Police in Greenville, Mississippi raided a drive-in church service on Sunday and issued $500 fines to the entire congregation, most of whom were elderly, without any access to smartphones or the internet.
For the past three weeks, the Temple Baptist Church has conducted a drive-in prayer service, that allows the congregation to tune into a radio frequency in their cars to listen to Pastor Arthur Scott as he preaches from the pulpit.
However, Mayor Errick Simmons and the city council put a ban on drive-in church services, despite the congregation remaining within their cars for the entirety of the service.
Todd Starnes reports: “The City of Greenville put in place an Executive Order that orders all church buildings closed for in person and drive in church services, until the State of Mississippi’s Shelter In Place Executive Order No. 1466 is lifted by Governor Tate Reeves.”
The elderly pastor told Todd Starnes, “One of the police officers said the mayor wanted to make an example of our church. I told them to get some more tickets ready because we will be preaching Sunday morning and Sunday night.
Pastor Scott went on to say, “The police officer said I might go to jail. If it means going to jail and if it takes that for me to keep preaching, I’ll be glad to go to jail.”
According to the pastor, as many as 25 drivers were issued $500 fines for attending the service. That means the congregation were issued a total of more than $12,000 in fines.
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