Sunday, May 31, 2020

The 3 - May 31, 2020

This has been a turbulent week across our land, and this week's edition of The 3 begins to spotlight some response in the Christian community to the death of George Floyd on the streets of Minneapolis.  Also, California churches made good on the promise to meet in-person on Sunday, regardless of the state governor's orders.  And, President Trump took action against social media censorship this week, an issue that has been of great concern to Christians.

California churches reopen despite governor, SCOTUS rebuffs

A consortium of California churches had declared that this past Sunday, Pentecost Sunday, would be the date that they would resume worship services.  An appeals court decision prior to Memorial Day had upheld Governor Gavin Newsom's almost-total ban on churches meeting together and the governor had held out a short olive branch on Memorial Day, saying churches could meet at 25% capacity, but no more than 100 people could gather in any one service.

Then, the U.S. Supreme Court dealt a blow to churches desiring to see Newsom's stance overriden.  According to NBC 4 Television:
On Friday a sharply divided U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 to uphold the restrictions on religious gatherings imposed by Newsom during the COVID-19 pandemic and denied an injunction sought by a church in Chula Vista.
Chief Justice John G. Roberts voted with liberal justices Elena Kagan, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Stephen Breyer to deny an injunction sought by South Bay United Pentecostal Church and its senior pastor, Bishop Arthur Hodges III, that alleged state and local elected officials have “intentionally denigrated California churches and pastors and people of faith by relegating them to third-class citizenship.”
More than 1500 church leaders had signed on to a "Declaration of Essentiality," which involved churches meeting this past weekend.  A large Southern California church, Harvest Christian Fellowship, where Greg Laurie is the pastor, was taking reservations for congregants at two of its locations. Laurie tweeted out: "It’s Pentecost Sunday! Welcome back to Church!"

President issues order designed to reduce social media censorship

 For years, Christians and conversatives have been documenting and decrying instances of censorship by social media companies.  National Religious Broadcasters, in fact, had formed Internet Freedom Watch to bring awareness to this ongoing problem.

And, President Trump, after having several of his tweets labeled by Twitter to be non-factual, issued an executive order that is attempting to curb the action of Twitter and other companies, which have been enjoying an exemption under Federal law from possible litigation because they have set themselves up as a neutral carrier of information.

CBN News reported:
"They’ve had unchecked power to censor, restrict, edit, shape, hide, alter virtually any form of communication between private citizens or large public audiences," Trump said of social media companies as he signed the order. "There is no precedent in American history for so small a number of corporations to control so large a sphere of human interaction.”
White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany also explained in advance, "The President will take action so that big tech does not stifle free speech and that the rights of all Americans to speak and tweet is protected."
NRB issued a press release, which said that the consortium of Christian communicators, "is encouraged that President Trump’s Executive Order and proposed legislation are opening up an important conversation about the threats posed by powerful social media companies that often censor opinions with which they disagree."

The release says that among other things, "The President also called for clarification of the scope of the immunity from liability created by section 230(c) of the Communications Decency Act, which facilitates internet companies’ 'Good Samaritan' blocking of offensive content by defending them from lawsuits based on content their moderation efforts may have missed."

Christian leaders respond to George Floyd death

 There has been much response from Christian leaders about the brutal death of George Floyd, who, according to a Religion Unplugged story from which I quoted Friday, was involved in ministry in a Houston community and was influential in helping Christian leaders to do ministry in the area.

In response, Franklin Graham called for a Day of Prayer on Sunday, according to BillyGraham.org, which quoted from a Facebook post from the evangelist:
We need to pray for PEACE, because “the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God” (James 1:20). Pray for PERSPECTIVE, because “the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere” (James 3:17).
Pray for PATIENCE, because of God’s “kindness and forbearance and patience” toward us all (Romans 2:4). And pray for an OUTPOURING of His wisdom and direction for our leaders and officials who are dealing with this crisis. Ask God to change hearts and heal this divide in our nation.
The article also mentioned that Billy Graham Rapid Response Team chaplains had been deployed to the area. BillyGraham.org website pinpointed a prayer effort in Minneapolis:
Pastor Herman Colón and his wife Yolandita led a prayer and worship service in the parking lot of their church only blocks away from boarded-up and graffitied businesses.
Pastors of various denominations took turns praying—some in person and some by phone over a loud speaker. Dozens worshipped, crying out to God.
Every now and then, a burning smell wafted over the crowd. The fourth day of protests were starting nearby.
“[God] You put us up—a watchman on a wall, and we have failed,” a Canadian pastor prayed by phone, his voice carried over the loud speaker.
“Father, forgive us because now we see a city that is running around without direction.”
A Twitter post that was disseminated from John Mason featured a short video of a prayer meeting in Minneapolis. One of the notable statements about the tragedy came from legendary coach and Faith Radio programmer Tony Dungy, who said:
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