Pastor claims someone burned down his church because Christians wanted to worship in person amidst coronavirus

Mississippi Pastor Jerry Waldrop is claiming that an arsonist burned down his church last week and that it was done to stop Christians from worshipping in person amidst the coronavirus pandemic.

An unknown person burned down the First Pentecostal Church of Holly Springs in Holly Springs, Mississippi on May 20, causing the entire building to be destroyed. In a new op-ed published by USA Today, Waldrop talked about how unhappy he was to be forced to close the doors of the church amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I never thought that in America I’d experience what it was like for…armed policeman to hand me an official government document, ordering our community of faithful to cease and desist worshiping on Easter Sunday, and to depart the House of God,” he wrote.

Waldrop went on to say that someone was clearly so angry at the church and those who worship there that he or she burned it down, “leaving only a smoldering mass of debris and our dreams.”

“They left graffiti, trying to shame us for worshiping together in our church,” he lamented. The arson suspect reportedly spray-painted a disturbing warning in what had been the church’s parking lot, writing, “Bet you stay home now hypokrits.”

“Who would do such a thing? Why would anyone want to destroy a sacred place where the faithful venerate God in their own way, in a way that does not intrude on others’ rights or disrupt their lives?” Waldrop continued. “But critics tell us that we are selfish, and that by gathering we are endangering other people who might believe differently.”

He added that the church was adhering to social distancing guidelines, only holding services inside when the weather was “too extreme” to worship outside. “If we are such a danger to everyone, why does Holly Springs allow stores like the local Walmart to violate the same rules that we are accused of violating?” he asked. “After our Easter service, several congregants and I went there and found people without masks, people stopping and standing close together, and people acting as if the coronavirus pandemic was someone else’s problem.”

“How is it that these shoppers were not ordered to go back home and stay there?” the pastor questioned. “Does the Constitution guarantee shoppers greater rights to assemble than people of faith?”

Waldrop pointed out that just days before the church burned down, an appeals court granted the church’s request to worship in person. “We recognize that not everyone shares our belief in the Word of God as revealed in the Bible. We are not offended that others don’t share our firmly held belief that gathering together to worship and to study the Bible is an essential duty and necessary to the growth of the church and its members,” he wrote. “And we will pray for the soul and peace of mind of someone who would harbor such hatred that he would take from us our cherished spiritual home.”

However, Waldrop explained that the entire point of church is to worship together in person. “To suggest that such a gathering is not essential is to deny us the fundamental explanation for our existence,” he wrote, adding that the church believes that liberty itself is a “blessing from God,” much like the United States itself.

“Those two blessings are meant to reinforce one another, and to deny the freedom to enjoy one of the blessings is to destroy the other,” he added. “Based on these premises, we will continue to worship together and to fight together for our and every American’s right to partake in the blessings of freedom.”

Waldrop concluded by saying with certitude that the church will be rebuilt on the same site. “We are going to keep the faith, and we’re going to keep doing what we have always done, and maybe not on this location,” Waldrop said. “I’ll get with our faithful people, and maybe we’ll rent a building or whatever we need to do for the time being. We have the means, so whatever it takes, that’s what we will do,” Waldrop continued.

The level of bigotry that has come out since this pandemic began is truly disturbing. We can only hope that the deviant individual who burned down this church is caught and punished to the fullest extent of the law for this horrific hate crime.