Pastor Ché Ahn of Harvest Rock Church in California contends that churches are being targeted by left-wing Marxist ideologies because they are outspoken against government overreach and abuse of authority.
Pastor Ché Ahn stated in a Saturday interview with The Epoch Times that a spiritual war is raging in America between the principalities propagating socialist ideas and the nation's core values founded on faith in God.
"Marxism is a religion. Humanism is a religion, it is putting the human at the top instead of God, and so, [socialism] will do everything possible to get people to reject worshipping the true God. That's why we're having such a battle in our nation against the values of our founding fathers who are mostly Christians and you know they had biblical values, Judeo-Christian values. So that's why I feel that there is an assault going on," he said.
The pastor has fought against constraints on religious freedom since the outbreak and has been in the forefront of a court fight against California's breach of the first amendment. Places of worship in California have been subjected to the most stringent restrictions from March to May 2020.
The Epoch Times noted that in August 2020, Gov. Gavin Newsom imposed a "no-worship" ban on more than 90% of churches but was more lenient on secular gatherings and large-scale demonstrations such as the violent riots by Black Lives Matter. After witnessing the discrimination in Gov. Newsom's restriction orders, Pastor Ahn and his church decided to fight back.
"When the pandemic happened, I think a lot of what I would call left-wing governors, you can call Democrat or liberals, but I feel they're more left-wing, I think they seized the opportunity to really control society and one of the areas that I think they really like to control is the church because historically, the church has been the most outspoken against government control in this country," Ahn explained.
For each day that Harvest Rock Church stayed open beyond August 2020, Ahn and his church risked criminal charges that could result in a year in jail and $1,000 in penalties. In addition, the criminal prosecutor sent a letter in August threatening the church with jail terms, fines, and possibly closure if they did not comply.
Despite these threats and unlawful regulations, Harvest Rock Church persevered. Ahn won the case after more than a year when the Supreme Court ruled that the state could not limit religious activities.
"They gave three rulings: one is that you can have in-person worship. Number two, that we can meet in homes and have Bible studies and prayer meetings because Newsom had forbade that as well, and thirdly, that we can sing because Newsom was really clear that you can't sing," said the embattled pastor.
According to Ahn, they not only won the case, but their membership grew as a result of the publicity that the church had about religious freedom.
The pastor also appeared in a panel discussion moderated by The Epoch Times titled "Defending the Constitution: Why It Matters Now More Than Ever" on July 19.
