Elected leaders in California say the state will remain shut down for the next few months, but a growing number of religious leaders are disregarding that guidance, revealing the tenuous state of the governments’ ability to enforce orders on unwilling people.
California Church United, an organization which represents about 3,000 churches, announced on Tuesday its plans to open churches on May 31, no matter what Newsom says. Pastors joining the movement offered their positions on how they feel the governor has sidelined churches.
“We’re an essential part of this whole journey, and we’ve been bypassed, kicked to the curb, and deemed nonessential,” said Danny Carroll of Water of Life Community Church.
On the government’s side, officials are emphasizing safety as the No. 1 priority. Gov. Gavin Newsom announced during a press conference last week that California is not “going back to normal” until a vaccine for the virus has been discovered. Los Angeles Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer on Tuesday drove that point home when she said that the city will likely remain locked down until at least July.
Like many governors, Newsom is rolling out a phased plan for reopening the state. The state moved into phase two last Friday, meaning that bookstores and clothing stores could reopen at reduced capacity. Churches, along with gyms and movie theaters, will only be allowed to resume services during phase three, which Newsom has teased, but not definitively stated when he’s ready to begin.
“Phase three is not a year away. It’s not six months away. It’s not even three months away. It may not even be more than a month away,” Newsom said during a Friday press conference. “We just want to make sure we have a protocol in place to secure customer safety, employee safety, and allow the businesses to thrive in a way that is sustainable.”
And although Newsom said during a press conference the day before that he is “very sensitive to those who want to get back to church,” he added that he prioritizes “the health of those communities” over their desires.
This attitude is unacceptable for many church leaders, who feel that their needs and the needs of their congregations have been shunted aside during the pandemic. Newsom is one of only 10 governors who declared an outright ban on church services in his original stay-at-home order, and, along with Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, has received some of the sharpest criticism from churches for that decision.
At least seven churches and synagogues have filed lawsuits against Newsom in the past month, all alleging that his order in some way impeded their ability to assemble and to exercise their faith freely.
Last Tuesday, a federal judge upheld Newsom’s order in a lawsuit from the Cross Culture Christian Center near Sacramento and ordered it to cease holding church services. The church sued on the grounds that Newsom had violated its First Amendment rights to free assembly and that it was being treated unequally since grocery stores and other “essential” businesses are allowed to remain open.
The judge, John Mendez, argued the opposite: Newsom is well within his rights to suspend the First Amendment temporarily, given the circumstances.
“During public health crises, new considerations come to bear, and government officials must ask whether even fundamental rights must give way to a deeper need to control the spread of infectious disease and protect the lives of society’s most vulnerable,” he wrote.
But for many churches in California, the direct needs of church communities outweigh the safety requirements — and many are vowing to move forward without the government’s approval.
Matt Brown, pastor of Sandals Church, who is also a member of California Churches United, said that the governor’s orders were illegitimate.
“He overstepped, and he’s overreached,” Brown said. “And he needs to step back, and he needs to declare that the church is an essential part of what we do as Americans, as what we do as Californians.”
Sandals, like many other churches in the state, has listed on its website plans for how to reopen safely. In its plan, it cites isolation, anxiety, and depression as issues caused by shutdowns that the church would be able to help with if it were allowed to open. The plan emphasizes that churches would maintain social distancing at services and that it would abide by guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in all its activities.
“People need hope,” the plan says. “The local church is a positive source of encouragement for many, especially in uncertain times.”
The discontent among people of faith highlights widespread discontent across several states over shutdown orders. Aside from California, that anger has been most pronounced in Illinois, where churches have begun to disregard Pritzker’s order advising them to limit congregations to 10 people.
Joe Wyrostek, pastor of Metro Praise International, an evangelical church in Chicago, told the Washington Examiner that disregarding the order was a form of “passive resistance” to orders he, and other church leaders, believe violate the First Amendment.
“This is our right,” he said. “We laid it down for seven weeks, but now, this is how we’re taking it back up.”
The sentiment is similar among many other churches, as well as businesses, who are suing governments for the right to reopen. The crux of the issue, said Jeremy Dys, a lawyer at the First Liberty Institute, which specializes in religious freedom cases, is that without a firm endpoint, shutdown orders seem permanent.
“Common sense by the American people says it’s time to open up,” he told the Washington Examiner.
