Mon Apr 17, 2023 – 2:39 pm EDT
SAN JOSE (LifeSiteNews) — Three years after the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, months after the end of California’s state of emergency, and just before the expiration of the national emergency declaration, a Christian church in California has been ordered to pay $1.2 million in fines for bucking local mandates by continuing to hold services in 2020 and 2021. The church plans to appeal the order.
In the Good Friday decision, California Superior Court Judge Evette Pennypacker ruled that San Jose’s Calvary Chapel must pay the fines because they refused to enforce so-called “simple, unobtrusive” mask mandates in compliance with the county’s top-down rules.
“It should appear clear to all — regardless of religious affiliation — that wearing a mask while worshiping one’s god and communing with other congregants is a simple, unobtrusive, giving way to protect others while still exercising your right to religious freedom. Unfortunately, Defendants repeatedly refused to model, much less, enforce this gesture,” Pennypacker wrote in the 32-page ruling, despite the fact that research indicates that mask mandates did nothing to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
READ: New York Times finally admits masks
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