Thoughts about arrest of a Florida man (I couldn’t resist) who as a pastor led his congregation to continue to meet:

1. I think his leadership of the church to meet is foolish. There is no biblical requirement to meet without fail every seven days without regard to disaster or calamity. There most certainly is a lethal risk present with this disease.

2. I think his decision may have been self-serving. Not meeting amounts to a severe financial stress-test on a church.

3. But I’m going to have to wait for the legal case to bring us more of the facts before I conclude that he did not have the legal right to do what he did. Every constitutional liberty is a liberty to do foolish and objectionable things. That’s not the standard.

4. Occasions when the government says, “We have to shut everything down to stop this plague, and that includes churches—there is no other way to protect the population,” are occasions when, I think, the government is on sound footing.

5. Occasions when (hypothetically) the government says, “We have to shut down the unimportant things, and corporate worship isn’t really important,” aren’t nearly so clear to me. On the latter half of that sentence, the government is not only wrong but also unconstitutional.

6. This case will go to court, and the arguments on each side will give us more information about the government’s rules, exceptions, and enforcement patterns. For me, these will be an important factor in determining my opinion.

But to end where I started, a great many things that are legal for me are still stupid. Just because I can do something doesn’t mean I should. @fbcfarmersville will keep our campus closed, not because we must, but because we should.