Throughout the summer, MacArthur, pastor of Grace Community Church in Los Angeles, has been in a litigious battle with Los Angeles County over the county’s public health restrictions against large indoor gatherings. Despite a restraining order entered against the church by a Superior Court judge, MacArthur has defiantly held indoor services with thousands of unmasked, un-distanced worshipers.But the article goes on to say that the secret to Capitol Hill Baptist's success in the courts is that it holds doctrines that only a tiny percentage even of Evangelicals believe:. . . Almost as far away from Los Angeles as one can go in the continental United States, [Pastor Mark] Dever has taken a different — and now more successful — approach with the District of Columbia government.
Late on Friday, Oct. 9, U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden granted relief to Dever and Capitol Hill Baptist Church in their request to be allowed to conduct outdoor worship services in the District despite the local government ban on such assemblies.
The differences between the two cases and the approach of the two pastors are considerable. MacArthur has been combative and defiant from the start. And even now, while still embroiled in legal battles, he has released a video calling on other pastors across the country to “open your churches.” Dever has stated his case more calmly, without making threats or inciting other churches to follow his lead.
MacArthur has seen Los Angeles County’s ban on large indoor gatherings as persecution of the church and built his case on this persecution complex. Dever has stated a unique theological conviction that biblical worship must be held in-person, not via video or even in multiple services.
In D.C., Dever made a unique case that his congregation’s theological belief is that to fulfill the biblical mandate of “assembling together,” they must meet in person and in one service. Prior to COVID-19, Capitol Hill Baptist Church held only one Sunday morning service, did not offer a livestream and did not employ multi-site campuses.In other words, it holds only one Sunday service not because of clergy shortage, small congregation, or anything else -- it simply believes on Biblical authority that a church must meet in a single body once on Sunday, no matter what. In other words, it's gone to the judge and said, "Judge, you may think we're troublesome Christians just like any others. But that's not the case. We're fringe crazies who don't hold with nearly any other denomination. We're more like Jehovah's Witnesses or Jim Jones. You have to accommodate us just like you'd accommodate a sect that doesn't believe in vaccination."That gave an opening for Judge McFadden to differentiate the claim of the D.C. church against any other such cases nationwide.
In other words, the basic argument is we're tiny and harmless, leave us alone.
Beyond that, Capitol Hill Baptist is playing what can only be characterized as small ball. They aren't disputing the District of Columnbia's right to ban indoor worship without masks or social distancing -- they've simply been meeting in a group of over 100 in an Alexandria, VA field, outdoors, masked and socially distanced. All they're asking is the right to move back across the river and meet in a field inside the District the same way. No matter they have a perfectly good building at 525 A St NE in Washington whose doors have been shut by government edict since March and will remain so indefinitely.
And as I posted Sunday, while their church building remains closed, the weather this fall will get steadily worse, so that their little victory, being able move their outdoor gathering of more than 100 back into the District, will be of little value in a matter of weeks.
Cursory investigation shows that the typical First Baptist in any given city has more than one Sunday service, so that Capitol Hill Baptist's views are not usual among most Baptist orgainizations. Wikipedia says Capitol Hill Baptist is a member of the District of Columbia Baptist Convention. I don't know if Capitol Hill's policy is unique even there.
I think MacArthur and other churches that follow his approach are more tactically savvy, recognizing that it's impractical for a group of any size to meet in a field or park (do you read scripture, preach, and celenrate with a bullhorn?), and livestream services are neither church nor mass. To close church buildings indefinitely imposes financial and maintenance burdens. At the same time, experience in places like New York and California has been that civil authorities do not necessarily negotiate in good faith, and they rescind prior "permissions" at whim.
All I can concude is that Capitol Hill Baptist is a very strange place, and even by its own admission, its strategy isn't reproducible -- leaving aside the very limited life of the small success it's achieved.
