Commonwealth Policy Center

Florida pastor Rodney Howard-Browne violated a state order to forgo large meetings and was arrested for holding a church service last week. While it wasn’t a good look for the government to arrest a pastor, the intention wasn’t to stop the spread of the gospel but instead to slow the spread of the deadly coronavirus. Health officials say we may see up to 240,000 deaths. Government efforts to slow the spread of COVID-19 is a laudable effort meant to save life. With that said, it’s clearly controversial for the government to order church services to be closed. But consider this, if your congregation considers itself pro-life, wouldn’t it be a practical and God-honoring decision to close services in order to protect life and preserve public health?