"Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof."
Opening words of the First Amendment
It is OK to get and transmit the disease. Gathering to worship or going mask-less isn't a hostile act. Not if all that Dr. Fauci stuff is wrong.
Besides, worshiping together is a right.
The Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision voted that governments have the power to regulate the size and nature of gatherings, including gatherings of religious worshipers. Conservatives Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh voted that the California governor's restrictions on gatherings interfered with the "free exercise" of religion.
Chief Justice Roberts wrote for the majority, saying the restrictions on gatherings "appear consistent with the Free Exercise clause." The restrictions were neutral, and about concentrations of people, a legitimate state concern in a pandemic, not about the purpose of the gathering.
“Similar or more severe restrictions apply to comparable secular gatherings, including lectures, concerts, movie showings, spectator sports and theatrical performances, where large groups of people gather in close proximity for extended periods of time. And the order exempts or treats more leniently only dissimilar activities, such as operating grocery stores, banks and laundromats, in which people neither congregate in large groups nor remain in close proximity for extended periods.”
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| Click: The virus scare is a hoax. |
Traditional worship services include behaviors that turn out to be unusually dangerous. People typically are indoors, worship in groups, typically stay together for a length of time, typically are in close proximity, often sing or chant or otherwise project their voices, often touch or hug, and it is all typically done without masks or other shielding. All dangerous.
Some church leader went along happily. Others resisted. Who is the government to try to tell us how to worship?
People want to do what they want to do. One might expect Christian churches to be particularly sensitive and responsive to the "love your neighbor" idea that being conscientious about not spreading disease is a reflection of that command. But it is more complicated because churches have become part of a political resistance against a tide of secularism and multiculturalism. Immediately after 911 Bush defended Islam as a religion of peace, said we would go to war against criminal extremists, not the religion itself. Cultured, educated Obama, with childhood experience in a Muslim country was an easy target for seeing as "other." Christianity was a choice, not the default.
Trump became the leader of the backlash to this perceived threat to Judeo-Christian primacy and centrality. Trump leads the resistance. Trump also chose to take a position that the cure being employed to slow COVID-19 is worse than the disease. He communicates opposition to the official guidance of his administration as symbolized by Andrew Fauci. Trump scoffs at the disease and represents resistance to mask-wearing, social distancing, school and business closures. Trump is the resistance here, too.
People want to do what they want to do. One might expect Christian churches to be particularly sensitive and responsive to the "love your neighbor" idea that being conscientious about not spreading disease is a reflection of that command. But it is more complicated because churches have become part of a political resistance against a tide of secularism and multiculturalism. Immediately after 911 Bush defended Islam as a religion of peace, said we would go to war against criminal extremists, not the religion itself. Cultured, educated Obama, with childhood experience in a Muslim country was an easy target for seeing as "other." Christianity was a choice, not the default.
Trump became the leader of the backlash to this perceived threat to Judeo-Christian primacy and centrality. Trump leads the resistance. Trump also chose to take a position that the cure being employed to slow COVID-19 is worse than the disease. He communicates opposition to the official guidance of his administration as symbolized by Andrew Fauci. Trump scoffs at the disease and represents resistance to mask-wearing, social distancing, school and business closures. Trump is the resistance here, too.There is a way out of the dilemma for the churches. One need not hate ones neighbor to go mask free, to congregate in groups, or in general to be a scofflaw, not if the whole world-view of Dr. Fauci is simply wrong, or worse, a dangerous part of an elaborate plan to take away freedoms and subjugate Americans.
Not if it is all a hoax.
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| Click: the miracle of Donald Trump |
Fox News is the visible tip of a much greater iceberg. There is an underground of reinforcement within social media, spread within religious communities. Donald Trump did not just happen. Donald Trump was sent here by God to save Christianity in America.
Who believes that? Lots of people. If a reader doesn't know it, it means one just isn't in the loop to receive links to videos like this one.
5 comments:
It should be noted that no spiritual leader ever had anything to say about 45 before he ran for office. What I see with most of this stuff is a self-reinforcing loop of these scam churches latching on to Trump supporters since they are a similarly gullible and easily influenced population and there is money to be made.
I'd say the same for Dr. Victory. Her video has been debunked, not that it matters to the conspiracists she caters too, including some Colorado elected officials.
I'd say that this group calling "deep state hoax" is getting smaller every day as COVID is definitely not paying any attention to them.
On June 18th it was reported that two-thirds of the 356 members of the Lighthouse Pentecostal Church in Union County, OR tested positive for COVID 19 after it defied the Governor's recommendation to avoid large gatherings. That rural county jumped to first place in the number of cases per capita reported in Oregon. I wonder if those firm believers in Trump's spin on an epidemic that has frustrated his hopes for re-election still believe that the coronavirus pandemic is a hoax. Maybe they do. Fundamentalist Protestants in the U.S. are willing to believe all kinds of things in the face of overwhelming factual evidence to the contrary.
All devout worshippers who believe they are being discriminated against in some fashion by restrictions limiting their manner or access to church services should, upon signing a waiver or acknowledment in respect to the perceived dangers and warned of the medical risks involved, be given the permission to resume church attendance in adoration of the Almighty, Jesus Christ, He who has it within his power (all true believers are certain that the power is irrefragable) to immediately call a halt to the ravages of the Corona Virus. So what's the problem? Maybe the power of prayer will defeat this evil virus?
Bob Warren
I golfed with a 65 ish woman from Green Valley Arizona. I commented being away from Arizona was a good thing virus wise. Her response, “I think the virus is a bunch of hogwash.” I let her know my daughter got quite sick and she had no response. No further talk ensued beyond golf talk.
It is one of the elements of grief and pain for those in our congregation about the safety measures for Coronavirus that say we aren’t to worship together. But being honest, many of us would say that the hard parts are: 1) not seeing/feeling we are part of the congregation at once (vs. in little zoom boxes), 2) not being able to hug each other (my greatest loss), and 3) missing congregational singing. Numbers 2 and 3 are the most dangerous. If we wore masks and could distance between families, we could “worship” in person — but we can watch a sermon on zoom, or we can read them. We can pray on our own, or share our prayer joys and concerns over zoom.
Church folk are like others. They hate to give up “comfort food”: the activities, habits, and traditions they’ve counted on. But some of us bite the bullet. We give that up for the greater good. Others ... use the excuses they’re offered to continue old, but now dangerous, behaviors. It seems somewhat like an addiction. Clinging to privilege. Clinging to the past. Clinging to certain statues and flags. Clinging to the reinforcement of their habits each Sunday in the same old ways. Even when it’s high risk to the most vulnerable.
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