You can’t plan Psalm Sing arrests. It was God at work and we were there to watch it unfold.
I am a member of Christ Church and I was there at Moscow City Hall on Wednesday, September 23. As I reflect on the Psalm Sing arrests, it is clear that God was at work putting all the pieces together so it would add up to a perfect media storm.
That Wednesday afternoon, we weren’t planning on getting arrested. I thought the police would be out issuing a lot of citations. That is what I was preparing for. When we arrived at City Hall, I was surprised to see about ten police were out there already. It was intimidating but I thought even then they would just issue citations.
I am not sure why the police went up to Gabe Rench. He was near the front of the group but there were others they could have talked to.
I know the police knew Gabe from the community but I don’t think they knew all the connections he had. I think the police were mostly just trying to their job. They arrested Gabe before we even finished the first song. There was another couple from the church who were also arrested on the last song. We didn’t plan for anyone to get arrested. That is just how it happened.
There were a few camera guys from our church who were at the event. But we did not co-ordinate that. Friends just brought their cameras and wanted to film it. A couple of the guys do film making and editing on a regular basis so this was right up their alley. God had been preparing them for this moment.
God had also been preparing Gabe for this moment. For those who don’t know, Gabe Rench is one of the hosts on a growing podcast and show called CrossPolitic. The show has been going for a few years. It covers a variety of topics but it focuses primarily on politics and theology. Over the last several months, the show had been discussing the Covid-19 issue and how government officials had been responding. So all of this meant that Gabe was well prepared to appear on key news shows across the nation to talk about this issue.
Another key piece of the moment was that national news was pretty light that week. Everyone was waiting for Trump’s Supreme Court nominee to be announced but otherwise there was not a lot happening.
The news story wrote itself in many ways: Three arrested for Psalm singing without a mask and not social distancing. It hit all the key issues: church liberty, covid-19, police force, and government orders.
This is the kind of story you can’t write. It was a perfect storm of issues.
It is helpful to consider the alternative ways the story could have gone. Maybe no arrests; just some citations. No big news story really at that point. Maybe a few others get arrested: some video footage but not much beyond that. If people got arrested who did not have the background and preparation that Gabe had, it would not have gone as far. Maybe no arrests and no citations. Any number of other scenarios could have happened and the outcome could have been very different.
In the end, the Moscow police and mayor backed down after the national news pressure. Two days later, on Friday evening of that same week, we were back out again singing psalms but there were no police present. This time there were over 500 people singing psalms.
There were a few counter protestors (about 50) but they didn’t do much. They had some drums and car horns but it was rather humorous that their noise making almost went along with our singing. So we won even that part too.
I hope this event encourages other Christians to faith and boldness. We cannot plan these things which means Christians just need to get busy and trust God. We don’t know how God is going to tell the story. But that is not our responsibility. We just need to stand up and be faithful with the resources He gives us. And then trust God to write the story.
Read more of the story and watch videos at Moscow Report
