Pastor John MacArthur says that COVID-19 priorities and policies have revealed the true moral state of our nation, and it isn’t good.
MacArthur, pastor of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, Calif., appeared on Fox News’ “The Ingraham Angle with Laura Ingraham” to talk about a judge’s mind-boggling order to open San Diego strip clubs while keeping churches closed.
MacArthur was not surprised, saying that America is “in a moral free-fall”:
“You murder the babies in the womb. If they survive the womb, you try to seduce them into transgender sexual deviation when they’re young. If they survive that, you corrupt them with a godless education. If they survive that, you have divorce in the family, and if they grow to be adults, you drown them in a sea of pornography. This is a nation so far down in the sewer of immorality and wickedness that nothing surprises me.”
California has not only effectively shut down in-person church services in California, but officials have also put in place mandates for how churches are allowed to worship. Moreover, the courts have routinely ruled against churches that have brought lawsuits, claiming that the state’s interest in fighting a pandemic outweighs religious liberty and have even punished churches that defy the orders.
Ironically, when two local strip clubs filed suit against the pandemic measures this fall, California Superior Court Judge Joel R. Wohlfeil found that the county’s public health orders had violated the businesses’ constitutional rights of due process and equal protection under the law and ordered an end to any actions that prevent the clubs from “being allowed to provide live adult entertainment.”
Churches have also been unfairly smeared as super-spreaders. Recently, the Los Angeles Times published an article entitled,
“Coronavirus outbreak strikes L.A. megachurch that defied public health orders,” after three people from Grace Community Church tested positive for COVID-19. However, health department officials investigated and announced that there was no outbreak. Grace Community Church has 7,000 members.
When Ingraham asked MacArthur about the situation, he replied,
“We had three part-time security guards who went to some event somewhere, and I guess they were checked and tested positive, for whatever that’s worth. These were three part-time security guards, none of them were ill, and within a few days, they were back at work.”
He continued, “The [Los Angeles] Times writer picked up on that and called it an outbreak at Grace Community Church, and they said about me that I had ‘mocked COVID’ and ‘I was getting my due.’”
He noted that the health department “sent us a letter and said, ‘You are removed from our website as having had any outbreak at all.’ We’re talking about 6,000 to 7,000 people have been in church for months, Sunday after Sunday, no one ill, no one in the hospital, and no one dies. We’re like a living illustration of the narrative of COVID being a lie.”
While churches continue to be shut down, Ingraham pointed out that California Gov. Gavin Newsom had been caught dining at an expensive restaurant with friends while not adhering to guidelines, which she called “more than hypocrisy.” The host said it shows that the governor “doesn’t believe what he’s saying about COVID.”
“Of course,” MacArthur replied, “because the statistics are in — 99 percent of the people in California are not going to have any effect from COVID. We know those statistics.”
MacArthur warned that government overreach during COVID-19 is following a historical pattern, citing such examples as Julius Caesar, Napoleon, and the fascist and communist takeovers during the 20th century. “Every revolution took place in a time when the powers of the people in authority were enlarged because of a supposed emergency,” he stated.
MacArthur cautioned viewers, saying, “Power hungry people are using this emergency to gain greater power. This is historic, this is nothing new, and if people don’t fight back, they’re going to fall victim to whatever the intention of this revolution is.”
Ingraham’s point was astute. Politicians are infamous for their elitism and hypocrisy and COVID-19 is the perfect example. While regular citizens are expected to do their part to stop the spread and some business owners have even gone to jail for daring to try to make a living, Newsom parties maskless with friends and lobbyists, Lori Lightfoot, the mayor of Chicago, attends a Joe Biden victory celebration days before telling her constituents to avoid large gatherings, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi pulls rank and gets her hair done at a shutdown hair salon in San Francisco (also sans mask).
And of course, it’s not just with COVID-19. As an example, the Obamas, champions of climate change alarmism, purchased a $15 million waterfront mansion on Martha’s vineyard, which doesn’t seem like a prudent investment if you actually believe that the seas are rising and your home could be underwater in a few years.
Founding father and second U.S. President John Adams once wrote, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious People. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
We are a nation that has fallen away from God, so it should be no surprise that we have elected leaders who are infringing on our God-given rights.
The only hope for the United States is for our hearts to be turned back to the Lord. A moral and religious people will stand for truth and righteousness and its government will reflect that. Tragically, we are no longer a moral and religious people and we are only reaping what we have sown.
Check out part 1 of the Falkirk Center podcast with John MacArthur:
