The media is reporting late afternoon today, Monday 3/30/2020, that Dr. Rodney Howard-Browne, Senior Pastor of The River At Tampa Bay, was arrested on charges of unlawful assembly and violating Hillsborough County’s stay-at-home order, posting bail 30 minutes later. (More to come.)
The church released the following Press Statement on its Facebook page 3/18/2020.
Press Statement From Revival Ministries International and The River at Tampa Bay
In a time of national crisis, we expect certain institutions to be open and certain people to be on duty. We expect hospitals to have their doors open 24/7 to receive and treat patients. We expect our police and firefighters to be ready and available to rescue and to help and to keep the peace. The Church is another one of those essential services. It is a place where people turn for help and for comfort in a climate of fear and uncertainty.
Therefore, we feel that it would be wrong for us to close our doors on them, at this time, or any time. In a time of crisis, people are fearful and in need of comfort and community, more than ever before. Even people who do not attend church regularly, or perhaps never go to church, need to know that there is somewhere for them to go when they need help.The River at Tampa Bay is doing, and will do, everything in our power to support the efforts of our wider community by cleaning and sanitizing surfaces and take any other recommended measures to protect our people and keep them healthy and safe. If anyone is either not feeling well or would prefer to take the precaution of remaining at home for their own health, we encourage them to do that and to continue to watch the services online.
We feel that it is very important, at this time, that we keep our doors open for anyone who needs prayer or ministry and to make ourselves available to minister hope and healing and comfort to them. We are the Body of Christ and the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. We believe God‘s Word to us, which says to trust Him and to not be fearful but to have faith in Him. We are praying—as are our fellow Christians around the world—and we know that God answers prayers.
People everywhere are looking for their leadership – both natural and spiritual – to be calm and strong and to lead them through this. Because we will eventually come through this, as we have in the past. The last thing we need, in a time of crisis, is for people to be spreading false rumors and looking for somebody to attack, or a place to allocate blame. Right now, we need to rather all be working together to get through this.
We hope and trust that all media outlets would be able to hear from the President and his medical advisors and properly and correctly report the information and advice given by them. And to resist the temptation to report in such a way as to exacerbate people’s panic, fear, and anxiety.
A word of encouragement to you, wherever you are: “Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, And He saved them out of their distresses. He sent His Word and healed them, And delivered them from their destructions.” Psalm 107:19-20
The ministry’s “legal team,” The Liberty Counsel, issued a press release regarding the matter, in which founder/Chairman, Matt Staver, argued that the Hillsborough County administrative order on the auspices of which the sheriff obtained an arrest warrant for Howard-Browne, was flawed in part because it “was not reviewed by constitutional experts or vetted by a deliberative body.” He went on to state, “I was shocked that Sheriff Chad Chronister held his press conference before the arrest was completed. I am astounded that Sheriff Chronister used his press conference to lecture about the Bible. This is entirely inappropriate for a government official to takes sides on religion.”
[Update by the Editor, 9:45am, 4/1/20]Spirit Life Magazine has reached out to Pastor Rodney Howard-Browne for more information on the matter, but he has not yet responded (obviously he has more important things to do with his time in the present circumstances than talking to us), and in a video he recorded the evening of the arrest, he indicated he is not doing interviews at this time, and that “there is no other side of the story; it is what it is.” That appears to be the sum-total of his response, though those of us who have “known” RHB, from a distance for decades, to whatever degree he allows himself to be “known,” we are not so naive or easily snowed as to actually believe there is no other side of the story or that it merely is what it is. We know that’s silly nonsense. We also know how vocal he has been about how much he does not care what anyone else thinks and particularly what they think about him! Of course, we, here at SLM, are not the world, and thus are not the enemy, and we, along with many others part and parcel of the Body of Christ, are seeking additional light from the source to shine upon the path of the ultimate agenda associated with this preplanned action in the interest of being supportive of same, because the amount of light we have presently precludes unreserved support. In addition to a number of other aspects of the plan, which according to his statements on the video, went precisely as planned, the matters of timing and wisdom ostensibly would loom large in the minds of many other church leaders who are just as earnestly attempting to ferret out what it is in this current national crisis that seems “good to the Holy Spirit and to us” (Acts 15:28) in terms of what the collective response of the Church should be. It would seem obvious that a unified, consensus-centered response, to whatever degree such can be reached, would carry more weight than singular, rogue actions by individuals, regardless of the perceived expansiveness of their influence. From what we have read, numerous respected church leaders are not yet advocating any form of civil disobedience or non-compliance with federal, state, and local authorities’ mitigation measures. Should this national shut-down continue, it may come to that, but Pastor Howard-Browne’s deliberate, premeditated actions, which he stated in the video was intended to “force a national debate on First Amendment rights” and the unconstitutional abridging of same, stand out at this time as being premature, unwise (some charge, reckless), and unnecessary, and it remains to be seen if what many of his supporters are perceiving as “courage” outweighs these other cited sentiments in the court of public opinion. If the plan backfires and produces more outrage, derision, and scorn toward the church-at-large than gratefulness and appreciation at a time such as this, that would be unfortunate, though certainly nothing new or novel. Time will tell. Nevertheless, we take total solace in the fact that “we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose (Rom 8:28).” Amen! No need to despair, reserving judgment on Pastor RHB’s actions for the time-being, God is certainly bigger than all the mistakes, missteps, and misjudgments all of us combined can ever make. He, ultimately, is in charge and the ultimate authority!
Read a related article on SLM: Nine Reasons Why Churches Should Comply At This Time With Covid-19 Outbreak Mitigation Measures
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