On Monday, officials in Jackson County, Missouri approved a settlement with a Kansas City-area megachurch that had sued over COVID-19 restrictions that it claimed discriminated against religion.
The Jackson County Legislature voted Monday to approve a $146,750 payment to Abundant Life Baptist Church in Lee’s Summit, Missouri and their attorney Jonathan Whitehead. The county also agreed that any future health restrictions would not be more onerous than restrictions on secular gatherings, the Kansas City Star reported.
The county and University Health, formerly known as Truman Medical Centers, will pay the settlement. University Health operates the county health department.
Multi-site megachurch Abundant Life attracts thousands to its services in Blue Springs and its main campus in Lee’s Summit. Under the COVID-19 recovery plan in place when the lawsuit was filed in May 2020, church services were included with other large gatherings and social events that were limited to no more than 10 people.
At the same time, non-essential stores, restaurants and bars were not facing numerical limitations and were allowed to reopen if they followed the social distancing recommendations from federal health officials.
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The U.S. Supreme Court has since ruled that limiting the size of Bible studies and prayer meetings was an unconstitutional restriction on religious rights, and the Jackson County settlement cites three other court cases with similar rulings.
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2 Responses
I do not even want to deal with the evangelical insanity here…. so dishonoring of the Lord Jesus – makes followers look like fools.
Are you saying churches being open and people attending is insanity? Are you saying that people staying away from churches and staying home is a demonstration of sanity and Christ honoring? What standard are you using to declare something “insane” or “dishonoring” to Jesus?
What if evangelicals went to football games or other sporting events? What about concerts and restaurants? Would they be dishonoring Jesus by doing so? What if people chose to live their lives as normally as possible?