Death Cults Demanding More Religious Freedom
In short, in the framers’ view, free government was only suitable and sustainable for a religious people -- a people who recognized there was a transcendent moral order antecedent to both the state and man-made law and who had the discipline to control themselves according to those enduring principles. -- Attorney General William P. Barr Oct. 11, 2019 speech to the Law School and the de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture at the University of Notre Dame
The Department of Justice has issued a warning to the state of California saying its coronavirus rules for re-opening may violate religious freedoms. On the surface the DOJ’s threat could be considered just another attempt at pressure to speed up the pace of re-opening.
Look a little deeper and I think you’ll find this action is a political act, designed to reward a constituency that sees the Trump administration as its ticket to establishing a theocracy.
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In a three-page letter to Gov.Newsom, the DOJ said the First Amendment of the Constitution required churches and other houses of worship be given equal treatment under the law, even when a health emergency has been declared.
"Simply put, there is no pandemic exception to the U.S. Constitution and its Bill of Rights," Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband wrote in the letter.
At issue is whether or not churches should be included in stage two of the State’s reopening plans. The current guidance would allow religious services to resume after forms of commerce like manufacturing,
Religious services have been an ongoing point of contention during the stay-at-home order. Lawsuits and acts of defiance have come from pastors who say public health mandates cannot override their constitutionally protected rights to minister to souls.
UPDATE: Looks like there are lots of freedom loving virus magnets out there, via the Sacramento Bee:
Buoyed by a letter from the U.S. Justice Department to Gov. Gavin Newsom that emphasizes the right to worship, a lawyer for a church suing over California’s coronavirus ban on in-person services says he expects thousands of congregations to return to their churches a week from Sunday.
The move comes as the fight over whether the state has the right to prohibit church services for now has moved to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, where a Lodi church is seeking an emergency injunction against the ban, and as hundreds of pastors have signed a petition declaring that their services are “essential.”
“More than 1,200 pastors have signed the ‘declaration of essentiality’ that we were asked to put together,” said attorney Robert Tyler, one of the lawyers fighting for the right of Lodi’s Cross Culture Christian Center to reopen. “We expect more than 3,000 individual churches to open May 31, with or without permission.”
Thus far, California has prevailed in court. Newsom’s order allows churches to use technology, such as live streaming on social media platforms or other means, to conduct worship services. Many congregations of all faiths have done so since the shutdown order.
From the Los Angeles Times:
The letter to Newsom doesn’t threaten immediate legal action but it does follow a line of argument used in the church lawsuits in saying that churches can provide safe, socially distanced worship.
“Religion and religious worship continue to be central to the lives of millions of Americans. This is true now more than ever,” the letter said. “Religious communities have rallied to protect their communities from the spread of this disease by making services available online, in parking lots, or outdoors, by indoor services with a majority of pews empty, and in numerous other creative ways that otherwise comply with social distancing and sanitation guidelines.”
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The concern over church services as an easy place to get exposed to COVID-19 is based on science, and there have been cases nationwide bearing this out.
Putting a large number of people in an enclosed space and asking them to speak/sing/pray in unison allows for a super concentration of the droplets considered responsible for spreading the disease.
From Tuesday’s Washington Post:
Churches in states at the forefront of reopening efforts are closing their doors for a second time.
Catoosa Baptist Tabernacle in Ringgold, Ga., less than 20 miles away from Chattanooga, Tenn., and Holy Ghost Catholic Church in Houston have indefinitely suspended services after members and leaders tested positive for the coronavirus shortly after reopening.
The news of the canceled services comes as a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention stated that large gatherings pose risk for coronavirus transmission and called on faith-based organizations to work with local health officials about implementing guidelines for modified activities.
The report looked at a rural Arkansas church, where a pastor and his wife attended church events in early March. At least 35 of 92 attendees tested positive for the coronavirus, and three people died. An additional 26 cases and a death occurred in the community from contact with the church cases, the report confirmed.
One hundred eighty people who attended a Mother's Day church service in Butte County have been ordered to self-quarantine after a congregant tested positive for COVID-19. The local health department is now overwhelmed with trying to track down all those who have been exposed.
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This concern for the ‘rights’ of places of worship doesn’t come from a good place. Attorney General William Barr and others in the Trump administration are advocates for a decades-old, well-organized, amply funded political effort to institute a conservative Christian theocracy in the United States.
The movement, Katherine Stewart writes in The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism, “does not seek to add another voice to America’s pluralistic democracy but to replace our foundational democratic principles and institutions with a state grounded on a particular version of Christianity.”
From the Texas Observer review of the book:
The movement’s zealots—including First Baptist Church of Dallas pastor and Trump insider Robert Jeffress—insist, despite history, that the United States was founded as a Christian nation. Going further, they claim the country has fallen and must realign with their fundamentalist version of the faith to thrive again.
They dismiss the principle of church-state separation as secular oppression and assert that God wants them to have dominion (another name for the movement is dominionism) over every aspect of culture, society, and government.
They would use that power to infuse governance with their theology; bias the courts to solidify their privilege; enforce patriarchal, heteronormative gender and sexual ideology; promote creationism and otherwise denigrate science; eradicate the public school system; and end abortion.
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Many of the lawsuits challenging Gov. Newsom’s orders have a common denominator: Attorney and GOP official Harmeet Dhillon.
Prior to the publicity she has received for filing these lawsuits, her most recent claim to fame was being introduced by President Trump at the White House "Social Media Summit" in July 2019.
I find it ironic for the attorney representing organizations philosophically oriented towards returning the country to one person rule uses the argument that the Governor of California is acting like a monarch.
Via Politico:
Harmeet Dhillon, the conservative attorney who spearheaded legal challenges to California’s halt on church services, said in an interview that the federal government vindicated her argument that Newsom had overreached.
“Literally, this country was founded on the concept that the king cannot tell the peasants how they may worship,” Dhillon said in an interview. “Gov. Newsom may not tell people of faith that they can only worship in their homes.”
Her participation in lawsuits includes:
Abiding Place Ministries v Newsom - San Diego’s Abiding Place Ministries evangelical church argued that the state’s exemptions for non-religious businesses such as “cannabis retailers, grocery stores, pharmacies, supermarkets, big box stores,” betray a preference for non-religious activity.
Gish v Newsom - Three church pastors and a congregant from the Inland Empire sued the state, along with Riverside and San Bernardino counties, for refusing to designate houses of worship as essential services.
Muller v Newsom, Muldoon v Newsom - Filed on behalf of plaintiffs in Dana Point and Newport in response to state orders closing the shoreline.
Gondola Adventures Inc v Newsom - Several companies and individuals are suing the state for forcing them to shut down. They say the state has invaded their property rights, unconstitutionally restricted their right to travel, and violated other civil rights guaranteed in both the state and U.S. constitutions.
Six v Newsom - Individuals suing for non-economic harms caused by the Governor’s orders. The plaintiffs include a couple unable to visit their adult son with special needs, a breast cancer survivor unable to get reconstructive surgery, a young woman forced to delay her wedding, a high school student prevented from attending graduation, and a musician “restricted now to playing solos on his saxophone for his Wednesday night men’s Bible study via Zoom video conferencing.”
South Bay United Pentecostal Church v Newsom - The South Bay United Pentecostal Church in Chula Visa in San Diego is suing, arguing that the Governor’s revised phase two order restricts their congregation’s rights to free exercise of religion, to assembly, speech and due process, and that it constitutes “excessive government entanglement with religion.”
Ibarra v Newsom - Two hair salons, a barbering and cosmetology school and an industry group are suing the state for refusing to designate “barbering and cosmetology” services as essential, exempting them from the shelter-in-place order.
Benitez v Newsom - On May 6, the Supreme Court denied a petition on behalf of Ricardo Benitez and Jessica Martinez, two Republican candidates for state Assembly, to halt spending for nonprofits serving undocumented immigrants during the coronavirus crisis.
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FYI- Trump refuses to hang portrait of predecessor in White House, breaking decades long tradition.
https://twitter.com/crushthebigots/status/1263086317732270081?s=20
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