Jack Roberts says he is too old to be a rebel, but the 76-year-old Louisville area preacher continues to defy a state ban on mass gatherings to hold services at Maryville Baptist Church.

Unless the authorities intervene, he intends to do so again on Sunday, and says he would go to jail and to court rather than pay a fine for violating the March 19 order of Kentucky’s Department of Public Health.

“I’m not interested in trying to defy the government,” Roberts told The Courier Journal. “I don’t want to battle with anybody. What I’d like to do is just preach the gospel, and that’s become more difficult as time’s gone on. And it’s truthfully what I plan on doing.”

Louisville's Our Savior Lutheran is also continuing to hold services, albeit with additional precautions. Attendance is limited to those who register online. Seating is restricted to every other pew.

"This is one of those times where I have to pray diligently and speak to my people sincerely and ask them to be safe," Our Savior Pastor Joshua Cook said Saturday. "But I can't deny the reality of their spiritual health, either. . .

"I believed in the spiritual necessity of church before COVID-19. After COVID-19, we don't have fewer spiritual crises; we have more."

Though several states have exempted religious services from restrictions aimed at slowing the spread of the coronavirus, Kentucky’s order makes no distinction among “faith-based” events, ballgames or concerts. All of them are prohibited.

Roberts says such a prohibition tramples rights protected by the First Amendment and Kentucky’s Constitution. At issue is whether the freedom to practice one's religion conflicts with the greater good in a medical emergency.

Gov. Andy Beshear was asked about Roberts during his Saturday evening press conference in Frankfort.

"If you're still holding mass gatherings, church or otherwise, you were spreading the coronavirus. And you were likely causing the death of Kentuckians," he said. "It's that clear."

Dr. Kevin Kavanagh, the Somerset-based founder of Health Watch USA, argues that church services pose specific and inordinate dangers during a pandemic.

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“One of the cruelest characteristics of the coronavirus epidemic is that it strikes fear in the hearts and minds of many causing them to ask for comfort and protection from the God they believe in,” Kavanagh wrote in an essay published Friday in Infection Control Today.

“And at the same time this virus has made a church service one of the most deadliest places to be in. The combination of singing in close quarters and decreased ventilation is nothing short of a petri dish (or cell plate) for viral growth.”

Public health officials in Sacramento County, California, have traced 71 coronavirus infections to a single church near Rancho Cordova. Closer to home, a mid-March church revival in Hopkins County, Kentucky, has been linked to at least 30 coronavirus cases and three deaths.

Yet even as the connection between group prayer and peril grows more pronounced, consistency and conformity have remained elusive. Days after Tampa Bay pastor Rodney Howard-Browne was arrested for hosting hundreds inside his megachurch in violation of a county social distancing order, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis issued an overriding order declaring church services “essential.”

“Our hospitals better get ready,” Hillsborough (Florida) County Commission Chairman Les Miller told WFLA. “That’s all I’m gonna say.”

Mindful of the problems of proximity posed by a lethal virus, Roberts said he has encouraged his congregation to practice social distancing and asked that those parishioners at high risk of infection stay home and watch a live-stream of his services.

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“I’ve spent a lot of time evaluating what we ought to do as a church,” Roberts said. “I have basically told our church, ‘If you feel uncomfortable, don’t come.’ I don’t want somebody coming and getting sick. I don’t want somebody carrying something that we don’t need."

Cook has adopted a similar stance, advising parishioners, "If they are not in a spiritual emergency, God is not obligating them to be in the worship service." Last Sunday's service, he said, was attended by fewer than 10 people.

"We have done everything that we can to shut down barring locking the doors," Cook said. "We’re open, but not encouraging people to come by practicing the social distancing. We don’t have hardly anyone coming to the live services, thank God."

Beshear first issued guidance encouraging houses of worship to consider canceling services on March 11. Though some clergy initially complained that churches were being held to a higher standard than, say, sports events, Beshear was able to alleviate concerns during a conference call with leaders of the Kentucky Council of Churches.

“We join (Beshear) in urging every congregation to actively engage in efforts to reduce the risk of infection as appropriate to each church and denomination setting,” council leaders — the Rev. Kent Gilbert and the Rev. Donald Gillett II — said in a joint statement.

Before Beshear’s suggestion became a command, Archbishop Joseph Kurtz announced public celebrations of the Mass were being immediately suspended in the Louisville Archdiocese.

“I always want to respect people’s faith,” said the Rev. William Burks, pastor of St. Lawrence Catholic Church in Shively. “But it is so very clear what we are obliged to do and that is to keep our people safe in prayer apart from each other. We are not interested in any way to get outside the regulations.”

Before reaching a similar conclusion, the Landmark Independent Baptist Church consulted scripture.

One Bible verse told pastors to heed the government, to “let every soul be subject unto the higher powers.” Another, in seeming contradiction, imparted the apostolic advice, “We ought to obey God rather than man.”

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“When we didn’t know how serious the coronavirus was, we wanted to make a decision wisely on whether it was an Acts 5 or a Romans 13 moment,” Landmark Senior Pastor Matthew Anders said. “It really came down to the primary function of government is the welfare and protection of its citizens.”

During his Friday afternoon coronavirus update, Beshear said he was aware of “very few” Kentucky churches continuing to hold conventional services.

Unconventionally, the Westport Road Baptist Church invited parishioners to a second weekly service at the Sauerbeck Family Drive-In in LaGrange Saturday night. Pastor Chip Pendleton said last week's service drew 178 people in 78 cars, carefully spaced to maintain social distancing.

Todd Gray, executive director of the Kentucky Baptist Convention (KBC), said Saturday he was unaware of any of the 2,360 churches affiliated with the convention that are not in compliance with the mass gathering ban. Maryville Baptist, "an independent, fundamental Baptist church," does not belong to the KBC.

Friday, Beshear suggested local authorities send a message to those churches not complying with the mass gathering prohibition.

“We ought to have a sheriff’s deputy or a state police car in the parking lot,” Beshear said. “And as people walk by or through, I hope they’re reminded that what they’re doing is spreading the coronavirus beyond their church, beyond any meeting that they’re at...

“Is it worth losing 5% of your church, 10% of your church? When you show back up for Christmas, do you want to look around and see an entire part of the pews that used to be filled that aren’t? This isn’t a test of faith. This is our time to use the wisdom that God provides us to protect ourselves and one another and watch the virtual service.”

Though he was an early adapter of live-stream technology, Roberts much prefers addressing a live audience. Nearly 52 years since he founded Maryville Baptist, Roberts says he will preach Sunday as if his church were full, no matter how many people are in the pews. He admits to being anxious that those who show up could contract the coronavirus.

“I’m very concerned about it,” he said. “I pray about it every night. I worry about it when church time comes. But I feel right now in America we need church more than we ever needed it.

“I cannot justify (abandoning) what I think is more important than what anybody’s doing except those that are taking care of the sick, and that's preaching the gospel. When it comes to that, I can't quit."

Reporters Joe Sonka and Deborah Yetter contributed to this story.

Tim Sullivan: 502-582-4650, tsullivan@courier-journal.com; Twitter: @TimSullivan714. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: courier-journal.com/tims