EXCLUSIVE: Church Deacon Arrested For Outdoor Worship Service Discusses Victory Against Idaho

Daily Wire ^ | Jan 18, 2021 | Jon Brown

[george76]

When Gabriel Rench recounts being arrested in front of city hall in Moscow, Idado, while singing hymns with his church last September, one detail especially continues to irk him.

“They literally took my hymn book away from me and proceeded to handcuff me,” Rench, 41, said of the officers, who then led him away to the county jail, where he remained for several hours.

Moscow, a town of about 25,000 people approximately 80 miles south of Spokane, Washington, made national news last fall when local police arrested three people and cited five others for attending a “peaceful protest” against the mayor’s repeatedly extended public health order. Organized by Christ Church, an evangelical congregation in the area, the protest consisted of about 20 minutes of psalm singing in front of city hall, where city officials had arranged small yellow dots six feet apart as guidance for the participants.

Rench, a deacon at Christ Church, was among those arrested and charged that day with violating the city’s health order, which explicitly provided exemptions for activities protected under “general laws or the constitution of the state of Idaho.”

The city police, according to Rench, approached his mother during the service and asked if she was with him. A mother standing with her son was presumably acceptable, but when Rench placed his arm around his friend and told the officers that he was also with him, they asked for his identification. Rench refused to provide it, urging them instead to join him in exercising his First Amendment rights.

Rench was consequently handcuffed and jailed.

After four months, during which Rench was represented by legal counsel for the Thomas More Society, the city motioned to dismiss the case against him and the county magistrate judge tossed it without comment on Jan. 9. In a press release issued the day before, the city conceded that the actions of those arrested at the psalm sing “could be argued to be included as such expressive and associative activities” that are protected constitutionally.

“The city of Moscow, Idaho, appears to have been so anxious to make an example of Christ Church’s opposition to their desired COVID restrictions that they failed to follow the mandatory exemptions articulated in their own laws,” Thomas More Society special counsel Michael Jacques said in a statement provided to The Daily Wire.

Despite being vindicated, Rench said he remains “frustrated.”

“[T]he city council at no point has communicated or apologized,” Rench said. “The mayor hasn’t called me; the chief of police hasn’t called me. The judge agreed that I was wrongfully arrested and I was in conformity even with their own resolution and I got arrested.” Neither the mayor nor the police chief of Moscow responded to The Daily Wire’s request for comment.

Rench also points out that he was running for county commissioner at the time, and he wonders if his arrest might have played a role in costing him the race. Moscow, which is home to the University of Idaho, is a liberal enclave in an otherwise conservative county in a mostly conservative state. After his arrest, Rench explained, he became somewhat of a pariah in the community.

“I remember the day, Friday, after I got arrested, and Saturday, I was driving around, running around town, doing errands for my wife and I was getting flipped off,” Rench remembered. “I was going to the store and people would walk by me and cuss at me. I’ve been seriously ostracized by a good portion of our community, been lied about significantly. I guess part of it’s just status quo for the liberals in my community in a lot of ways, but I just became a target for them.”

Even since the court absolved him, Rench has not found forgiveness from many of his neighbors. “Even after I won and got my case dismissed, a lot of liberals in the community were mad at the city for dismissing the case. They were mad at the judge for dismissing my case. So I was right, and yet I was still wrong to the liberals in our community.”

Rench maintains that he and his family have thick skins, but he worries how indicative his treatment may be of the growing chasm between Americans who disagree. “We’re moving into this new era where you can’t have a reasonable conversation with liberals, and apparently you can’t even exercise your First Amendment rights without ticking them off,” he lamented.

Also of special concern to Rench is what he sees as the erosion of constitutional freedoms amid what he calls “a leadership failure of the baby boomer generation.”

Many Christians refused to defend Rench during his ordeal, he said, and some even rebuked him. “We’re largely full of cowards in our political sphere and I would also say in our churches. My pastors were behind me, my pastor spoke out, but I had a lot of churches who were against me in all this. And so the reason why we have lack of courage in political leaders is because we have lack of courage in the pulpits.”

Ben Zornes, who is one of Rench’s pastors at Christ Church, echoed his concerns about the growing threat to liberty in the United States.

“While we are grateful that the city is dropping these charges, we remain concerned with how much disregard was shown for our constitutional rights,” Zornes told The Daily Wire. “The government is established to protect the rights which God endowed us with, not to determine which rights we can or can’t have and exercise. We are also concerned that the city views the original emergency order’s provision for the continued exercise of First Amendment rights as a ‘loophole.’ Our prayer is that the mayor and city council see the error of this line of thinking, and work to preserve our liberty in these crazy times we face, rather than continue to infringe upon our God-given rights.”

Douglas Wilson, the senior pastor of Rench’s church, is a prolific author who also weighed in on the case last week on his personal blog.

“It turns out that what we were doing was entirely legal, and what the city of Moscow did was entirely illegal, and so the city, slathered with much embarrassment, has dropped the charges,” wrote Wilson. “Many of the Christians who accused us of being scofflaws, of egregiously violating Romans 13, and thereby bringing the gospel into disrepute, have since then inundated us with emails, calls, and letters that apologized for having misread the situation. They did not realize that the city was the one violating the law.”

“Actually, just kidding,” Wilson added. “We have not been so inundated.”

[Slyfox]

DENIED

Freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly, and the right to a free and fair election.

It has been almost a whole freaking bull$#!+ year.

[patriot torch]

Gee, I sure hope the arresting officers didn’t trip over any antifa rioters while enroute to the scene of the crime.

Those large flat screen tv’s and designer bags can be cumbersome to navigate around.

[metmom]

Liberals really are the hateful group in this all.

[pilgrim]

Future response for the below mentioned!

This treatment is what ‘the deplorable, President Trump supports, conservatives, Christians, etc’ can expect in the near future! jmho!

ps.

“He ain’t my president.”

He cheated!

China elected him!

Put biden back in the basement~

‘Hiden biden again!’

Pro America/anti-biden!

biden lied then elected!

Give biden the same respect
he gave my President Trump

Impeach biden

Lie-en biden

More to be added.

[PAR35]

Not a fan of the church’s theology or some of the things that Wlson has done, but good for them on this one.

[PeterPrinciple]

Many Christians refused to defend Rench during his ordeal, he said, and some even rebuked him. “We’re largely full of cowards in our political sphere and I would also say in our churches. My pastors were behind me, my pastor spoke out, but I had a lot of churches who were against me in all this. And so the reason why we have lack of courage in political leaders is because we have lack of courage in the pulpits.”

---

Worthy of thought.

What did the Prophets preach? What did John the Baptist preach? What did Jesus preach? What did the Apostles preach?

What should we be hearing in the pulpits now?

[Scrambler Bob]

The University of Idaho is there.

[fr_freak]

DENIED
Freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly, and the right to a free and fair election.
It has been almost a whole freaking bull$#!+ year.

It will continue until we decide we've had enough.

[Elsie]

What did John the Baptist preach?

THIS guy?

Luke 3:7-9
“You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bear fruits in keeping with repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father,’ for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham. Indeed the axe is already laid at the root of the trees; so every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”

 

Luke 3:19-20
But when Herod the tetrarch was reprimanded by him because of Herodias, his brother’s wife, and because of all the wicked things which Herod had done, Herod also added this to them all: he locked John up in prison.

 

Matthew 14:3-5
For when Herod had John arrested, he bound him and put him in prison because of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip. For John had been saying to him, “It is not lawful for you to have her.” Although Herod wanted to put him to death, he feared the crowd, because they regarded John as a prophet.

 

Mark 6:17-20
For Herod himself had sent and had John arrested and bound in prison on account of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip, because he had married her. For John had been saying to Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.” Herodias had a grudge against him and wanted to put him to death and could not do so;

Matthew 14:6-12
But when Herod’s birthday came, the daughter of Herodias danced before them and pleased Herod, so much that he promised with an oath to give her whatever she asked. Having been prompted by her mother, she said, “Give me here on a platter the head of John the Baptist.”

 

Mark 6:14-16
And King Herod heard of it, for His name had become well known; and people were saying, “John the Baptist has risen from the dead, and that is why these miraculous powers are at work in Him.” But others were saying, “He is Elijah.” And others were saying, “He is a prophet, like one of the prophets of old.” But when Herod heard of it, he kept saying, “John, whom I beheaded, has risen!”

---

What did Jesus preach?

THIS fella??

Matthew 23

 

  1.  Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples:
  2.  "The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat.
  3.  So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach.
  4.  They tie up heavy loads and put them on men's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.
  5.  "Everything they do is done for men to see: They make their phylacteries  wide and the tassels on their garments long;
  6.  they love the place of honor at banquets and the most important seats in the synagogues;
  7.  they love to be greeted in the marketplaces and to have men call them `Rabbi.'
  8.  "But you are not to be called `Rabbi,' for you have only one Master and you are all brothers.
  9.  And do not call anyone on earth `father,' for you have one Father, and he is in heaven.
 10.  Nor are you to be called `teacher,' for you have one Teacher, the Christ.
 11.  The greatest among you will be your servant.
 12.  For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
 13.  "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men's faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to. 
 14.  Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayer: therefore ye shall receive the greater damnation. 
 15.   "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are. 
 16.  "Woe to you, blind guides! You say, `If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.'
 17.  You blind fools! Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes the gold sacred?
 18.  You also say, `If anyone swears by the altar, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gift on it, he is bound by his oath.'
 19.  You blind men! Which is greater: the gift, or the altar that makes the gift sacred?
 20.  Therefore, he who swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it.
 21.  And he who swears by the temple swears by it and by the one who dwells in it.
 22.  And he who swears by heaven swears by God's throne and by the one who sits on it.
 23.  "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices--mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law--justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.
 24.  You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.
 25.  "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.
 26.  Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.
 27.  "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!  You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean.
 28.  In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.
 29.  "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous.
 30.  And you say, `If we had lived in the days of our forefathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.'
 31.  So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets.
 32.  Fill up, then, the measure of the sin of your forefathers!
 33.  "You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?
 34.  Therefore I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town.
 35.  And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.
 36.  I tell you the truth, all this will come upon this generation.
 37.  "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.
 38.  Look, your house is left to you desolate.
 39.  For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, `Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.' "

 

 

---

What did the Apostles preach?

THESE folks???

 

Acts 5:17-42

17 Then the high priest and all his associates, who were members of the party of the Sadducees, were filled with jealousy. 18 They arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail. 19 But during the night an angel of the Lord opened the doors of the jail and brought them out. 20 “Go, stand in the temple courts,” he said, “and tell the people all about this new life.”
21 At daybreak they entered the temple courts, as they had been told, and began to teach the people.

When the high priest and his associates arrived, they called together the Sanhedrin—the full assembly of the elders of Israel—and sent to the jail for the apostles. 22 But on arriving at the jail, the officers did not find them there. So they went back and reported, 23 “We found the jail securely locked, with the guards standing at the doors; but when we opened them, we found no one inside.” 24 On hearing this report, the captain of the temple guard and the chief priests were at a loss, wondering what this might lead to.

25 Then someone came and said, “Look! The men you put in jail are standing in the temple courts teaching the people.” 26 At that, the captain went with his officers and brought the apostles. They did not use force, because they feared that the people would stone them.

27 The apostles were brought in and made to appear before the Sanhedrin to be questioned by the high priest. 28 “We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name,” he said. “Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man’s blood.”

29 Peter and the other apostles replied: “We must obey God rather than human beings! 30 The God of our ancestors raised Jesus from the dead—whom you killed by hanging him on a cross. 31 God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Savior that he might bring Israel to repentance and forgive their sins. 32 We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.”

33 When they heard this, they were furious and wanted to put them to death. 34 But a Pharisee named Gamaliel, a teacher of the law, who was honored by all the people, stood up in the Sanhedrin and ordered that the men be put outside for a little while. 35 Then he addressed the Sanhedrin: “Men of Israel, consider carefully what you intend to do to these men. 36 Some time ago Theudas appeared, claiming to be somebody, and about four hundred men rallied to him. He was killed, all his followers were dispersed, and it all came to nothing. 37 After him, Judas the Galilean appeared in the days of the census and led a band of people in revolt. He too was killed, and all his followers were scattered. 38 Therefore, in the present case I advise you: Leave these men alone! Let them go! For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail. 39 But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.”

40 His speech persuaded them. They called the apostles in and had them flogged. Then they ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go.

41 The apostles left the Sanhedrin, rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name. 42 Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah.

 

[PeterPrinciple]

When you begin to hear that kind of thing in the pulpit be concerned. Those are real Prophets. (Capital P).

A had a pastor once that said we could Prophecy also, in the send of saying. “you keep doing what you are doing and something bad is going to happen to you.”

There is nothing that stops us from doing a little Prophesying.

[Elsie]

Dang!

What’s up with all of these A’s???