It’s time to reopen our churches.
At the beginning of the shutdown, most churches nationwide voluntarily closed their doors. Now that the reopening process has begun, those same churches would like to reopen alongside the rest of their communities. Some state governments, however, are preventing them from doing so.
In Minnesota, for example, Gov. Tim Walz tried to prevent churches from reopening until a later phase of his plan. When asked what that later phase might be, Walz said that he did not have a definitive reopening date. Meanwhile, he announced policies that would allow restaurants to host up to 50 customers in outdoor seating.
This disparate treatment clearly raises constitutional concerns, since the law prevents states from creating policies that needlessly inhibit religious institutions’ rights. Walz apparently realized that his plan might get him in trouble — the U.S. Justice Department has made it clear that it will not tolerate undue burdens on religious liberty throughout the reopening process — because he later agreed to allow churches to hold in-person services at 25% capacity.
This compromise is still not enough. If a restaurant is allowed to host 50% of its usual customers, why is a church not allowed to do the same with its congregants? Walz has tried to argue that church attendance is more predictable than business capacity and should, therefore, be more limited.
Walz’s reasoning is backward. Church attendees are typically regulars. They attend the same church every week, sit in the same section, and share fellowship with the same people. Businesses, on the other hand, see an influx of new people every day. In fact, they depend on it. So wouldn’t it make more sense to allow churches, which are much more familiar with the ins and outs of their congregants’ lives, to reopen safely while focusing the regulation on businesses that have little to no knowledge about the persons with whom they’re interacting?
Walz isn’t the only governor stepping on his citizens’ rights to worship. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker will not allow churches to host services with more than 50 people until a vaccine or some other highly effective treatment for COVID-19 is developed, according to his reopening plan. This is unsustainable. Already, Illinois churches are openly defying Pritzker’s shutdown and inviting congregants to return to church.
Pritzker’s mandatory shutdown was understandable at first, but now, it has become an indefinite suspension of large, in-person services: a restriction that is both excessive and needless — and therefore constitutionally problematic.
The public wants fellowship and the ability to worship, as is their right. No governor has the authority to restrict that right without ample justification. And at this point, the justification for extended shutdowns does not exist. The COVID-19 curve has been flattened, and other important institutions are beginning to return to normal. Minnesota and Illinois must allow their churches to do the same.
