Coronavirus: Pastor urges churches to ‘step up and roar’ against forced closure amidst lockdown
A Kentucky pastor is urging religious leaders to re-open their churches and “step up and roar” against forced closures put in place to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
Brian Gibson, pastor of a megachurch with locations in Kentucky and Texas, alongside at least 50 other churches are urging religious leaders to demand re-opening their sites for worship.
“I believe that every day a church is closed, a bit of liberty dies,” Mr Gibson said in an interview with Fox News.
“We need people to stand up and roar. There is a time to be quiet, a time to be the lamb, but today is the day to be the lion.”
The His Church pastor has claimed that it is unreasonable that some businesses could reopen while churches were forced to stay closed.
“Restrictions eased up on everyone around us but we couldn’t do business as normal as the church,” he told the broadcaster.
“We’re looking across the road at fast-food places handing out french fries. Liquor stores are serving patrons, but the church is the bad guy.”
Mr Gibson said that citizens need to “stand up for our First Amendment rights,”
“We have religious freedom in this nation. We’ll not lay that down on our watch,” he added.
Mr Gibson has also started an online petition to urge all kinds of religious leaders to allow parishes to re-open their churches responsibly with the implementation of social distancing guidelines.
The pastor has said that churches could reduce occupancy, distance attendees and order staff to wear masks and gloves to ensure the infection does not spread.
“We want to be smart, be safe, be caring. We have all sorts of precautions put together... extra sterilisation,” Mr Gibson argued.
“We’re taking care of everything, but we want to know our religious freedom isn’t going to die with us.“
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