Matt Staver, the chairman and founder of the Liberty Counsel, told the “Todd Starnes Show” Monday that Kansas City is engaging in Nazi-like behavior after ordering that churches will be required to take information on any congregant who attends a service and stays longer than 10 minutes.
“They’re targeting people and you have to give them your name and contact information as a prerequisite,” Staver said. “What did they start doing in Nazi Germany? They started targeting people. They started to collect their names and their data so that they knew who they were and where they’ve been.”
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Staver told the show that he has information that Attorney General William Barr’s Justice Department is looking into the matter. Staver said he is optimistic about a DOJ intervention and pointed out that the department last weekend sided with a Virginia church that clashed with Gov. Ralph Northam’s executive orders.
“I hope they weigh in here because this is very, very bad,” he said.
In the new case, Staver was referring to a new order in the Missouri city that requires churches there to collect data on those who attend services. It was part of Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas’ so-called 10/10/10 rule that went out last week. Under the order, nonessential businesses, like churches, must take names of anyone who spends more than 10 minutes inside a nonessential location.
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The report said the rule says businesses that are nonessential can have no more than 10 percent of the building’s maximum occupancy or more than 10 people—whichever is greater. Churches must record the time that their congregants entered and leave the building whenever someone stays for over 10 minutes. The plan is expected to start on May 6.
“So if someone came into your church in the last 30 days and somehow they’re related to something that’s related to something that may have been positive—not even confirmed—with COVID, then guess what? Every one of those people that visited the church in the last 30 days” may face questions, have to provide new information and even possibly self-quarantine.
Staver said churches have been unfairly targeted during the coronavirus outbreak. Many pastors across the country have clashed with law enforcement over these executive orders from state and local governments and claim that their constitutional rights have been violated.
“If they don’t back down, of course, we don’t have any other choice and we’ll take this to court,” he said. “This is a no-brainer in terms of violating the constitution.”