Christians arrested for maskless outdoor church service to get payout from liberal college town

Fox New ^ | 07/20/2023 | Jon Brown

[ChicagoConservative27]

A liberal college town in Idaho is paying $300,000 to three Christian churchgoers who sued the city after being arrested for not wearing masks at an outside service during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The city of Moscow announced this week that it would settle with Gabriel Rench, as well as Sean and Rachel Bohnet, who brought a case against city leaders in March 2021 that alleged their rights under the First and Fourth Amendments were violated when they were arrested at an outdoor "psalm sing" conducted by leaders from their church.

Moscow, home to the University of Idaho, is a town of approximately 25,000 people about 80 miles south of Spokane, Washington. Christ Church is a local congregation of approximately 1,000 people belonging to the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches.

[ChicagoConservative27]

I remember when this happened. Utterly disgusting.

[SaveFerris]

COVID-19(84)

An excellent dry run for the Mark of the Beast

(lurkers please click on my screenname to see my FR homepage for more information)

[pangaea6]

More churches should have fought back and stayed true to the faith. Christians benefit the most from the first amendment and we refuse to use it

[Michael.SF.]

$300,000? Way too low of a settlement.

[joe fonebone]

What about the politicians and cops that did the deed?

[ConservativeInPA]

They should have brought the suit against the individuals responsible. I’m not sure if they have some sort of immunity as public officials. If there is, then the laws that provide immunity should be abolished. These leftist freaks feel no personal pain when the taxpayer picks up the legal bills. They need to be crushed.

Any government employee, elected or not, needs to be charged criminally for civil rights violations. The penalty should be sever. Violating someone’s religious freedoms should be 20 years in prison. In the case in this article, there would be a count for each person at the service - no concurrent sentences either. I want these people destroyed.

[Persevero]

Amen I was so disturbed by the lack of principle.

Grateful for those that did stand. There were not enough of us. I hope if this ever happens again we have learned our lesson.

[Lee N. Field]

Moscow, home to the University of Idaho, is a town of approximately 25,000 people about 80 miles south of Spokane, Washington. Christ Church is a local congregation of approximately 1,000 people belonging to the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches.

Ah, yes, that. The "outdoor service" was more in the nature of a an attention getting deliberate provocation. Is my recollection.

[joma89]

And let’s never forget how the poloce willingly arrested these people.

I will not back the blue.

[jeffersondem]

“The “outdoor service” was more in the nature of a an attention getting deliberate provocation. Is my recollection.”

Kind of a peaceful Boston Tea Party.

Nothing wrong with publicly standing against tyranny.

I wish I had done something more visible during the mask-up. As it is, no one remembers now that I was against criminal stupidity.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Yes, WAY too low. Plus, it apparently goes only to the three who sued the city, not the other parishioners who showed up to sing.

It's amazing. We are only 90 miles north of Moscow in the Coeur d'Alene area and life went on pretty much as usual here. The worst thing by far was Washingtonians discovered our beautiful lakes and fled their locked-down state to use our lakes. Now that they discovered them, they are still coming here. GO HOME! Use your own damn waters.

We didn't see any of this ridiculous crap here...

Side note: I had to go to Spokane Valley, Washington yesterday for new glasses. The young woman who helped me was wearing a black mask!! I took her by surprise by asking "What the heck are you doing wearing a mask??" To her credit, she politely replied "It's my choice." I could not argue with that. She helped me a lot with my purchase and was friendly and gracious, even though I came out as a mean ogre. Later on I apologized to her and she replied "Oh, don't worry about it." Very nice and competent woman. My glasses were ground and ready in only 38 minutes!

[MNDude]

Hope this sets a precedent and many more lawsuits follow

[albie]

300k isn’t near enough

[yelostar]

Christ Church is a Calvinist church in Moscow, Idaho, pastored by Douglas Wilson, and a member of the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches. The congregation has received international coverage for its views, which include advocating for a theocracy, its pastor's defense of slavery, and his teachings using the terms to "conquer" women and make them "surrender" to the supposed superiority of men.

Well they have interesting views.

[curious7]

Title 18, section 242 and 241 strip limited immunity from ‘officials’ when the commit violations “under color of law2”.

[yelostar]

As with most things in the news, a deeper look yields some not-so-happy details. Maybe a staged and fake brouhaha about masks and Covid will help make people forget about the other stuff.......

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christ_Church_(Moscow,_Idaho)

Sexual assault allegations

Christ Church has garnered widespread attention due to numerous allegations of sexual assault, rape, and pedophilia within the church's congregation. Church leader Douglas Wilson himself has appealed multiple times to judges and police officers to ask for leniency for church members convicted of pedophilia.

In 2005, Greyfriar's Hall student Jamin Wright, then in his mid-20s, was put on trial following allegations of a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old girl. Church leader Douglas Wilson intervened in the case, asking investigators for leniency, and attempted to convince the judge in the case that the relationship between Wright and the accuser was a parent-arranged courtship. Ultimately, Wright was found guilty of "injury to a child". In 2013, Wright was again arrested, and convicted of domestic battery.

Douglas Wilson publicly asked for leniency in 2005 when Steven Sitler, a student at New Saint Andrews College, was convicted of sex offenses involving children. Following the student's release from prison, Wilson personally married him to a woman introduced to him by church leaders. One guest at the wedding suggested that Wilson preached that people needed to get married to contain their sexual desires. However, after the wedding, a judge ruled Sitler must be chaperoned around his infant son, after he admitted to feeling sexual stimulation resulting from contact with the baby.

In September 2021, Vice Media published an article documenting a dozen sexual assault victims that came forward with testimony against Christ Church and its affiliated organizations. The article interviewed a number of ex-members of the church, who claimed that "women are told they must defer to church leaders and cannot say “no” to their husbands, men are taught to strictly control their homes, and those who speak out can be isolated and harassed". One former church member, and student at the Christ Church-affiliated New Saint Andrews College, told Vice that she felt compelled by the church to marry her boyfriend from New Saint Andrews, despite the constant rape and abuse she claims she suffered. Her wedding was officiated by the church's leader, Douglas Wilson. The woman said that other wives in the church reported that marital rape was common, and that when she went to church leaders to protest, they told her that a wife is not allowed to say "no". When she eventually divorced her husband and left the church, she reported that her car was repeatedly vandalized, and she received online abuse from church members.

A number of additional allegations stemming from anonymous sources have been documented on Christian blogs and YouTube channels.

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WTF is going on in Moscow Idaho......

[mware]

Moscow, the jokes write themselves.

[jmacusa]

Yeah. And once the layers get their cut it’ll be even less.

[jmacusa]

“Moscow’’ Idaho? Well that says it all right there.