The sign in front of the podium Sunday read “Defy Martial Law.” And even though none of the public health measures—notably a stay-home order, with a limit on gatherings in Idaho—taken to battle the novel coronavirus pandemic amounts to anything resembling such a dire state of affairs, in the minds of the far-right “Patriots” leading the event, there really was no difference.
As promised, “Patriot” provocateur Ammon Bundy organized a large public gathering of worshippers on Easter Sunday in a warehouse in Emmett, Idaho, in defiance of Idaho Gov. Brad Little’s stay-at-home orders during the novel coronavirus epidemic—though it fell a bit short of Bundy’s expectations. After earlier suggesting there would be as many as a thousand participants, only about a hundred or so showed; even with that low number, they were packed into the seats closely, generally eschewing social distancing recommendations.
Bundy—who had earlier told reporters he hopes to contract the virus so that he can become immune to it (“I want the virus now”)—and the people leading the event similarly hugged each other and shook hands, then spoke heatedly about the need to resist the “tyranny” of the public health stay-at-home orders and social distancing measures.
“We are physical beings. We require association, we want to be with each other,” Bundy told the audience. “We thrive on that. It’s part of our life, it’s part of liberty, it’s part of the rights that have been given to us—to be able to shake hands, and share our love and appreciation for each other.”
Oddly, even though it was billed as a kind of Easter service, the service did not feature any pastors; rather, its speakers were all political activists. The primary speaker—Boisean Diego Rodriguez—does not lead any church congregation or have any religious credentials. He ran as a conservative candidate in the Republican primary for an Idaho state senate seat in 2014; his main credentials are that he is a “motivational speaker” and entrepreneur.
Besides Bundy, the other guest speaker was Wayne Hoffman, founder of the Idaho Freedom Foundation, an ultra-right lobbying organization that has opposed Little’s orders and deemed them unconstitutional. Even though Hoffman is Jewish, he played directly to the sensibilities of his mostly evangelical Christian audience.
Hoffman bemoaned polls showing that even conservative Idahoans support the restrictions by a massive majority, which he blamed on “fear—the work of the devil”: “So I’m in my bedroom, trying to get some sleep, and it occurs to me that, yes, this is the ultimate work of the devil. Fear is the embodiment of Satan. Fear is also the tool of tyrants.”
Hoffman, like all the speakers, urged attendees to defy the restrictions. “We don’t have to live like this,” he said. “We don’t have to live in fear. … We certainly don't have to continue to live in a world where a church service is considered a big news story in America. That's not who we are. Americans don't live in fear. They don't give up their rights just because somebody tells them to."
Both Bundy’s and Hoffman’s remarks were relatively brief. However, Rodriguez pumped the crowd for nearly an hour, preaching about Christianity and how the message of the Bible was all about “liberty.” So, he concluded, defying the government’s coronavirus orders was an act of patriotism similar to that of the Founding Fathers:
If it does come to that, if I have to suffer physical pain and confinement, if I have to be beaten and threatened, and answer for my freedom, for my liberty, and for the name of Jesus Christ, I stand here before you today to say I am ready to stand up for the cause of freedom.
Patrick Henry said, ‘Give me liberty or give me death.’ Because I don’t want to live if I can’t be free. I don’t want to live, if I can’t live in liberty. Do you?
Do you want to live in oppression, do you want be bound, do you want people telling you what you can do, where you can go, who you can worship, when you can worship? I say give me liberty or give me death.
A number of evangelical churches around the nation have been similarly resisting the orders. Bundy has said that the purpose of the resistance to the public health orders is to enable ordinary citizens to stand up in defense of any member of the public who found his constitutional rights being trampled by government orders intended to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
“It does not matter what is most safe or not, what is good or not,” Bundy proclaimed in a video he posted on Facebook. “Because in this case, the government does not have the right to do what they’re doing. They do not have a right to restrict you from going to church, worshipping, having meetings, or being with your family, grieving with them. They do not have that right.”
On Sunday, he told the audience that this kind of resistance is a natural product of biblical teachings: "When you believe in Christ ... you will never infringe upon your neighbor's rights,” he said.
