At Last: REPENTANCE!!!!

The pastor at a … church [near San Jose, CA] said in an outdoor sermon [this past] Sunday he would reopen the church for regular service next week, regardless of the status of local orders mandating public closure…

During his nearly two-hour-long sermon on Sunday, as dozens of people gathered close together without masks just outside the … church, [Pastor Mike McClure of … Calvary Chapel] said the Bible and God call on Christians to come together despite the dangers of the virus.

“We’re called to be together,” McClure said during the sermon. “Man doesn’t have the right to close the doors.

“God doesn’t want us to isolate ourselves. All of us need to be in the sanctuary. I don’t care what they say, I’m never again going to close the doors, ever.”

YAY!!!!! Better if he hadn’t closed in the first place, but at least he’s admitting he erred, and if the Lord can forgive him, so can we. Let’s hope McClure’s spirit of contrition infects the entire herd of Goats.

And this despite the pastor’s fears of legal persecution:

McClure said he was further emboldened by comments from Attorney General William Barr, who warned last week that religious activity could not be forced to stop while other similar activities were allowed.

“(Barr) encouraged us to meet together and that if anything happens he will get a lawyer over here to help us,” McClure said. “He said that freedom in America comes from that first right of religious freedom.”

“Twenty-one-year-old church administrator Carson Atherley” showed admirable spunk, too, when the reporter needled him:

Asked why he allowed people to congregate without the state and county-mandated precautions, Atherley said he “is not the social distancing police or the mask police.”

“We’re going to allow people to do whatever they feel is right,” Atherley said. “We’re not promoting or condemning the use of masks or the practice of social distancing.”

Yee-haw! Congregants are cut from the same sensible cloth:

Kevin and Sandee DeBella, who have been attending Calvary Chapel for years, were part of the group of people who stayed well past the end of the service to congregate with church friends they have not seen in months.

“It feels like we’re back at church,” Kevin DeBella. “It was nice to be able to get out on the lawn  and see the love we feel for one another.”

The DeBellas …were not wearing masks at the outdoor service Sunday.

Both said they did not believe that the COVID-19 pandemic was as bad as it was being portrayed.

“It’s bad but it’s not as bad as we made it out to be,” Sandee DeBella said. “For us, the Lord numbers our days. I don’t want to go out of my way to distance myself from someone who may need a handshake or a hug or company.”

Welcome back, dear siblings in the Lord! 

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11:35 am on May 29, 2020