The government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic has raised important questions about governance in the midst of crisis and about how citizens should respond to it.
One of those questions found an answer in Greenville, Mississippi, this week, when a local mayor agreed to lift his ban on drive-in church services after drawing the ire of local residents, state officials, and the attorney general of the United States.
Temporarily deprived of the right to gather in large bodies, Greenville churchgoers came up with a solution: the drive-in service. Families pulled into the church parking lot and remained in their vehicles while the pastor delivered a sermon over the car radio or loudspeaker. The service was planned in accordance with the federal government’s social distancing guidelines and was no different in practice than the drive-through restaurant across the street. But Mayor Errick Simmons, determined to have his way, banned the practice entirely.
The Temple Baptist Church and the King James Bible Baptist Church sued, alleging religious discrimination. Still, Simmons did not back down. Police officers broke up the churches’ Easter Sunday services and issued each participant a $500 fine. This caught the attention of Attorney General William Barr, and the Justice Department filed a statement of interest siding with the churches against Simmons, who finally lifted the order after receiving “clear and definitive” guidance to do so from Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves.
Simmons’s actions reek of stubborn pride more than religious bigotry. But there is an important lesson here: Simmons, like every other government official, is still accountable to the citizens he represents, even in the midst of crisis — nay, especially in the midst of crisis. Our leaders have more authority now than they normally do, which means they have an even greater responsibility to use that authority wisely.
Simmons’s submission in this case is an important win for religious liberty, and it should help reassure those who are rightly worried that the temporary sacrifices we’ve been asked to make will become permanent. The constitutional system by which we hold our leaders to account is still in place, and it still works. Simmons overstepped his authority, hypocritically banning a drive-in service while permitting a drive-through restaurant to remain open. The churches challenged him in court, the citizens protested, and Simmons backed down.
There will be many more cases brought against out-of-bounds leaders such as Simmons in the days to come, especially as we move toward reopening the country and loosening the restrictions most citizens have willingly accepted. Some of these officials, like Simmons, won’t want to relinquish authority or admit wrongdoing, and they will need to be forced into submission. This is what’s happening in Michigan, where Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has passed excessive, needless restrictions. Because Whitmer has refused to revise these policies, the state’s legislature has moved to curb her power and amend the statutes on which her executive orders depend.
This is the Constitution at work. COVID-19 has been an unprecedented crisis, and it has required an unprecedented response. But Greenville, Mississippi, should serve as an encouraging reminder that our system of checks and balances, supported by a citizenry jealous of its rights, will help this country return to normal when the time is right.
