More than 90 pastors have declared they will 'never again' shut down their churches. Is your pastor one of them?



A coalition of more than 90 American pastors from different denominations have boldly declared they will "never again" comply with government orders to close their churches.

Taking up a biblical rallying cry from Acts 5:29, these clergyman say, "We must obey God rather than men," and have signed on to a statement declaring that the government violated the U.S. Constitution by ordering churches to cease meeting during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The purpose of the document is to provide a muster point for clergy," said Pastor Stephen Mannion of Faith United Methodist Church in Lancaster, New York. "The 'Acts 5:29 Statement' declares to the government: 'Don't try to close the Church again. It won't go so well next time.'"

Churches and other houses of worship were forced to shut down during the COVID-19 pandemic when government-issued "stay at home" orders required "non-essential" public places to close. While some religious organizations objected at the time, citing First Amendment concerns, the U.S. Supreme Court in May 2020 declined to take up their cases and permitted lockdown orders to remain in effect.

As a result of government restrictions, many church leaders had to innovate and embraced technology to deliver live-streamed worship services over the internet. But in-person Bible studies, small groups, counseling services, Alcoholics and Narcotics Anonymous meetings, and a multitude of other Christian ministries suspended their activities. Many Christians contend that suspending these services came at a great cost. Deaths associated with alcohol, drugs, and suicide spiked 20% in 2020, claiming the lives of more than 186,000 Americans.

Mannion told TheBlaze in an interview that the government overstepped its authority during the pandemic.

"Bodily autonomy and parental rights [were] often stripped away, livelihoods were lost, dedicated service men and women where forced to retire or be cut from our armed forces, students were robbed of an education, and all for an [infection fatality ratio] of much less than 1%," Mannion said.

He explained that the idea to draft the Acts 5:29 Statement and invite other ministers to sign it came to him after reading "God vs. Government" by authors Nathan Busenitz and James Coates. The book recounts the efforts of pastors John MacArthur and James Coats to defy lockdown orders in Canada and the United States.

"The Church should have spoke up more on these issues. As for overreach more specific to the Church: It is beyond the God given authority, and Constitutional authority, of the Government to restrict numbers or attendance at worship," Mannion said.

He drafted the statement along with Rev. Bill Cook, founder and CEO of America's Black Robe Regiment, an organization of politically active Christian pastors dedicated to preserving "the Blessings of Liberty." It is based on Hebrews 10:25 and Acts 5:29, Bible verses that instruct Christians not to neglect to gather together for worship and forbade obeying laws that violate God's commandments.

So far, 93 ministers from 29 states have signed the statement, which declares that government officials "clearly transgressed their lawful authority in executive action that prohibited public meetings or mandated the wearing of masks and 'social distancing.'"

"As a national coalition of pastors and churches, we reject any Presidential or gubernatorial decree requiring us to disobey the word of God. We will resist any attempt by a Federal, state or local official to restrict or prohibit the free exercise of our Religion or place restrictions thereon," the statement reads.

During the pandemic, legal experts and public health authorities argued it was right and constitutional to order houses of worship to close to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

"Religious gatherings are not immune from in effect becoming petri dishes of infection. The potential negative, even catastrophic, consequences resulting from these gatherings are obvious, even if one lacks advanced training in epidemiology," law professors Sanford Levinson and Eric Segall wrote in an April 4, 2020, blog post for the American Constitution Society.

But Mannion and the signatories of the Acts 5:29 Statement dispute those arguments, highlighting the hypocrisy of letting so-called "essential" businesses like Walmart remain open while churches were closed.

"The Church was never a super spreader. Walmart was open with 400 people walking around, but the church could only have 25, and then 0? 'But Walmart is a necessity'. So is the Church. The soul is of infinite more value than the body," Mannion said.

"Jesus said, 'What does it profit a man to gain the whole world but lose his soul?' The local church is more than capable of taking necessary precautions suitable for it's building and attendance numbers. NO one is forcing anyone to go to church. Each person can make their own risk/benefit assessment without bid daddy in Washington telling him/her what they can and can't do."

The organizers of the statement have set a goal of recruiting 5,000 signatories. On Jan. 1, 2023, the signed statement will be sent to local, state, and federal officials informing them that the undersigned ministers will never close their churches on the government's orders again.

View the full statement here.

More churches are returning to a pre-pandemic normal, but people aren't coming back



With COVID-19 cases decreasing and pandemic restrictions lifting all over the U.S., many churches and other houses of worship have returned to their pre-pandemic services. But that return to normal has not corresponded with worshipers returning for in-person services, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey.

The survey asked U.S. adults who say they attend religious services whether their house of worship is currently open and holding services the same way it did before the COVID-19 pandemic. A new high of 43% of respondents say their congregation has returned to normal services, which is an increase of 14 percentage points in the last six months and 31 points since last March.

A larger plurality of 47% say their church or house of worship is open, but with some modifications like mask requirements or social distancing still in place because of the pandemic. Only 5% of respondents said their place of worship is still closed. According to Pew Research, the number of U.S. worshipers who say their congregation is open for in-person worship has not increased over the last six months, but fewer people say their services include COVID-19 precautions.

But even though many churches are open for worship under normal conditions, the number of people attending worship in-person has not changed since fall, following a period of growth between July 2020 and September 2021.

In July 2020, four months after "15 days to slow the spread," only 13% of U.S. adults told Pew Research they had attended religious services in person during the previous month.

About 27% of U.S. adults now say they attended a religious service in person during the previous month. That's not much more than the 26% who reported the same in September 2021 and 17% in March 2021.

At the same time, the number of Americans who say they have streamed religious services online or watched them on TV in the past month fell from 36% in July 2020 to 28% in September 2021. Now that figure stands at 30%.

Regular church attenders are more likely to be physically present at worship services. Nearly one-third of U.S. adults, 32%, say they typically attend religious services at least once or twice a month. Of this group, 67% report they have attended an in-person service in the last month, while 57% say they have watched services online or on TV during that period.

There were noteworthy differences in church attendance among Christian denominations.

Protestant congregants of historically black churches were the group most likely to have only watched religious services online or on TV in the last month, without about one-third (35%) reporting they had done so. They were also least likely to say they had attended church services in person in the last month (48%) compared to evangelical Protestants (75%), mainline Protestants (68%), and Catholics (69%).

Mainline Protestants have seen the largest rise of in-person attendance since September 2021, when 56% reported attending an in-person service in the previous month. Now 68% report attending church in-person in the last month, a 12-point increase.