{"id":707330,"date":"2021-09-01T17:50:52","date_gmt":"2021-09-01T21:50:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=707330"},"modified":"2021-09-01T17:50:55","modified_gmt":"2021-09-01T21:50:55","slug":"l-a-county-to-pay-400000-to-john-macarthurs-grace-community-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/l-a-county-to-pay-400000-to-john-macarthurs-grace-community-church\/","title":{"rendered":"L.A. County To Pay $400,000 To John MacArthur\u2019s Grace Community Church"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fl-a-county-to-pay-400000-to-john-macarthurs-grace-community-church%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=707330&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Grace-Community-Church.jpg?w=1200&amp;h=800&amp;ixlib=react-9.0.3\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p><span>The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to pay Grace Community Church, which garnered national attention for defying governmental COVID-19 restrictions, as part of a settlement agreement.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The county said that <\/span><span>it had decided to pay the church based on Supreme Court rulings earlier this year declaring that churches in California could be exempt from enforcement of some of the state\u2019s coronavirus policies. The church will receive $400,000 from the county.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cAfter the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that some public health safety measures could not apply to houses of worship, resolving this litigation is the responsible and appropriate thing to do,\u201d the county\u2019s legal team <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/church-that-defied-gavin-newsoms-covid-rules-get-800k-legal-settlement-1624801\"><span>said<\/span><\/a><span> in a statement.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cWe are grateful to the county\u2019s faith organizations for their continued partnership to keep their congregants and the entire community safe and protected from COVID-19,\u201d they added.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The state of California will pay the church $400,000 as well, bringing the total to $800,000.<\/p>\n<p><span>In the days before the vote, the church\u2019s pastor,<\/span><span> John MacArthur, said in a letter that the pending legal settlement was a \u201cmonumental victory for Grace Community Church,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/california\/story\/2021-08-27\/l-a-county-400-000-settlement-church-covid-19-mandates\">reports<\/a> The Los Angeles Times.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cWe know that there is no circumstance that can cause the church to close,\u201d MacArthur said in the letter. \u201cThe church is not only a building but is the bride of Christ and exists to proclaim the truth.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The settlement ends the legal battle that had been ongoing between the church and county for several months. As <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailynews.com\/2021\/08\/31\/la-county-to-pay-400000-to-settle-with-san-fernando-valley-church-that-defied-coronavirus-orders\/\"><span>reported<\/span><\/a><span> by the Los Angeles Daily News, last September during the midst of the controversy, the county\u2019s attorney, Amnon Siegel, said, \u201c<\/span><span>Religion doesn\u2019t trump public health and safety, especially under these circumstance<\/span><span>.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>In February, the Supreme Court <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/opinions\/20pdf\/20a136_bq7c.pdf\"><span>ruled <\/span><\/a><span>that churches in California could no longer be legally closed, though it decided that some restrictions could still be in place for worship.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The Supreme Court expanded church\u2019s freedom in April <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/opinions\/20pdf\/20a151_4g15.pdf\"><span>saying<\/span><\/a><span> that California was treating religious establishments more strictly then secular businesses and places.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201c[G]overnment regulations are not neutral and generally applicable, and therefore trigger strict scrutiny under the Free Exercise Clause, whenever they treat any comparable secular activity more favorably than religious exercise,\u201d the ruling said.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The justices added, \u201c\u2026the State has not shown that \u2018public health would be imperiled\u2019 by employing less restrictive measures.\u201d&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>The county\u2019s decision to pay Grace Community garnered praise from the church\u2019s attorneys, Jenna Ellis and Charles LiMandri of the Thomas More Society. Ellis <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JennaEllisEsq\/status\/1432791164151865349?s=20\"><span>posted<\/span><\/a><span> the statement to Twitter.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>\u201cWe are very pleased to see Pastor MacArthur and Grace Community Church\u2019s First Amendment protections fully vindicated in this case. It has been a hard-fought battle to preserve religious liberty and we hope that this result will encourage Californians, and all Americans, to continue to stand that the church is essential,\u201d the statement said.&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>After following state guidelines for the initial months of the pandemic, eventually the church stopped enforcing the state\u2019s and county\u2019s Covid guidelines. The subsequent legal battle is now over. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><em>member<\/em><\/a><em>.&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to pay Grace Community Church, which garnered national attention for defying governmental COVID-19 restrictions, as part of a settlement agreement.\u00a0The county &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-707330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=707330"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707330\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=707330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=707330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=707330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}