The state of California and Los Angeles have agreed to pay $800,000 in legal fees to settle their lawsuit with John MacArthur’s church over COVID-19 lockdown rules.

MacArthur’s Grace Community Church of Sun Valley had been involved in months of legal battles with state and local officials over his refusal to adhere to ongoing lockdown restrictions…

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The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors agreed to the settlement….due in part to recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings that overturned various public health measures in response to COVID-19 that specifically targeted houses of worship…

Last August, MacArthur and his church sued California over its ongoing ban on indoor worship services in response to the coronavirus.

Although Grace Community Church had initially adhered to the state lockdown rules, they returned to in-person worships in defiance of the state’s ongoing public health orders.

“California has no such power to determine whether churches are ‘essential,’ as the federal and state constitutions have already done so,” argued the lawsuit, in part.

“Grace Community Church provides a spiritual service to the Los Angeles community that its congregation and its members rightly believe is essential, and the California State Constitution specifically protects their fundamental rights in this context.”…

Even when faced with the threat of jail time as a result of his refusal to comply with coronavirus regulations, MacArthur maintained that it’s the church’s biblical responsibility to stay open and hold worship services…

“[G]overnment regulations are not neutral and generally applicable, and therefore trigger strict scrutiny under the Free Exercise Clause, whenever they treat any comparable secular activity more favorably than religious exercise,” stated the decision…

…California’s Department of Public Health changed the language on capacity limits for “places of worship” from “mandatory” to “strongly recommended.”…

Share your praise to God for this victory over Christians’ right to assemble in worship, and share a prayer that this right will be upheld all throughout the U.S.!

(Excerpt from Christian Post. Article by Michael Gryboski. Photo Credit: Canva).