Top conservatives voice concerns over restrictions on religious gatherings due to COVID-19

[left-of-center2012]

House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) and Rep. Jody Hice (R-Ga.) raised concerns that restrictions put in place amid the coronavirus pandemic are infringing on Americans' religious freedom. In a letter sent to President Trump, Vice President Pence and Attorney General William Barr on Saturday, the lawmakers said they understand the reason behind social distancing practices put in place, but they feel with the right precautions, people should not be restricted from gathering at places of worship.

“We write to you out of great concern for the right to religious freedom enshrined in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, governors and local leaders around the country have issued orders of varying restrictions on their communities to slow the spread of the virus,” they wrote.

The lawmakers underscored that some of these precautions are impinging on people's First Amendment rights. “Members of many faiths are called upon to gather in community to worship. The First Amendment protects their right to do so. Sadly, many leaders around the country have taken this pandemic as an opportunity to deem worship gatherings non-essential,” they continued.

Biggs and Hice argued:
“Every American is free to decide whether to risk gathering in order to worship their God. Every house of worship should be given the opportunity to establish safe social distancing practices that minimize the risk of attending. It is impossible to argue that attending a worship service is any riskier than visiting the grocery store, and yet community worship is just as essential for many faiths as access to food,”.

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/492374-top-conservatives-voice-concerns-over-restrictions-on-religious-gathers-due-to

[The Magistrate]

1. The Same Sort Of Murderous Frivolity, Sir

That not only moves, but that steels some parents to murder their children by denying them medical care, on the ground that scripture says the deity they worship will heal, and complains when the state enforces laws against depraved neglect that these are infringements of religious liberty....

[ProfessorGAC]

2. Who's Stopping Them From Worshipping?

Do it their house, their back yard, streaming, whatever.
These orders (not codified laws) are stopping nobody from worshipping, and they alloy to all faiths.
This is not hard to figure out.
These Rs are grandstanding for their base who needs to make a constant show and performance out of their faith.
Go ahead & pray! Just don't do it with a hundred, or a thousand other people.

[Yeehah]

3. Yes, religious kooks should be allowed to endanger others

Free-dumb!

[TreasonousBastard]

4. Aside from remembering something about Jesus saying to not pray in public...

it seems to my non-lawyerly mind that the framers had little intention of letting idiots endanger the general population.

The obvious religious idiocies and cruelties like throwing children into volcanoes or burying live wives with dead husbands seem to have few supporters. Snake-handlers seem to be exempt from the law but they generally only tend to hurt themselves. (Arguing to drop rattlers into Catholic schools would doubtless be met with some resistance).

But here, we know damn well that the only point is to stick it to the man and get publicity. Donations from the stupidly faithful haven't been forgotten.

All that, of course is irrelevant to the law designed to avoid the horrors of the religious wars our forefathers knew all too well. What is relevant is that religious freedom nowhere and nohow allows anyone to endanger the society at large.

And freedom of assembly doesn't count either, any more than it counts to void occupancy rules. This whole thing is the religious version of yelling "fire" in that crowded theater.

[Lancero]

5. tbh, surprised that their haven't already been lawsuits over this.

Ammo-sexuals were quick to sue when gun stores weren't considered 'essential', given how fanatical some bible-humpers are I'd have thought that they'd quickly follow in their example.