Pastor arrested for violating rules amid virus outbreak
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Florida officials have arrested the pastor of a megachurch after detectives say he held two Sunday services with hundreds of people and violated a safer-at-home order in place to limit the spread of the coronavirus.
According
to jail records, Pastor Rodney Howard-Browne turned himself in to
authorities Monday afternoon in Hernando County, where he lives. He was
charged with unlawful assembly and violation of a public health
emergency order. Bail was set at $500, according to the jail’s website,
and he was released after posting bond.
Hillsborough Sheriff Chad
Chronister said in a news conference Monday that he negotiated with the
attorney of Pastor Rodney Howard-Browne to turn himself in to
authorities in Hernando County. His church is located in Tampa.
“Not
only did the church comply with the administrative order regarding
six-foot distancing, it went above and beyond any other business to
ensure the health and safety of the people,” said a statement from
Liberty Counsel, Howard-Browne’s law firm. “Contrary to Sheriff
Chronister’s allegation that Pastor Howard-Browne was ‘reckless,” the
actions of Hillsborough Country and the Hernando County Sheriff are
discriminatory against religion and church gatherings.”
Howard-Browne
isn’t alone in refusing to curtail in-person worship services despite
public health orders designed to stop the virus from spreading. Churches
in Ohio, Kentucky and Louisiana have continued to invite worshippers in
recent days as at least a half-dozen states offer some degree of
exemption for faith in their orders to shutter nonessential activity
during the pandemic.
Chronister said his command staff met with
The River at Tampa Bay Church leaders about the danger they are putting
themselves — and their congregation — in by not maintaining appropriate
social distancing, but Howard-Browne held the services. The Sheriff’s
Office also placed a digital sign on the road near the church driveway
that said “practice social distancing.”
“Shame on this pastor,
their legal staff and the leaders of this staff for forcing us to do our
job. That’s not what we wanted to do during a declared state of
emergency,” Chronister said. “We are hopeful that this will be a wakeup
call.”
The church has said it sanitized the building, and the
pastor said on Twitter that the church is an essential business. He also
attacked the media for “religious bigotry and hate.” In the statement
released late Monday afternoon, Liberty Counsel said the church enforced
the six-foot distance rule between family groups, made sure the staff
wore gloves, gave every person who entered hand sanitizer, among other
things.
The county and governor’s orders require gatherings,
including those held by faith-based groups, be fewer than 10 people to
limit the spread of COVID-19. A live stream of Sunday’s
three-and-a-half-hour church service showed scores of congregants. In a
Facebook post, Howard-Browne said coronavirus “is blown totally way out
of proportion.”
On March 18, the church called its ministry an
essential service, just like police and firefighters, and said it would
keep its doors open.
In a Facebook video Sunday, Howard-Browne
said “it looks like we’re going to have to go to court over this because
the church is encroached from every side.”
“This is really about your voice. The voice of the body of Christ,” he said.
As recently as last year, Howard-Browne’s church hosted an event with Paula White-Cain, who was named an adviser leading President Donald Trump’s Faith and Opportunity Initiative. She’s also an unofficial spiritual adviser to the president.
Religion and politics reporter Elana Schor contributed to this report.