State Controlled Sermons: Judge Orders Pastor to Preach Health Orders from Pulpit

A judge in Canada has issued a court order mandating a pastor preach the official health orders during any communication in which he undermines the government’s official position.

Pastor Artur Pawlowski was sanctioned by Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Adam Germain to 18 months of probation after holding in-person worship services in defiance of a court order prohibiting “illegal public gatherings.”

According to the written ruling released Friday, Pastor Pawlowski was also ordered to pay $23,000 in fines and sentenced to 120 hours of community service work.

Pastor Pawlowski was granted a probation order on the condition that “when he is exercising his right of free speech and speaking against [Alberta Health Services] Health Orders and AHS health recommendations, in a public gathering or public forum (including electronic social media), he must indicate in his communications the following:

“I am also aware that the views I am expressing to you on this occasion may not be views held by the majority of medical experts in Alberta. While I may disagree with them, I am obliged to inform you that the majority of medical experts favour social distancing, mask-wearing, and avoiding large crowds to reduce the spread of COVID-19. Most medical experts also support participation in a vaccination program unless for a valid religious or medical reason you cannot be vaccinated. Vaccinations have been shown statistically to save lives and to reduce the severity of COVID-19 symptoms.

In May, Pastor Pawlowski and his brother were pulled over by police on their way home from church and arrested in the middle of a highway before being charged with organizing an “illegal in-person gathering, in addition to ‘requesting, inciting or inviting others’ to join them.”

The pastor told Fox News that he has no intention of complying with the order, dismissing it as unconstitutional and illegal.

“This crooked judge wants to turn me into a CBC reporter or CNN reporter, that every time that I am in public, every time I’m opening my mouth, I am to pray their mantra to the government,” he said.

Pastor Pawlowski likened the court order to the compelled speech forced on citizens in Communist countries, such as China and North Korea.

“They’re telling me what I can and cannot preach,” Pawlowski said. “They’re telling me that every time I want to address the public, I have to spew their lie first in order for me to deliver my message. That’s China. That’s North Korea.”