Why do the religious get to gather in super spreader groups?

[bigtree]

bettemidler @BetteMidler
Packing the Supreme Court really works, but for whom? Why do the religious get to gather in super spreader groups, if they will sicken rest of us? And when they get sick why should any stressed out health-care worker be forced to look after them? Doctors and nurses should sue.

Link to tweet

SCOTUSblog @SCOTUSblog Nov 26
Just before midnight on the night before Thanksgiving, the Supreme Court blocked New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo from enforcing attendance limits at religious services. The vote is 5-4, with Roberts and the three liberals dissenting.

Here is the ruling: https://t.co/AI8VgygAPx (pdf)

[LakeArenal]

1. That is a new talking point with my Republicans.

That and stupid Gov. Newsom.

I expect deficit complaints to start shortly.

[SheltieLover]

2. Because their concept of a creator is one as narcissistic & punitive as tRump?

Just guessing here.

This seems counterintuitive to me.

[dalton99a]

3. Viruses are tiny. God is BIG.

God wins if you let him.

[Iggo]

9. Now that's funny.

I don't think I've heard it put quite that way before.

[Timewas]

4. They

They are in a hurry to meet their "maker"..let em go

[Iggo]

12. Problem is they don't care how many of the rest of us die along with them.

[Shermann]

5. I don't think the case was successfully made that churches were unfairly targeted

I accept that Supreme Court cases which are a push on the merits are going to go conservative right now.

I reject that objectively weaker cases which have not met their burden of proof should ever win in the highest court. This is a disgrace.

[Thunderbeast]

6. Waiting to hear from:

The High Holy Church of the Gridiron

The Congregation of the Holy Hockey Rink..."ALL HAIL ZAMBONI!"

The Brethren of the Crowded Shopping Mall.

The Followers of his holiness John Barleycorn.

The Epicurean Community of Mastication.

Who gets to define religion anyway?

[no_hypocrisy]

7. I suppose the Religious get a free pass is because

they're assuming a (deadly) risk in the name of worshipping God versus getting on a treadmill or dining on a prime rib in a restaurant.

I too was wondering about the equal protection implications of the USSC case.

[cwydro]

8. And there are kids in schools, and a three day soccer tournament in Arizona.

It’s not just religion groups.

I drove by a soccer field the other day. I saw no masks on spectacular or players on the sideline. No social distancing.

People flying and going to restaurants. Seems to me that very few people are taking this seriously.

Smh.

[Rice4VP]

10. The same reason why thousands can take to the streets and protest..

the constitution

[H2O Man]

11. Recommended.

Because they are superstitious.

[Iggo]

13. That IS the short answer.

And the right one, too.

[PJMcK]

14. Let 'em

They can pass the virus among themselves, get sick and some will die. It thins the herd and if these folks think their god is going to protect them, they deserve the fate that they're tempting.

Meanwhile, the rest of us must be vigilant.

[Merlot]

16. Yes, except for the hospitals they will overcrowd and the innocent people

who they come in contact with when not in church - grocery store workers, co-workers, etc.

Next thing will be that sports are a religion so fill the grandstands.

[PJMcK]

21. Yeah, you're right

The hospitals and other healthcare facilities will be overrun with the virus. Sadly, that's because so many Americans are scientifically illiterate. For example, I've read numerous stories about people who deny the existence of the virus even as they lie on their deathbeds from the disease!

Have you ever been to Texas or Florida? Football is already a religion in those states!

Those of us with our wits about us need to remain vigilant, prepared and safe ALL THE TIME.

[Wellstone ruled]

15. History tells us

Religion is the Opiate of the Masses. Ignorance and Bliss seems to be the end timers dream.

[Hotler]

17. Let them gather. They have been warned and advised. let them get sick.

The constitution guarantees people the right to be a morons.

[Yeehah]

18. Freedom of religion now includes killing people

How is this different from human sacrifice?

Oh, that's right. Republicans failed biology and can't wrap their little pea-brains around the FACT that invisible organisms KILL.

[karynnj]

19. My best guess is that several factors that interact

Ignoring the natural desire for people together, many religions call for people coming together in community for many reasons. From the Catholic church where not going to church on Sunday is a mortal sin (at least this was so in the 1950s when I grew up) to 10 Jews (defined differently by branches) must be together to say certain prayers.

For many, where the belief that lockdown was genuinely needed, flexibility developed. This was new - in the 1950s, I remember watching mass with my family on TV on the few Sundays when the weather made driving to church dangerous. In my Burlington synagogue, ALL services went to zoom starting back in March. In addition, many social gatherings were moved to zoom - or, last summer - to some small outdoor, masked, socially distanced events. Many people, and a paid tech company worked with the rabbi and cantor to create meaningful High Holy Day services - including volunteers who made or delivered challah, Vermont honey and apples to isolated seniors or people face difficulty.

In both of these cases - that I personally experienced - there was no discordance between observing religious albeit in a safe fashion.

I suspect that the difference with this and the goals of that suit, is that three things may have happened:

1) They found rules that were written without enough thought. Many small stores here in VT have a limit on the number of people allowed in that depends on the size of the store. From news coverage, the NY rules for churches did not depend on size. (Meaning St Patrick cathedral had the same limits as a tiny chapel.

2) The difference between my experience belonging to the largest synagogue in VT and many churches and synagogues elsewhere is that here there was NO QUESTION that we needed to act by not getting together. In places, or among parts of the population, who did not accept the science, rather than working together to create safe alternatives, they proudly violated any rule or - where no rules were employed - proudly defied what they called the elitist calls to not gather in mass.

3) Many people assumed that they would be safe.

[ProfessorGAC]

27. Cool Post!

Interesting read!

[Piasladic]

20. To get to the other side? -nt

[intrepidity]

22. Nice!

Not many know that interpretation of the joke, so well done.

[Hekate]

23. Because Gawd. Or in the case of gigantic Hasidic weddings, G-d. Pope Francis, btw, ....

...believes in Science as well as God, so it is not religion per se that makes people stupid. In my opinion, it is the fundamentalists in every religion that are the problem.

As they might say themselves, only with a different inflection: “God help us.”

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

24. Because they think Gawd's going to protect them.

[UTUSN]

25. Why? - oh, I thought the question was why *do* they, not why *get* to.

[Vinca]

26. I don't get the whole religious freedom theory of the case that seems to say you can't worship

whatever you worship unless you're crammed together in an enclosed space.

[MyNameGoesHere]

28. They should be able to infect each other

But when they knowingly infect unsuspecting others they should get 30 years in prison . That's what some people got when they knowingly infect people with aids.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

29. Religious nutjobs on SCROTUS impose their twisted beliefs on everyone.

Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

So, if my religion demands that I boil religious nutjobs who are sitting in stolen seats on the SCOTUS, will the religious nutjobs proclaim that I may not be prevented from doing so? A governor temporarily restricting all large gatherings in order to prevent sickness and death is not a government favoring one religion over another, nor is it prohibiting the free exercise thereof.

We need reasonable judges on the U.S. Supreme Court.