HILLVIEW, Ky. – As hymns sang out Easter Sunday from a large outdoor speaker overlooking the Maryville Baptist Church parking lot, two Kentucky State troopers placed quarantine notices on parishioners' cars and wrote down their license numbers.

Inside the church, roughly 50 worshippers ignored Gov. Andy Beshear's order against mass gatherings during the coronavirus pandemic so they could attend services together on Christianity's holiest day.

Several said as they left that they had no intention of abiding by the notice on their windshields that called for a 14-day self-quarantine or face the threat of "further enforcement measures."

Exactly what troopers will do with those license numbers or what steps Beshear will take next wasn't immediately clear Sunday.

What is clear is that the church's pastor, the Rev. Jack Roberts, has no intention of ending in-person services, joining a handful of other churches across Kentucky that have rebuffed Beshear's wishes.

Roberts arrived at the church Sunday morning to find several piles of nails dumped at the church entrances to the parking lot. He said he wouldn't tell his congregation to follow or defy the orders that the governor announced Friday in his ongoing effort to hold down the spread of COVID-19.

In Kentucky, the virus has killed nearly 100 and infected more than 1,800.

"Everybody has to do what they feel comfortable with," Roberts said. He did cover his own license plate, as did several other parishioners.

It didn't matter. Troopers took down the VIN numbers instead.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/04/12/kentucky-churches-hold-in-person-easter-services-despite-order/2980456001/