Artur Pawlowski is a Polish-born pastor who recently gained international fame when Canadian authorities came to arrest him for the crime of holding a church service on Easter. “Get out! Out! Immediately out!” Pawlowski roared at the police in a video that
instantly went viral.
Pastor Pawlowski is traveling through America on his Courageous Faith tour, and on June 15, he spoke to an overflowing crowd in Manhattan. “Good people don’t obey the order of tyrants,” he bellowed, standing in front of an American flag. “If you’re not pushing evil away, you are part of the problem.”
As the audience listened, transfixed, Pawlowski described his year-long persecution by authorities in Calgary, where his Cave of Adullam Church is located. In the name of COVID restrictions, police routinely swarmed his church services, photographing every woman and child. “This is what the communists did in Poland. They would send you pictures of your wife and children to intimidate you,” he said. “The police also gave me tickets for millions of dollars. I told them, ‘Give me a billion dollars! Think big.'”
The obvious absurdities of COVID restrictions infuriate Pawlowski, who sees an evil agenda behind the contradictions. “In Canada to this day, prayer is illegal. But you can go to IKEA and abortion clinics and marijuana stores. I could bring my whole church to IKEA and have services there. But if one person comes to my church, I can be arrested. This is not about a virus! It’s about control.”
On Easter weekend, authorities sent 100 police officers and 52 police cars to stop the church service. After Pawlowski tossed them out, they followed him home and arrested him on the highway. They chained him, tortured him, and threw him into solitary confinement where he slept on a concrete floor. Reminder: This is Canada we’re talking about.
Pawlowski speaks in tones unfamiliar to most Westerners, with the passion of unbridled masculine strength. “Men have forgotten their job to be protectors. The family is out of balance. In the West, men want to be women, and women want to be men.”
Drawing inspiration from Joan of Arc and biblical figures like Daniel and Esther, Pawlowski spoke of how his faith strengthened him to fight for the future. “Why are young people turning to drugs and suicide? Because not enough people are giving them hope. There are lots of evil people in government. They’re destroying the next generation, putting muzzles on your kids like a dog. Telling them you have no identity, no voice. You are a slave.”
The more Pawlowski bellowed with rage, the more the audience cheered. There was a large contingent from the Polish community who learned of the event from Polish social media. “He’s risking his life and his family’s safety,” a Polish woman told me. “He speaks for millions. People are sitting home watching TV, but he’s an action man.” David, a young man from China, saw a possible Chinese influence behind the assault on Pawlowski. “I went to school in Canada,” he said. “There’s a lot of connection to China.”
Pawlowski, who’s out on bail, faces four years in prison. His friend, Pastor Tim Stephens, who was recently arrested in front of his seven sobbing children, also faces an uncertain future. “This is your destiny, America, if you don’t fight back,” warned Pawlowski. “If you don’t rise up like I did and say, ‘No! Get out!,’ you will not have freedom.”
Pawlowski’s impromptu tour was arranged by FEC United, a grassroots organization seeking to restore America’s freedoms in faith, education, and commerce. (For his upcoming appearances, see here.) Cindy Chafian, the tour’s organizer, implored the crowd not to surrender to discouragement. “God is working miracles in this country. Those of us on the ground can feel it,” she said.
Pawlowski certainly didn’t sound discouraged. “I have millions in penalties and may go to jail, but you don’t see me depressed or terrified. Joan of Arc said, ‘Act and God will act.’ I pray we will rise up like a pride of lions. When a lion roars, other lions are attracted.
Image: Artur Pawlowski TV via YouTube.
@keelie – the entire issue is also political.
I hate to bring politics into the picture, but where has Jason Kenney (the Premier of Alberta) been hiding all this time?