(PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER) — A South Jersey church held services on Sunday in defiance of government closure orders and amid concerns that large gatherings involving loud speech and song could put participants in danger of coronavirus infection.
Parishioners of the Solid Rock Baptist Church in Berlin, Camden County, gathered for what its clergy told Gov. Phil Murphy prior to the service would “meet or exceed” safety recommendations from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“We’re not looking for trouble; we’re not lawbreakers,” Pastor Charles Clark Jr. could be seen in a live internet broadcast exclaiming from the pulpit toward a crowded front pew. “We’re exercising our constitutional rights.”
