
Here is a quick civics lesson. The Constitution describes what civil government can do. The Bill of Rights describes what the civil government CANNOT DO because these are rights given by God. Also note the following principle. What you create, you have the right and the ability to legislate. You have the right and responsibility to govern. Make sense?
Civil government did not create the Church. Jesus did. The truth is, civil government has no jurisdiction in the Church. If you want to learn more about this concept I've devoted a whole chapter in my book Kingdom League International, Structures and Strategies available through Amazon. Hence, it is truly up to the overseer, senior pastor, apostle, bishop, eldership, deacons, board or church leadership to decide whether to meet or not, how those meetings will be conducted, will they require masks, social distancing or do they choose not to meet for now. It's OK for them to make that decision and it is absolutely wrong for the Govenor to abuse the emergency powers act to act like a tyrant who refuses to give up power. Click here for an excellent opinion piece from a May 26 article in the Wennatchee World on this subject.
The First Amendment was created with that understanding. The President and his administration have done well. They've offered strong recommendations. Many Democrat govenors, with a socialist mindset and agenda have overstepped the bounds of jurisdiction and are trampling on the State Constitution (ie. there are 8 steps required to create a law of which none have been followed in Washington) and people's rights through their edicts. We are under martial law, at least they act that way, though they avoid using that term. The Governor has gone so far as to even mandate how many people can meet in a home. In all my life, I've never seen such micromanagement on a macro scale.
PT Ruston Street Preachers Encounter with Law Enforcement
So we arrived at the PT Ruston park which is by a shopping center. When we arrived we saw a PT Ruston police officer speaking with Doug Basler, a minister, business owner and the guy running for Congress in the 9th District. It just so happens he's been doing outreaches since the late 80s. Anyway, the officer was engaging with Doug and other members of his team who were setting up their sound system on the park next to the water.
One member of Doug's team has a laminated handout titled Free Speech Rights & Court Rulings Relating to Street Preaching. It listed all of these rulings highlighting the following. Doug was kind enough to share with me his handout. If you want the details providing the specific court rulings you can download by clicking here.