Rand Paul slams Democratic governor of Kentucky over plan to record license plates of Easter churchgoers and ORDER them into quarantine
Senator Rand Paul, the Republican senator from Kentucky, is pushing back against a plan by the Democratic governor of his home state to crack down on church gatherings during the coronavirus lockdown by reporting the license plates of those who attend.
Paul, who has recovered after testing positive for COVID-19, warned Governor Andy Beshear on Friday to ‘take a step back.’
‘Taking license plates at church? Quarantining someone for being Christian on Easter Sunday? Someone needs to take a step back here,’ Paul tweeted on Friday.
Beshear warned on Friday that anyone attending a weekend gathering will be ordered to self-quarantine for two weeks as he announced a single-day high for coronavirus cases in Kentucky.
With Easter two days away, the governor took the new step against mass gatherings in an attempt to contain the virus’s spread.
Senator Rand Paul, a Republican from Kentucky, slammed Democrat Governor Andy Beshear (right) for his plan to track down Easter churchgoers who attend services during the coronavirus lockdown and order them into quarantine
‘Taking license plates at church? Quarantining someone for being Christian on Easter Sunday? Someone needs to take a step back here,’ Paul tweeted on Friday
A few Kentucky pastors signaled in recent days that they intend to go ahead with in-person services despite Beshear's constant warnings that churches should switch to virtual services or other ways for people to practice their faith and protect public health.
Under the new action, anyone participating in a gathering this weekend will have their license plates recorded to provide to local health departments, Beshear said.
Local health officials will go to each participant’s home with a 14-day self-quarantine order, he said.
‘This is the only way that we can ensure that your decision doesn’t kill somebody else,’ he said.
‘That your decision doesn’t spread the coronavirus in your county and in your community.’
The governor added: ‘I hear people say, “It’s my choice.”
‘Well, it’s not the person next to you’s choice.’
Beshear reported 242 new coronavirus cases statewide, raising the total to nearly 1,700. He announced 11 more virus-related deaths, bringing the state’s death toll to 90.
In the United States, there are a confirmed 505,015 cases of coronavirus as of Saturday. Of those, 18,771 people have died.
One cleric, Maryville Baptist Reverend Jack Roberts, took to Facebook and pledged to defy Beshear’s orders.
‘Do you think the virus just generated in this church or was it carried in from somewhere else,’ he wrote.
‘[I]t’s sad anyone gets infected even sadder it’s contagious but trying to blame churches or a particular church is unthinkable.
A few Kentucky pastors signaled in recent days that they intend to go ahead with in-person services despite Beshear's constant warnings that churches should switch to virtual services or other ways for people to practice their faith and protect public health. The Maryville Baptist Church in Kentucky is seen above
‘Politicians need to stick to trying to figure a way to steal our money and leave the spiritual life of America to the ministry of those God called to preach the WORD.’
Several state governors and legislatures have been grappling with the sensitive issue of religious gatherings during the coronavirus lockdown.
Local officials have been trying to balance the need to preserve public health while preserving the constitutional right to worship and assemble.
In Kansas, the Republican-dominated state legislature overturned a ban by the Democratic governor of gatherings of 10 or more people.
Governor Laura Kelly announced on Thursday that she would sue the seven-member Legislative Coordinating Council which voted 5-2 to overrule her executive order from last week.
A handful of holdout churches plan to hold in-person services on Easter Sunday, saying their right to worship in person outweighs public health officials’ warnings against holding large gatherings during the coronavirus outbreak.
One cleric, Maryville Baptist Reverend Jack Roberts, took to Facebook and pledged to defy Beshear’s orders
He wrote: 'Politicians need to stick to trying to figure a way to steal our money and leave the spiritual life of America to the ministry of those God called to preach the WORD’
Most US churches are expected to be closed on Sunday, and a broad majority of observant Americans are expected to follow authorities’ recommendations to avoid crowds to limit the spread of the potentially lethal COVID-19 respiratory disease caused by the new coronavirus.
But not all of them.
‘Satan and a virus will not stop us,’ said the Reverend Tony Spell, 42, pastor of the evangelical Life Tabernacle Church near Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
He expects a crowd of more than 2,000 to gather in worship at his megachurch on Sunday.
‘God will shield us from all harm and sickness,’ Spell said in an interview.
‘We are not afraid. We are called by God to stand against the Antichrist creeping into America’s borders.
Major US religious institutions, including Roman Catholic dioceses and major Protestant denominations, will hold religious services online as well as through local broadcast radio and television, with just a handful of ministers and priests preaching sermons and reading liturgies to rows of empty pews.‘We will spread the Gospel.’
Indeed, some major religious-liberty legal advocacy groups, whose mission is to challenge restrictions on freedom of religion, have not raised objections to the closures, saying churches have been treated the same as other major institutions and that safety comes first.
In Idaho, Ammon Bundy, who has led multiple standoffs against authorities in acts of protest against the federal government, plans to gather hundreds of people for an Easter observance, in defiance of public health advice, according to multiple media reports.
Another holdout church, the evangelical Cross Culture Center in Lodi, California, about 70 miles southwest of San Francisco, plans another service even after its members found their church doors locked against them last weekend.
Lay preacher Jon Duncan, 43, who has led the evangelical center for more than 10 years, said that under city orders, his landlord changed the locks and shut them out Sunday morning.
Lodi police officers was standing by the door, because they were defying both local and state ‘stay-at-home’ orders and a court order from the San Joaquin County Public Health Services.
Instead, Duncan held brief curbside prayers with his congregants as they showed up for the 11am service.
‘It is disappointing because we have a valid lease, but we won’t be stopped,’ he said.
‘God commands us to meet and that’s what we’re going to do Easter.’
Duncan expects he and his flock of about 80 regular attendees will be locked out on Easter too, so he has picked an alternate site to meet.
He and his attorney declined to disclose the new location to the public for fear of becoming a spectacle instead of a holy service.
The church’s attorney, Dean Broyles, has lodged a complaint against the city, and implored California’s governor in a letter to lift the ban on large church gatherings.
Duncan said he is steadfast in his decision.
‘We don’t believe our rights are eroded by a virus,’ he said.
‘We will stand together before God even against the gates of hell.’
Rand Paul slams Democratic governor of Kentucky over plan to record license plates of Easter churchgoers and ORDER them into quarantine
![Rand Paul slams Democratic governor of Kentucky over plan to record license plates of Easter churchgoers and ORDER them into quarantine]()
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April 12, 2020
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