The year 2020 brought much unpleasantness and lots of pain to people worldwide, and 2021 seems to be a continuation. Tonight, we await the results of the Georgia runoff election for two U.S. Senate seats and anticipate the show down in Congress tomorrow. I, along with millions of other Americans feel great anxiety over the events taking place this week because we recognize that the direction of our nation rests solidly on the outcomes. However, there are other important topics that should be discussed, and one of those topics is the increasing discrimination of churches.
Progressives who seek to control
every aspect of our lives flexed their powers as Democrat governors and mayors.
COVID-19 brought plenty of difficulties to Americans without the “shrinking
religious freedom” brought by such governors and mayors. These so-called leaders
should not have made life more difficult, and they should have given Americans
more credit for their capability of taking reasonable precautions in the face
of COVID-19.
Progressive leaders abused the powers
invested in them by the people. Emilie Kao wrote about a case decided by the
Supreme Court in November and quoted the following from Justice Samuel Alito: “the
pandemic has resulted in previously unimaginable restrictions on individual
liberty. We have never before seen restrictions as severe, extensive, and prolonged
as in 2020.”
Most Americans willingly cooperated
in the efforts to stop the spread of the coronavirus. Most were willing to exercise
social distancing and practice safety protocols – at least for a few weeks.
However, progressive leaders “trampled on religious freedom by treating
religious gatherings more harshly than secular counterparts.”
It is difficult for Americans to see
the difference between sitting in close quarters in airplanes and sitting more
spread apart in churches. Many Americans saw those same progressive leaders
condone the riots and destruction in their cities as citizens exercised their
constitutional rights to assemble and protest but refuse the opening of
churches. Kao wanted to know why “Malls, liquor stores, and abortion clinics were
labeled as essential, while religious services [and small businesses] in
similar-sized spaces” were not allowed even if they followed “similar social
distancing.”
Then, on the eve of Thanksgiving, the
Supreme Court stepped in to address the mess. Faced with restrictions that
permitted only 10 or 25 people into cathedrals and synagogues that once [held]
thousands, the Archdiocese of Brooklyn and Agudath Israel sued New York Gov.
Andrew Cuomo, ultimately ending up at the Supreme Court.
The result was a resounding win for
fairness and Americans’ first freedom. Noting a health official who testified
that a large store in Brooklyn could “literally have hundreds of people
shopping there on any given day,” the Court ruled that New York’s restrictions
could not be viewed as “neutral because they single out houses of worship for especially
harsh treatment.”
The court also observed that “The loss of
First Amendment freedoms, for even minimal periods of time, unquestionably
constitutes irreparable injury.”
Kao wrote that lower courts heeded
the decision made by the Supreme Court and began “to restore freedom around the
country. The government’s strong interest in public health isn’t compromised by
treating religious gatherings in a fair and constitutional manner.”
In addition to physical and financial
stress, the pandemic caused much spiritual and emotional stress. At least part
of the additional stress was caused by the inability of people to be together
in worship services. “As death and economic hardship have increased, the
spiritual strength offered by religious communities has become even more
essential to the well-being of the nation.” The Justices on the Supreme Court
recognized that a Zoom worship service is not the same as being in a chapel or
synagogue.
America faces an onslaught of “deaths of
despair.” The Centers of Disease Control and Prevention reported 1 in 4
millennials contemplated suicide during the pandemic. Before the pandemic, the
U.S. surgeon general had already warned that “social isolation is a major
public health crisis, on par with heart disease or cancer.”
Federal, state, and local officials
must understand that religion is essential in the lives of many people. When the
Founders placed freedom of religion first in the First Amendment, they
broadcast their intention that religion be considered as essential. Officials
should respect the Constitution and stop “engaging in religious discrimination”
because lives depend on religion.
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