Destiny Church refuses to close

Pastor Greg Fairrington of Destiny Christian Church in Rocklin announced on Monday via Facebook that he will defy Gov. Gavin Newsom's Monday rollback of re-openings, including places of worship. The rollbacks are to stop the spread of COVID-19. "I have told you before, we will not be shutting down the church," Farrington said in the video. "We will have church on Sunday. We are not going to allow the government to use data that is not supported factually to shut the church down," On July 9, Placer County along with 29 other counties throughout California were placed on the COVID-19 County Monitoring List and were told that restaurants, breweries, wineries, brepubs, bars, gyms, places of worship and more need to roll back their reopenings. This follows Placer County, along with the rest of the state, seeing an increase of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations due to the virus. On Wednesday, the church issued a press release on Facebook chronicling the timeline of events since Newsom's closure of the state on March 14 to the reclosure of the state on Monday. "The economic, social, and mental impact of this order has yet to be realized, but it's estimated to be devastating," the press release read. "We believe that the local church serves a critical mental health, spiritual, and community outreach role in our communities, as affirmed by our justice department and executive branch of government." Gold Country Media reached out to Placer County to see if the county can enforce compliance of the guidelines. The county suggested that Gold Country Media reach out to the city of Rocklin to "check in with their approach on this." City of Rocklin public information officer Michael Young responded that, "the City of Rocklin has reached out to Destiny Church and together we are working toward a solution where their services can be held and adhere to recently updated California safety requirements designed to slow the spread of COVID-19." Gold Country Media asked on Wednesday what solutions were being worked out between the city and the church but no response was given before press time. Destiny plans to continue the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's social distancing guidelines lines along with mask wearing, temperature taking and sanitizing, according to the press release. "In addition to our already strict indoor sanitation protocols, we have added an outdoor venue that provides generous spacing between families and additional comfortability for those in our community who would prefer not to attend an indoor venue at this time," the press release reads. On May 29, the U.S. Supreme Court in a 5-4 vote ruled that governors can restrict attendance of places of worship due to COVID-19. Violating that ruling would mean a misdemeanor charge and violators could face a $1,000 fine or six months in prison. As of Thursday, Placer County has 1,203 confirmed COVID-19 cases, 50 confirmed in the hospital, 10 confirmed cases in the Intensive Care Unit and 11 COVID-19 deaths.