Members of a baptist church in Mississippi got $500 tickets each for attending a drive-in church service where they all stayed in their vehicles and listened to the pastor give a sermon:
THE BLAZE – The parking lot at Temple Baptist Church in Greenville, Mississippi, was full Wednesday night for a service, the Delta Democrat-Times reported.
That might sound odd considering churches around the country aren’t meeting in person due to the coronavirus social distancing guidelines — but this was a different kind of church service.
Temple Baptist members were staying in their vehicles with the windows rolled up to listen to Pastor Arthur Scott’s sermon on the radio, the paper said.
Lee Gordon — a 23-year member of the church as well as a representative for the Washington County Board of Supervisors — told the Democrat-Times the church has been using a low-power FM frequency to broadcast sermons in the parking lot for the last three weeks.
“The preacher is in the church at the pulpit, and we are streaming the service live as well,” Gordon added to the paper. “But a lot of our membership is elderly and [lacks access to streaming technology].”
Gordon told the Democrat-Times he and his wife were among those gathered in the church parking lot — and figured they all were abiding by the coronavirus social distancing guidelines given they were in their cars with the windows rolled up.
But that wasn’t the case — and they paid for it.
Gordon told the paper he and his wife were both issued $500 tickets.
“I think somebody called the police,” he added to the Democrat-Times. “And we were just doing the same thing we’ve been doing the last three weeks.”
Gordon noted to the paper that the police “were respectful and just doing their job. They asked us to leave first, and those who stayed got a ticket.”
Below is video from one church member who recorded an officer going from car to car to issue citations:
https://www.facebook.com/1157828735/videos/10220183493635047/
