After a coronavirus resurgence in California prompted Gov. Gavin Newsom this week to close much of the state again, pastors are calling on the Trump administration to protect churches from the new shutdown orders.
The orders, which require all churches to halt singing during services and some to suspend indoor services, were met with resistance. Many pastors said that they have no plans to follow them, and several have sued Newsom, a Democrat, arguing that the bans are an infringement of the First Amendment’s free exercise clause.
Jim Franklin, the pastor of Cornerstone Church in Fresno, who joined a lawsuit against Newsom in May, said that orders requiring churches to hold their services outdoors place an undue burden on the congregants who will have to endure for more than an hour this weekend in 100-degree temperatures. Franklin wrote in an online announcement that for the health of his members, he will continue to hold services inside.
“We will have masks on to protect those around us, but nothing’s going to stop us from worshiping God,” he said. “Cornerstone Church will be conducting worship services, because it is the right thing. It is the proper thing. It is the necessary thing to do.”
Other churches in central California plan to do the same, but many worry about retaliation from the state, whose orders advise that a breach of bans on singing or indoor services is punishable by “fine, imprisonment, or both.”
Chad Buttrey, a pastor at the Chowchilla Family Worship Center, said that because of his religious convictions that church services must be held in the church building, he will not be able in good conscience to follow Newsom’s order. Stressing that President Trump had spoken out in May against governors banning church services, he said that the president should hear the needs of California Christians again.
“President Trump has been a friend to us, and we’d like to see him put pressure on the governor,” he said. “We support him, and we know he has our back.”
Buttrey added that his resistance to the order was not meant as a partisan stance against Newsom’s health policies, but rather as a “reaction to who God is,” and what means, in his opinion, for how Christians should worship.
“We’re not supposed to be doing online church in our underwear,” he said. “It really does matter.”
Don Komush, a pastor at Upper Room Church near Fresno, said that he is hoping that God will use Trump as a tool to roll back restrictions on church services.
“Our constitutional rights are being attacked,” he said. “We’re looking for someone to help us out. I know we have the Lord on our side, but the Lord uses people to further his aims.”
Komush, who is organizing a march against church closures in Fresno, said that he and a number of other area pastors are considering the possibility of filing a suit against Newsom for infringing on their First Amendment rights.
“Our governor is targeting us and trying to make examples of us,” he said. “But safety doesn’t supersede our constitutional rights.”
The tension between safety precautions and religious liberty have marked much of the debate over church services during the pandemic in California, as well as in nearly every other state. When Newsom originally closed all churches in March, he was initially met with little resistance. But as the shutdowns dragged on through Lent and Easter, two of the holiest times of the year for Christians, a succession of churches sued him.
A coalition of more than 3,000 pastors in May informed Newsom that they would open their doors on Memorial Day with or without his approval. At that time, the Justice Department also sent a letter to Newsom, saying that he had placed an “unfair burden” on religious people by banning church services.
“Simply put, there is no pandemic exception to the U.S. Constitution and its Bill of Rights,” wrote Eric Dreiband, the lead attorney in a team assembled by Attorney General William Barr to examine coronavirus-related religious liberty disputes.
The Friday before Memorial Day weekend, Trump announced that he would “override” any governor who did not open church services that weekend. The administration was quick to clarify that Trump did not actually have the authority to undue governor-issued orders, but the strategy appeared effective. On Memorial Day, Newsom issued guidelines allowing churches to reopen.
