Republican Ohio State Representative Nino Vitale said on Facebook Monday that despite the risk of community spread coronavirus, he would not wear a face mask because covering the face would hide the image of God.

Vitale has opposed coronavirus guidelines issued by Ohio Governor Mike DeWine and the director of the Ohio Department of Health Dr. Amy Acton. On social media, Vitale has used the hashtag #MasksDoNotWork on some of his posts.

Acton said during an April news briefing that Ohians may be wearing face coverings for a year in order to help quell the spread of coronavirus. “Don your mask,” Acton said. “Don your cape.”

On his Facebook page, Vitale said he would defy the requests of his state’s government’s on religious ground.

“This is not the entire world,” Vitale wrote. “This is the greatest nation on earth founded on Judeo-Christian Principles. One of those principles as that we are all created in the image and likeness of God. That image is seen the most by our face. I will not wear a mask.”

“When we think about the image and likeness of God—we’re created in the image and likeness of God—when we think of image, do we think of a chest or our legs or our arms? We think of a face,” Vitale said in a video on his Facebook page. “That’s the image of God right there, and I want to see it in my brothers and sisters.”

Behold, the image and likeness of GOD!

An emergency proclamation issued Thursday in Stillwater, Oklahoma, requiring the use of face masks in stores and restaurants was amended Friday after threats of violence.

“In the short time beginning on May 1, 2020, that face coverings have been required for entry into stores/restaurants, store employees have been threatened with physical violence and showered with verbal abuse,” Stillwater City Manager Norman McNickle said in a statement.

“In addition, there has been one threat of violence using a firearm. This has occurred in three short hours and in the face of clear medical evidence that face coverings helps contain the spread of Covid-19.”

Due to the threats of violence, Mayor Will Joyce amended the emergency order to encourage, rather than require, face coverings in the city of 50,000 people.

“Many of those with objections cite the mistaken belief the requirement is unconstitutional, and under their theory, one cannot be forced to wear a mask. No law or court supports this view,” McNickle said in a statement.

McNickle went on to explain the importance of face coverings in preventing the spread of coronavirus. The masks have been recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Oklahoma State Department of Health.

Some officials are backing off requirements that people wear masks inside businesses, as cities, counties and states — left to devise their own guidelines — run into limits on their ability to maintain public health precautions with stay-at-home orders easing during the coronavirus pandemic.

The issue pushed a small Oklahoma city into the national spotlight this weekend, after leaders quickly withdrew a mandate to don masks inside reopened stores and restaurants, citing threats of violence and physical abuse directed at employees. The mayor of Stillwater apologized to businesses for putting them in a dangerous position, as some people responded virulently to the new rules.

“We don’t have the kind of police force that can go out and try to deal with every single one of the people who may not be willing to wear the masks,” Mayor Will Joyce said Sunday on MSNBC. “And so it’s been a struggle [to] make people understand that wearing that face covering is an easy and an effective way to help slow the spread of this virus.”

Joyce’s comments came the same day that Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R), an early proponent of strict statewide social distancing, said he had reversed course on requiring Ohioans to wear masks because people “were not going to accept the government telling them what to do.”

“It just wasn’t going to work,” he said on ABC News’s “This Week.” “You got to know what you can do and what you can’t do.”