So how could Grace Church justify their complete unwillingness to enforce any health mandates? The answer comes from a surprising new variable entered into the equation – mental health. Mitigation efforts suggested by the CDC to slow the spread of COVID-19 prove effective at lowering virus-related fatalities. So what would kill people? Phil Johnson, a prominent and boisterous elder at GCC, propagated unsubstantiated claims that suicides and drug overdoses increased due to lockdown measures. “Church needs to be open. We’re not going to kill people by being open.” MacArthur’s narrative reversal was readily apparent on Octo– when the pastor spoke for FRC Freedom Sunday,
Traditionally ascribing to a rigidly deontological normative system of ethics, Grace would now pivot to utilitarian rhetoric. GCC began to reframe their rejection of lockdowns as the only logical and moral position. With official reports of an outbreak at Grace surfacing, the church shifted from a defensive position to an offensive one. MacArthur, in response to a question from Josh Boice.Īnd regarding his own church, he proclaimed, “…we (GCC) haven’t had an outbreak of anything.” And then lock down the world and destroy people all over the world, and even with multiple millions of people negatively affected and even dying because of the lockdown. …you can lock down an entire nation and destroy people destroy them. Grace was also silent when a Master’s Seminary Student and GCC attendee died from COVID-19.Īgain to G3, MacArthur justified GCC’s newfangled rejection of COVID-19 health mandates, In an apparent attempt to lower their case numbers, GCC allegedly silenced congregants infected with COVID-19. This new position of civil disobedience hinged on the church’s ability to downplay the virus’ effect on their own congregation. How did Grace pivot from a desire to “save millions of lives” via a church-wide lockdown, to continuing mass gatherings and defying local health orders? According to an elder letter on July 24, 2020, it was now “ The Church’s Duty to Remain Open.” In a sermon that very Sunday – July 26 – MacArthur asserted that “ We Must Obey God Rather Than Men,” citing an unverified statistic that “if you are under 80” there’s a “99.99% chance you will live through this whole thing.” This would also mark the beginning of GCC’s call for other churches to, “ Stand with us in support of the biblical mandate to gather for corporate worship.” And while LA County successfully pressured GCC to cancel their 2021 Shepherd’s Conference, MacArthur would still take the stage via a March 3 live stream, encouraging pastors to, “be a man and open your churches.” MacArthur cites faulty mortality statistics on the Eric Metaxas Radio Show, attempting to downplay the severity of COVID-19. So in California you have a 99.99 chance of surviving the pandemic – if you want to call it that. …in the state of California there are 40 million people, and 8500 who died with COVID – not necessarily of COVID. On the Jepisode of the Eric Metaxas Radio Show, MacArthur stated, Separate from this well-publicized spectacle, Pastor MacArthur began a media campaign defending the new position of his church. GCC elder Phil Johnson retweets two photographs of the August 7th church service, wherein MacArthur publicly asserted his new stance of civil disobedience. He would also invite an LAPD chaplain to his pulpit, reinforcing what he now dubbed a “peaceful protest” – borrowing language from the nationwide protests over George Floyd’s murder on May 25th, 2020.
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Herein, the Pastor welcomed thousands of unmasked congregants into a church service free of the health mandates being enforced elsewhere throughout Los Angeles. This narrative shift was further solidified on Sunday, August 9th of 2020.
On July 24, 2020, Pastor MacArthur and GCC began a virulent campaign against restrictions placed on church gatherings in California. But this initial response wouldn’t last long. This entailed moving church services almost entirely online via live stream. Grace Community Church (GCC) locked down for several weeks in early 2020.
John MacArthur made this statement on October 3 of 2020, when asked by Josh Boice of the G3 Conference Podcast about his response to the COVID-19 Pandemic. – Pastor John MacArthur of Grace Community Church, Grace to You, and the Master’s University/Seminary. So I said fine, let’s just do live stream. And just simply stated, we don’t want to kill millions of people. So we were told at the beginning that millions were going to die. Millions of people are going to die from COVID. So how could Grace Community Church justify their unwillingness to enforce any health mandates? The answer comes from a surprising new variable entered into the equation – mental health.
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