Our phones at Liberty Counsel are ringing off the hook. Never in our 31-year history have we received so many calls for help from pastors, desperate to serve their flocks, but not sure how the myriad of state and local orders apply.

Tell America’s Governors – STOP attacking our churches! – Select here

• In Washington state, a pastor and his technical staff of well under the 10-person limit, were ordered not to even go to their sanctuary to record online services or they would be arrested and fined.
• In Greenville, MS, a pastor, his wife and each of the dozen or so congregants sitting in their cars in the church parking lot listening to the sermon being read inside were ticketed and fined $500 each for participating in a “mass gathering,” even though each participant was safely in their own vehicle and each car parked yards apart.
• In Tampa, FL, The River Church, which feeds over 900 families a week in some of their community’s most impoverished neighborhoods, saw the pastor ARRESTED BY THE SAME SHERIFF WHO THREE DAYS EARLIER APPROVED THE CHURCH TO MEET!
• In Chincoteague Island, VA, the pastor and 16 congregants caught worshipping in a sanctuary that normally houses 296, face $2,500 in fines plus one year in jail because they were six people over the 10-person limit. This tiny church, which doesn't have internet, specializes in ministering to hard-core drug addicts — people without cars or internet service either, who rely on in-person meetings to maintain their sobriety.
• In Louisville, KY, pastors are being threatened with arrest if they hold a drive-in or parking lot service with people in their cars, even though the same people can drive to shopping malls and Home Depot and listen to the radio in their cars.

Tell America’s Governors – STOP attacking our churches! – Select here

These are just a handful of the cases across the country right now. Granted, there are some churches, based on the age and demographics of its members and location, which should do only online services. However, I ask that believers look outside the purview of their own church experience and recognize that many churches serve their communities in a way that cannot be done online.

This is not an "all or nothing" proposition—all in-person and jeopardize the health of people, or all online. For many, online church works, but for some, going totally online hurts people that need the various ministries of the church. We should take extraordinary health precautions to protect people—that is a given. But there is no "one-size-fits-all" for every church.

Where one church may focus on a sermon and music, another may be meeting with addicts desperately in need of the in-person support of their church sobriety group to make it through this trying time. Other churches cannot feed the poor if their doors are closed and their parking lots patrolled by officers looking to ticket, arrest or dispel desperate and hungry people.

Tell America’s Governors – STOP attacking our churches! – Select here

As I said above, Liberty Counsel has never been busier. Our staff is struggling to keep up with the calls and cases now coming our way.

Your faxes have already helped move four states to reverse or revise their overly broad restrictions on churches. Kansas just reversed its own governor yesterday.

Help bring some common sense back to this country. We can protect people’s health without a complete shutdown of every church. Now it’s time for us to bring common sense to every state by demanding their governors STOP the overly broad orders against all churches.

Liberty Counsel needs your support now, more than ever. Please, help us defend our churches' constitutional RIGHT to serve their members however the church sees fit. Select here.

In Christ,

Mat Staver
Founder and Chairman
Liberty Counsel

P.S. Millions of people all over the world will be fasting and praying, beginning on Good Friday and throughout the weekend. Please consider taking a day to fast as you can, and pray that our nation will humble itself, repent of our sin and return our hearts to the Lord so that He will heal our land.

P.P.S. Your generous support enables us to defend the sanctity of life, constitutional freedom and family values. Our legal services are always provided free of charge. Please, give generously today!