Todd Starnes, the best-selling author and host of the “Todd Starnes Radio Show,” blasted the city of Greenville, Miss., for breaking up a church service Wednesday night and then issuing fines to parishioners who listened to the sermon from their cars.
“Are you angry, America?” Starnes asked. “Are you angry that a bunch of goons showed up at a church parking lot filled with old people there to worship their God?”
Disturbing video emerged online that claimed to show police officers from the city approaching churchgoers who were sitting inside their cars to hear the sermon from Temple Baptist Church Pastor Arthur Scott.
Scott said the church was abiding by city orders and only allowed 10 people inside the building. He said he has streamed his service Facebook, but many of his parishioners are elderly and don’t use social media.
So Scott said he invited them to listen to his service on a low-frequency radio station parked outside the building. He said about 25 cars showed up and he was about 30 minutes into his sermon when six to seven Greenville police cars arrived.
WATCH: COPS RAID CHURCH’S DRIVE-IN SERVICE
“I’ve been preaching for 65 years and nothing like this has ever happened to me,” he said.
Police then approached every car there and handed out $500 fines with a court date. One video emerged online that claimed to show one of the officers interacting with a parishioner.
The officer, who was wearing a face mask, said he was following the city’s ordinance about social gatherings.
The driver who filmed the interaction mentioned that the state governor, Tate Reeves, said earlier that police cannot stop “parking lot church services.” The police officer said he was not aware of Tate’s comments.
“Somewhere, right now, in the city of Greenville, there is some real crime going on, and they have half of the police squad in Temple Baptist Church,” the person who filmed the video said.
Scott told Starnes that one of the police officers told him that the mayor wanted to make an example of our church.
“I told them to get some more tickets ready because we will be preaching Sunday morning and Sunday night,” he said.
Mayor Errick Simmons and the city council that banned churches from hosting drive-in services. The City of Greenville put in place an Executive Order that orders all church buildings closed for in-person and drive-in church services, until the State of Mississippi’s Shelter In Place Executive Order No. 1466 is lifted by Reeves.
Starnes said the decision to crack down on the church is an example of what America will look like under Democrat rule. Starnes said this use of force did not happen in a liberal city like San Francisco, it happened in Mississippi “the buckle of the Bible Belt.”
He called on Reeves, who has appeared on his show, to get involved in the incident.
In the meantime, Starnes promised that he would foot the bill if these fines stand up in court.
“We cannot allow this kind of stuff to happen on American soil,” Starnes said.