins climbing. "Equality suggests, ‘Oh, everyone should get the same amount,’” Harris says in narration. “The problem with that [is], not everybody’s starting out at the same place.” She talks about the government giving everyone the same resources and support (read: redistribution of wealth) so that people can be on equal footing.
The backlash was almost immediate. “Sounds just like Karl Marx,” Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) argued. “A century of history has shown where that path leads. We all embrace equal opportunity, but government-enforced equality of outcomes is Marxist,” she insists. Congressman and former Navy SEAL Dan Crenshaw agreed, warning that this was “the false promise of the Left in one minute… They leave out the part where equity must be enforced with unequal — and tyrannical — treatment.”
For Joe Biden, who’s been trying to tamp down concerns about Senator Bernie Sanders’s (I-Vt.) influence on his campaign, this latest post is a disaster. In a townhall last week, even NBC allowed the former vice president to be asked about the Democrats’ push for socialism. “Do I look like a socialist?” Biden fired back. “Look, I’m the guy that ran against the socialist,” he argued — without acknowledging the very uncomfortable reality that his own platform was co-written by Sanders and included the most radical policies ever embraced by a modern party. He, like the rest of Democratic headquarters, is obviously praying no one reads it.
Even Harris’s smile faded when “60 Minutes” anchor Norah O'Donnell reminded her, “You’re considered the most liberal United States senator.” Harris shrugged, suggesting that Mike Pence had made up that label at the debate stage. To her credit, O'Donnell pushed back. “Well, actually,” she said, through Harris’s nervous laughter, “the nonpartisan GovTrack has rated you as the most liberal senator. You supported the Green New Deal. You supported Medicare for All. You’ve supported legalizing marijuana.” As Brad Polumbo points out on NRO, “Whether she embraces the label "socialist” or not, Harris’s stated agenda and Senate record both reveal her to be positioned a long way to the Left on matters of economic policy.“ And if Joe Biden is elected, she is one step away from running the country — and it’s a smaller step than people want to believe.
As Donald Trump said in the final debate, it isn’t just Harris pushing these agendas. Joe Biden has moved so far to the Left that he might as well be in another zip code from the Obama years. "He wants socialized medicine,” the president warned. And it doesn’t matter if he says it or not. “His vice president… wants it even more. Bernie Sanders wants it. The Democrats want it. You’re going to have socialized medicine.” Don’t trust what he says, Trump warned. Trust his platform. Trust his running mate’s voting record. Neither of them, I guarantee, will strike you as funny.
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Originally published here.
The Trump Administration: Pro-Life When No One’s Looking
For weeks, we’ve been reminding people that this election isn’t just about the president but about the president’s team. USAID Acting Administrator John Barsa put a fine point on that Friday, when he showed that the administration is working right up until the final buzzer to protect life — doing much more than anyone realizes or expects on the core issues that a majority of Americans care about.
Whether Donald Trump is the president for four more years or two more months, Barsa and the rest of Trump’s agencies are going to make the time count. Late last week, the head of USAID issued a statement explaining that his agency had no intentions of letting up on protecting unborn life. “The United States is the world’s largest bilateral donor to global health programs,” Barsa explained. “The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is committed to the well-being of all women and children and to ensuring all of our partners are in compliance with abortion-related legal restrictions and the Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance.” He goes on to write that USAID takes compliance with all abortion restrictions “seriously” and reminded our grant partners that they apply to every contractor and subcontractor.
“USAID plans to work with our implementing partners and their sub-recipients to review their compliance activities, which could relate to training, implementation, monitoring, and documentation, as well as to raise awareness of possible sanctions and consequences for non-compliance,” Barsa insisted. “The United States is strongly committed to promoting a culture of life and ensuring that our global partners act in conformity with that commitment.”
This isn’t the kind of thing that usually makes the news. Most Americans have no idea that the Trump administration has drawn such a clear line on U.S. tax dollars and abortion in its communications. And yet it continues, even when people aren’t really looking. That’s the kind of commitment this president and his team have to the sanctity of human life. They are continually looking for pro-life opportunities and messaging moments.
That’s a stark contrast from Joe Biden and Senator Kamala Harris’s (D-Calif.) approach — which would be just as committed, unfortunately, to using tax dollars to fund abortion. And not just in America, but around the world in every nation. This is a duo that’s promised to overturn the Hyde amendment, repeal the Mexico City policy, and make abortion our biggest export. They want to increase funding to Planned Parenthood, codify Roe v. Wade into law, and make abortion a litmus test for judges.
To see just how devastating the Democratic ticket would be on the issue of life, check out their campaign promises and voting record — and then compare it to what Donald Trump has done. “A Biden-Harris administration would be, by any honest account, the most pro-abortion political force in American history,” Dr. Albert Mohler warns. And while there are many issues that concern us, the sanctity of human life is the most fundamental of all. If a leader can’t get that right, what can they?
Originally published here.
This is a publication of the Family Research Council. Mr. Perkins is president of FRC.
