On Friday, President Trump called on all governors to allow churches to open "right now" after being closed down from COVID-19 concerns, or face the Justice Department's overriding their decisions. He announced that new Centers for Disease Control guidance will classify all houses of worship as "essential."
Most states are allowing churches and other centers of faith to reopen with strict social distancing precautions in place, but there are still holdouts like in California.
"A group of federal attorneys wrote a letter to [California Gov. Gavin] Newsom warning him that prolonged church closures likely violate the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment due to the fact that similar non-religious businesses are receiving the green light to reopen in Stage 2," Fox News reported.
"Laws that do not treat religious activities equally with comparable nonreligious activities are subject to heightened scrutiny under the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment," the letter states. "Laws that are not both neutral toward religion and generally applicable are invalid unless the government can prove that they further a compelling interest and are pursued through the least restrictive means possible. Religious gatherings may not be singled out for unequal treatment compared to other nonreligious gatherings that have the same effect on the government's public health interest, absent the most compelling reasons."
DOJ attorneys told Newsom that his reopening plan amounted to "unequal treatment of faith communities" by allowing restaurants, schools, malls and other businesses to open sooner than religious institutions.
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Gov. Newsom retorted against the Justice Department's warning to reopen churches by stating that that the Golden State is "weeks away" from allowing in-person religious services to resume.
Tragically, Newsom did not classify houses of worship in Stage 2 openings along with retail businesses, restaurants, malls, etc. Instead, he classified churches among Stage 3 "high-risk" businesses such as gyms, hair salons and other personal care services.
To show just how out of whack America's value system has become, as President Trump said on Friday, "Some governors have deemed liquor stores and abortion clinics as essential but have left out churches and other houses of worship. It's not right."
My question is: Where did government and even the opinion of many Americans go wrong in defining church and faith as "non-essential"? Of devaluing and demeaning life-giving churches to a status under liquor stores and clinics that destroy life?
Let me give just one gigantic example of how "essential" houses of worship are, and I'm going to use science to prove it. Science actually makes a case that, by directing churches to be closed, government officials have actually enabled tens of thousands to die from "deaths of despair."
The Harvard School of Public Health just published a fantastic article, "Regularly attending religious services associated with lower risk of deaths of despair."
The article states: " People who attended religious services at least once a week were significantly less likely to die from 'deaths of despair,' including deaths related to suicide, drug overdose, and alcohol poisoning, according to new research led by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health." (Emphasis added.)
We know experts expect the final number of all three types of these "deaths of despair" to increase during this COVID-19 crisis and its aftermath. In fact, according to an analysis conducted by the national public health group Well Being Trust, "75,000 Americans [are] at risk of dying from overdose or suicide due to coronavirus despair." Did you catch that number?
But why aren't governing officials, mainstream media and society equally as concerned for the possible deaths of those 75,000 Americans as they are those who have died or will die from COVID-19? How can we prioritize closing houses of worship to save lives from COVID-19 over reopening them to save lives from "deaths of despair"? Like with so many of our brave first responders, are we as Christians not also called to risk and sacrifice to help people suffering from hopelessness and helplessness, especially when 75,000 people could be dying from it right now?
The fact is, according to the above scientific analysis, in-person church attendance is the prescription for despair and deaths of despair, among other societal and soulish ills. Churches need to reopen and stay open to help decrease that staggering number (lower the curve!) of hopeless and helpless people.
The sad truth is, government has enabled the collateral damage in "deaths of despair" by forcing the closure of houses of worship over these last few months. And, again tragically, much of mainstream media and many liberal progressives will do the same as they lie in wait in the near future for a single case of COVID-19 to emerge in a church gathering to prove they all should have stayed closed.
Whether or not governing officials or anyone else recognize the "essential" nature of in-person public religious gatherings the way President Trump recognized them, God, science and most of Americans still do. In-person church gatherings are "essential" elements of personal well-being as well as community and societal health, too.
America and the Western world in particular need to reawaken to the "essential" nature of faith and church. There's a reason our founders put the role of religion front and center in the founding of our republic as well as the Bill of Rights.
I'm reminded again of the great farewell address of George Washington who said:
"Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports. … Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle."
Or as President Trump concluded on Friday: "We need more prayer, not less."
(As churches reopen across the land, please share with your clergy or religious leaders this column of mine and the president's new safety guidelines for communities of faith reconvening. And for those who didn't grow up on faith in our now secular-progressive society, yet wonder about its "essential" role and nature in their lives, here's a great free e-book that our pastor and church offers to encourage and empower others about the evidences for faith called, "The God Questions." Enjoy!)