Yeah, it’s Pennsylvania’s turn to get one of these rallies put on by the Branch Covidians. But the people behind it aren’t some people pissed off because their business is failing. This is their business!

HARRISBURG, PA — On various Pennsylvania talk radio shows days before the April 20th Capitol grounds demonstration against the state’s COVID-19 social and business restrictions to inhibit the spread of the virus, the public face of the demonstration effort worked the illusion that it was a rather genuine organic effort. That however might be debatable.

A key player is Matthew Bellis of Strasburg, PA. He has been a critically important radio interviewee and mass media conduit as well as a Facebook administrator of the group ReOpen PA. Among the other lead groups involved in Monday’s April 20th demonstration are PA Against Excessive Quarantine, and End The Lockdown PA –all of which have other state derivative names.  Bellis is easily the face before the microphones and cameras, possibly it’s because he does communications and government relations work at the Liberty Health Share (LHS), the conservative Christian health services entity that his father, 68 year-old Dale Bellis, started.

Based out of Ohio, LHS was created in conjunction with a Mennonite religiously-oriented corporation when President Obama’s American Care Act allowed religious organizations to offer corporation-organized “health share” services while avoiding a state’s insurance regulatory scheme. In order to qualify for LHS, there is an application and aside from the numerous medical care exclusions, monetary qualifications and expectations, one must maintain a Christian lifestyle that among other things, includes living with “biblical principles”  and “participating regularly in worship or prayer.”

Dale’s endeavor as well as his anti-choice politics earned the attention of the American Conservative Union and its Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).  From 2016 to 2020, Dale and/or LHS were conspicuous CPAC participants. Dale has been a featured speaker for several years, and in 2018 and 2020, LHS engaged in two $250,000 CPAC transactions. One may have been a donation, the latter was a lead convention sponsorship. Ironically, CPAC 2020 was one of the first major conferences that saw its attendees test positive for the coronavirus.

Not all benefited from this apparent generosity however. Aside from a reasonably active Facebook group bringing up “slow pay” allegations, LHS has been subject to over 500 complaints filed with the Better Business Bureau and at least 100 complaints filed with the Ohio Attorney General. Additionally,  there have been discrimination complaints — for example, an African-American workplace retaliation complaint was settled out of court.

Dale now has a titular retired role at LHS. His son Matthew continues the family tradition at LHS where he performs communications work, and like his father, he has right-leaning religious and political beliefs as his participation in a Lancaster County evangelical church would indicate. Bellis is readily libertarian as evidenced by his online presence that recirculates items by Mises Institute, Being Libertarian, and Rand Paul. All are prominent proffers in resisting COVID-19 infection measures. But Bellis’ keystone comment here is probably his recent WEJS radio interview. There, even in the face of the ever-increasing COVID-19 pandemic, he said we must “really champion the liberty of individuals.”

It shouldn’t be surprising then, that as ReOpen PA developed its leadership, one of the other lead figures is Jeffrey Kauffman, an explicit libertarian and nearby Lancaster, PA, friend. These two joined Teo De Las Heras, a computer scientist with degrees from the evangelical Eastern University, and Penn State University, Great Valley campus.

ReOpen PA along with the other groups will have not only the April 20th demonstration, but also, some members say, a demonstration on April 24th. Notably, demonstrators here express a desire to have a motorcade protest through downtown Harrisburg that passes by the city’s North and South sides where the major hospitals are located.

While unclear what will happen,  it is readily noted that far right and militia elements will attend. Gadsen flag wavers and Three Percenters have made their interests in April 20th known.

Whether this will change Governor Wolf’s announced position is unknown. What is more likely is that these events foment more pandemic exposure for which there is no vaccine.