The hypocrisy is staggering!

Thousands of people, including Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and IL Gov. J.B. Pritzker, have been thronging the streets of the windy city for the last two weeks.

No social distancing measures or limits on the number of people have been enforced. No "disorderly conduct" citations have been given to the protestors in these mass gatherings. No Health Department "Summary Abatement" threats to destroy the facility were delivered at the packed building where Gov. Pritzker spoke Monday afternoon.

Help Us STOP Government Officials' Attacks on Our Churches

But even though a reported 30,000 people gathered, unregulated, in Chicago's Union Square on Saturday, Mayor Lori Lightfoot chose to dictate new restrictions against churches!

In a notice filed June 6 entitled, "City of Chicago Announces Reopening Guidelines for Places of Worship," Mayor Lightfoot decreed new restrictions against Chicago-area churches, including our clients. The restrictions contain requirements that churches have less than 50 people or 25% capacity in any room, facemasks must always be worn and all unrelated (non-family member) attendees must stand a minimum of six feet apart.

Meanwhile, that very day across town, 30,000 people went unchallenged by the police or city officials as they stood shoulder to shoulder, singing and chanting, most without masks. And both Gov. Pritzker and Mayor Lightfoot have supported and applauded these non-socially distanced "mass gatherings."

The staging area for two of the protests were at or near churches, complete with food trucks where people made their signs before they began marching.

Mayor Lightfoot apparently has no problem with people ignoring "social distancing measures" unless those people are in a church! This unequal treatment of issuing edicts to some, but not all, clearly demonstrates the arbitrary and discriminatory nature of Mayor Lightfoot's and Gov. Pritzker's actions against churches.

Chicago has become the deadliest city in America. Over the Pentecost weekend, 18 people were shot and killed in a 24-hour period and many more were injured. The godless leadership has booted God from the public square and the vacuum has been filled by record crime levels.

These are lawless leaders who see no place for church or God in their lives, or yours.

Stand With Us As We Stand to Defend Our Churches

Let's recap the abuses against the Chicago-area Romanian churches:

• Mayor Lightfoot criminally charged the pastors at both churches for having more than 10 people at a service. These charges have not been dropped.
• Mayor Lightfoot ticketed and towed cars for nine blocks around one of our clients' churches to try to prevent them from meeting. These tickets and fines have not been dropped.
• Mayor Lightfoot then sent police officers to block the church's private parking lot to prevent churchgoers from attending service.
• Mayor Lightfoot's Commissioner of Health sent a Summary Abatement notice to our client's church, giving discretionary authority to take possession of church property and to destroy or bulldoze the property with no judicial process. This Summary Abatement has not been rescinded.

In a recent interview with the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Alderman Lopez characterized Mayor Lightfoot as someone who always needs an enemy and is always spoiling for a fight.

Alderman Lopez said, "She can only exist with an opponent. She doesn't know how to exist in a world of collaboration," Lopez told the Chicago Tribune. "She has to have someone in constant opposition in order to make her worldview stick."

In this instance, Mayor Lightfoot has chosen God and churches as her opponent. She displays an overt hostility to these churches that is forbidden by the U.S. Constitution.

By the grace of God, Faith & Liberty will continue to work to defend churches and the religious freedom of every American to gather and worship as the Lord leads – not as the government dictates.

But we need your help. The team is working around the clock in our efforts to assist these churches.

We’ll have an update for you on additional cases later this week.

We need your help now to ensure that Faith & Liberty can continue to successfully defend God's people and our constitutionally guaranteed religious liberty — in Washington, DC and in the public square.

Please, give generously today. The battles we fight today will determine our children's and grandchildren's freedom tomorrow.

Your missionaries to Washington, D.C.,

Peggy Nienaber, Vice-President
Mat Staver, Chairman
Rev. Gregory Cox, Lead Missionary