Banning Church

Exploiting a Pandemic to Ban Church

 Laurie Higgins

Big Brother—er, I mean—the Mendocino County, California Health Department has issued an Order mandating the following for streaming church services:

“No singing or use of wind instruments, harmonicas, or other instruments that could spread COVID-19 through projected droplets shall be permitted unless the recording of the event is done at one’s residence, and involving only the members of one’s household or living unit, because of the increased risk of transmission of COVID-19.”

This Order applies to streaming church services even if “Only four individuals” are present and they observe the social-distancing requirements that include,

“maintaining at least six feet of physical distancing from other individuals … , frequently washing hands with soap and water for at least twenty seconds as frequently as possible or using hand sanitizer that is recognized by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as effective in combatting COVID-19, covering coughs or sneezes (into the sleeve or elbow, not hands), regularly cleaning high-touch surfaces, not shaking hands, and, for those who are not on camera, to wear facial coverings as much as possible.”

Could a church even have a streaming service that included music with fewer than four people? Remember, the off-camera persons managing the technical aspects of streaming a service would need to be present.

While singing may be deemed non-essential to non-Christians, they have no moral right to impose their non-Christian beliefs on Christians—including on four Christians in a nearly empty church who are standing six feet apart with bleached hands during a pandemic.

While the U.S. Constitution expressly protects the free exercise of religion and the right to assembly , “progressives,” many of whom have stated they respect neither religion nor the U.S. Constitution, are discovering in the penumbras formed by emanations from the Chinese Communist coronavirus (and the “LGBT” ideology) rationalizations for the erosion of our most precious rights. As the Bill of Rights is being devoured right before our eyes, the ravenous, slavering “progressive” blinkered beast who was once known by the gendered name Big Brother grows.

What happens when politicians and unelected government bureaucrats with barely concealed contempt for theologically orthodox Christians discover that pastors project droplets when they preach?