CA court upholds $1.2 million fine against church that ignored COVID restrictions
Calvary Chapel San Jose refused to comply with mask mandates, putting countless lives in jeopardy. It's about time they paid the price for it.
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A California appellate court has upheld a $1,228,700 fine against Calvary Chapel San Jose for refusing to obey local COVID precautions during the height of the pandemic, rejecting their argument that wearing face masks impeded their “religious freedom.” The judges said they “found no merit in Calvary Chapel’s arguments on appeal.”
Calvary Chapel made headlines in May of 2020 by hosting large indoor services, not requiring face masks, and not forcing people to socially distance. Even beyond that, Pastor Mike McClure openly bragged during live-streams about how the church was non-compliant with local regulations, saying, “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.”
By the end of the month, the church was holding two services each Sunday, each with 300-500 participants. No one was required to wear a mask. In the months to follow, McClure repeatedly encouraged his congregation to avoid masks even if their health (not to mention the health of those around them) was at risk. He spread lies like, “You have a 99.99% chance of not dying if you catch the virus” and that the mask ordinance was an example of “religious persecution in America.”
When October of 2020 rolled around, however, the County of Santa Clara had taken whatever action it could to mitigate the threat of COVID, ordering people to wear face masks in “all indoor public spaces with limited exceptions.”
To the local government’s credit, they didn’t look the other way when it came to the church. They fined Calvary Chapel more than $350,000 for violating the local ordinance. The church never paid up, though, so the county filed a lawsuit and demanded the court shut the place down. The church wasn’t shut down, but the fines continued to accumulate. Eventually, between administrative fines, late fees, and actual violations, the church owed nearly $4,000,000 to the County.
Almost two years ago to the day, Superior Court Judge Evette D. Pennypacker issued a final decision on the matter. In short, she wrote that the County’s regulations were legal and generally applicable. They weren’t going after Christians and the exemptions they made were sensible ones. Furthermore, the ruling said, the church “unilaterally gave themselves a blanket exception for all of their activities at any time in any location, regardless of the number of attendees.” In other words, there was no evidence that the local government treated secular activities comparable to church services any more favorably.
The judge also noted that the church’s maskless gatherings had consequences:
… It should appear clear to all—regardless of religious affiliation—that wearing a mask while worshiping one's god and communing with other congregants is a simple, unobtrusive, giving way to protect others while still exercising your right to religious freedom. Unfortunately, [the church] repeatedly refused to model, much less, enforce this gesture. Instead, they repeatedly flouted their refusal to comply with the Public Health Orders and urged others to do so "who cares what the cost", including death.
Finally, the judge said the church had no right to complain about the excessive costs when they could’ve prevented them entirely by just following the damn rules.
Some of the fines were eliminated but the ruling still ordered Calvary Chapel to pay $1,228,700 to the County. (Finally, money was flowing in the right direction!) It was a small price to pay, honestly, for the harm caused by the Christians’ ignorance and selfishness.
At the time, the County celebrated the decision in a press release:
“It’s the County’s job to take care of its residents and protect the public health. The County’s response to the pandemic, including the Health Officer’s public health orders and enforcement against entities that refused to follow the law, saved thousands of lives and resulted in one of the lowest death rates of any community in the United States,” said County Counsel James R. Williams. “Calvary’s arguments have been rejected at almost every turn. We are gratified that the Court once again saw through Calvary’s unsupported claims and found them meritless.”
The church said it would fight the ruling by going to the Court of Appeals, but their arguments had been fully dismantled at that point. It wasn’t clear on what basis they thought they still had a challenge.
They soon appealed and said the public health orders requiring masks were unconstitutional, that the County violated due process, and that the fines were excessive.
A California appellate court has now upheld the earlier ruling against the church, dismissing all of those claims. The County, the judges said, didn’t treat the church any differently from everyone else and there’s no proof otherwise. Even if you didn’t like the safety measures imposed by the government, they were applied to everyone equally. This bit near the end is just damning:
Further, it cannot be disputed that COVID-19 is a highly contagious disease that caused severe illness and death during a global pandemic, that Calvary Chapel was aware that some of its congregants had contracted COVID-19 and its school had sustained a serious outbreak, and that the County issued the public health orders requiring face coverings in certain circumstances as part of the County’s effort to slow the spread of COVID-19. We therefore determine that the undisputed facts show that Calvary Chapel’s level of culpability due to violating the public health orders requiring face coverings is high, and therefore the fines in the amount of $1,228,700 do not violate the excessive fines clause of the Eighth Amendment because the fines are not grossly disproportionate to Calvary Chapel’s culpability.
The bottom line is that the church did not have a constitutional right to spread a deadly virus.
The church was always free to livestream its services or hold in-person services that adhered to local restrictions. They didn’t want to play by the rules, though. They believed that being Christian gave them the right to break the rules, spread a deadly disease, and put people in danger.
On a side note, Calvary Chapel received over $340,000 in Paycheck Protection Program loans from the government in 2020. That was money meant to pay employees while keeping them safely at home… even though the church chose to open up anyway, putting employees and worshipers in harm’s way.
They had no problem taking money from the government when it helped their bank account. It was only when the government fined them for breaking the rules for separate reasons that the church pretended to be persecuted.
(Portions of this article were published earlier)
I for one am beyond sick of the religious nut jobs who believe their religion trump's science, and encourages other people to ignore science. How well did his prayers work? I think religion is often socially sanctioned mental illness.
The plain and simple fact is that conservative christians cannot stand to have anyone tell them to do something which might be for the greater public good. Christ-like behavior is anathema to them. This is a problem with conservatives in general - and is at the root of the vast dysfunction rampant in our society.