Are Religious Services 'Essential' During the Coronavirus Outbreak?

What's the story?

• As Jews and Christians prepare to celebrate Passover and Easter this week, states are debating whether religious services qualify as "essential businesses" amid the coronavirus pandemic that, as of Monday afternoon, has claimed over 10,000 American lives.

What are people saying?

Yes, religious services are essential

• Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) recently revised his "essential services" order to include religious services "conducted in churches, congregations, and houses of worship" as essential.
• While Texas, like many states, has "stay-at-home" orders, some businesses and services are exempt: grocery stores, gas stations, pharmacies, and healthcare providers. The new rule states (emphasis added):

“'Essential services' shall consist of everything listed by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in its Guidance on the Essential Critical Infrastructure Workforce, Version 2.0, plus religious services conducted in churches, congregations, and houses of worship. Other essential services may be added to this list with the approval of the Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM)."

• Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) has also said that "attending religious services" is among the "essential" activities that would be permitted.
• “I don’t think the government has the authority to close a church. I’m certainly not going to do that,” DeSantis said. “In Easter season, people are going to want to have access to religious services.”

“We are not stopping anything. I’ve got news for you, this church will never close." -Pastor Rodney Howard-Browne to his River Tampa Bay Church in Florida.

No, keep houses of worship closed

• Leaders from some of the country's largest religions - including Mormonism, Catholicism, Islam and various denominations of Judaism - are recommending shuttering physical worship and replacing it with digital services.
• “This decision comes out of sacrificial love, not from habitual or casual disregard for worship,” the leaders of Christianity Today and the National Association of Evangelicals said in a joint statement.

“We will not be passing the peace with hugs, but rather with texts and phone calls. Are these modes inferior? Yes. Will they be acceptable to the Lord? We also believe, yes.”

• The Center for American Progress recently published a study of states enacting exemptions to stay-at-home orders on religious grounds, describing it as “an alarming trend."

"Establishing religious exemptions - in this case, by freeing houses of worship from public health order compliance - will only result in more cases of COVID-19 and greater numbers of death from the disease."

What do you think?

Are religious services essential during the coronavirus outbreak? Take action above and tell your reps, then share your thoughts below.

—Josh Herman

(Photo Credit: Screencapture / Revival.com livestream)