Top Democrats’ religious persecution crossed a big legal line.
But they aren’t getting away with it.
William Barr’s huge victory overturned the horrifying trap Democrats were laying.
Throughout American history, there has always been a separation of church and state.
Only in the very greatest of emergencies has the government temporarily shut down religious houses of worship.
The problem is not that churches were asked to shut down but that Democrats could be looking to make an emergency shutdown into permanent regulation of religion.
Bill de Blasio threatened that any churches or synagogues that met during the coronavirus shutdown would be permanently closed.
He should have the power to temporarily shut down churches when there is an epidemic sweeping through the city, but having the power to permanently close churches and synagogues is a totally different question.
The Democrat mayor of Greenville, Mississippi issued $500 tickets to members of a church doing a drive-in service in accordance with social distancing measures.
However, William Barr wasn’t going to let that act of aggression go unchecked.
The church members filed a lawsuit against the mayor’s ban, and after pressure from the Justice Department, the mayor dropped his ban and will allow drive-in church services.
According to the Washington Examiner:
Greenville, Mississippi, Mayor Errick Simmons announced on Wednesday his intention to permit drive-in church services shortly after the Justice Department intervened in a lawsuit involving the ban of such services.
“Today, given the definitive guidance from the governor, in the city of Greenville, we will allow drive-in and parking lot services in the city — so long as families stay in their cars with windows up,” Simmons said on a Facebook Live video.
However, Simmons maintained his opinion that churches should strongly consider holding virtual services. “Churches are still strongly encouraged to hold services via Facebook Live, Zoom, Free Conference Call, and any and all other electronic, social media, streaming telephonic platforms available for the safety and protection of life,” Simmons said.
The Justice Department issued a statement which supports limiting church gatherings at this time, but added:
“There is no pandemic exception, however, to the fundamental liberties the Constitution safeguards. Indeed, individual rights secured by the Constitution do not disappear during a public health crisis,” the statement reads. “These individual rights, including the protections in the Bill of Rights made applicable to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment, are always in force and restrain government action.”
Americans should abide by the local distancing laws that are in place at the moment because of the coronavirus, but Americans should not be willing to let the governor permanently take away all our rights without a fight.
The Founding Fathers knew that governments are far better at grabbing power than they are at giving it up, that is why they built the Constitution to protect us.
There is real danger from the coronavirus, but the threat of government growing through the crisis and taking away American freedom could have consequences that live on for generations.
