San Jose church punished for standing strong to COVID stupid

OPINION:

Calvary Chapel San Jose has been ordered by a Superior Court judge to pay $1.2 million in fines for violating the Santa Clara County’s coronavirus-tied orders, which included forced face masking and bans on indoor worship.

Fined for fighting stupid — welcome to the Democrats’ world.

Wasn’t this the same California that allowed marijuana shops and liquor stores to stay open all the coronavirus season long; the same California with a governor who went to hoity-toity restaurants to party with Democrat Party faithfuls, absent any social distancing or face-mask wearing? Why yes, yes it was. Science is different for different folks, it seems. Stupid is as stupid Democrats can get away with, it seems.

The $1.2 million comes on the heels of a years-long battle between the church and government. The original fine was $2.8 million, but it’s been reduced on appeal. And it will probably be reduced — to zero — on further appeal. After all, the U.S. Supreme Court has already ruled that religious freedom trumps little county government health bureaucrat dictate.

“The U.S. Supreme Court has temporarily barred New York from enforcing strict attendance limits on places of worship in areas designated coronavirus hot spots,” NPR reported in late November, 2020.

Then this, in February of 2021, from the same news source, NPR: “Supreme Court Rules Against Calif., Doubles Down On Religious Rights Amid Pandemic” — a headline above a story about California’s failed try to ban indoor religious services as a means of fighting the pandemic.

How many times do Democrats have to be told they can’t keep Americans from going to church?

In court, it’s called First Amendment.

In this country, though, it’s called God-given — as in, it’s a God-given liberty to worship. The Constitution simply underscores that God-given right.

Every chance Dems have to toss out God, though, they take it. Just look at their Democratic National Convention a few years back when they tried to remove “God” from their platform — then booed loudly when three voice votes resulted in the reversal of that decision.

The coronavirus was a great tool for leftists to go after the church.

California’s Superior Court may have ordered Calvary Chapel San Jose to pay $1.2 million in fines for the crime of holding religious services against the rogue dictates of a couple of government pinheads. But the fine probably won’t stand.

In a nation built on a quest for religious freedom, and forged on an American Exceptionalism ideals of rights coming from God, it’s government that holds the subservient position here; not God. Not the church. Not worshippers and believers and Christians.

“There hasn’t been a singled COVID-19 case traced to the church,” said Bob Tyler, president of Advocates for Faith & Freedom, in The Daily Signal. “To claim that this is about public safety is just false.”

Right.

It’s about power. 

It’s about the Democrats’ lust for control — and their refusal to stand down in the face of law and order rulings.

“[T]he attorney representing Calvary Chapel, Mariah Gondeiro, said this [case] is about the country’s pride,” NBC wrote.

Exactly.

Democrats don’t want to cede the powers they seized under the false fears they generated about the pandemic. And when they’re told to cede the powers, they cry like tantrum-throwing toddlers.

They’ll waste tax dollars all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court — again — only to be told — again — they can’t fine the church for doing its church business, after which they’ll rail and rant and huddle in the dark corners to come up with a new strategy to defeat the church, defeat the faithful, defeat religious freedoms, defeat even God.

Again. And again. And again.

Democrats, when it comes to attacking religious freedom, are like cockroaches. They just never seem to die away.

• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter and podcast by clicking HERE. Her latest book, “Lockdown: The Socialist Plan To Take Away Your Freedom,” is available by clicking HERE  or clicking HERE or CLICKING HERE.