For Many Churches, It Is Too Late

For Many Churches, It Is Too Late by Jeffrey A. Tucker for American Institute for Economic Research

GNN Note – We see what’s happening to churches as nothing short of one of the signs of end times. No accident the churches were shut down the week before Easter Sunday. No accident these satanic globalist tyrants re-upped their efforts to “lockdown” just before Thanksgiving and threatening to shutdown for Christmas – these are planned attacks on Christianity and the family – don’t stand for it – #fightback  /END

he Supreme Court has decided that there is something not quite kosher about padlocking houses of worship, or imposing extreme limits on religious gatherings which amounts to the same thing, while bars and stores remain open.

Wrote Judge Gorsuch:

Under the Governor’s edict, a 10- screen ‘multiplex’ may host 500 moviegoers at any time. A casino, too, may cater to hundreds at once, with perhaps six people huddled at each craps table here and a similar number gathered around every roulette wheel there. Large numbers and close quarters are fine in such places. But churches, synagogues, and mosques are banned from admitting more than 50 worshippers—no matter how large the building, how distant the individuals, how many wear face masks, no matter the precautions at all.

In Nevada, it seems, it is better to be in entertainment than religion. Maybe that is nothing new. But the First Amendment prohibits such obvious discrimination against the exercise of religion. The world we inhabit today, with a pandemic upon us, poses unusual challenges. But there is no world in which the Constitution permits Nevada to favor Caesars Palace over Calvary Chapel.

You probably consider this rather obvious. There is a reason that the right to worship is listed first in the Bill of Rights. So thank you Supreme Court for doing what we thought was your job, even if the decision came about nine months late.

The disgrace is not only that it took so long to act. It is also that the ruling was narrow: 5 to 4. Four justices on the Supreme Court seem not to have even a rudimentary understanding of the Constitution. That’s a chilling revelation.

As for the churches themselves, for many the ruling might come too late. The mandatory closures were brutal. In San Jose, California, for example, Calvary Chapel was fined $350,000 for violating public health orders. Santa Clara County threatened the pastors with jail time for not following regulation. The court also issued a restraining order, requiring the church to comply with public health orders.

What has this done to attendance? Barna Research reports that between April and May, 32% of practicing Christians disclosed not going to church in person or online. Eighteen percent are donating less to their places of worship.

Over Thanksgiving, I was deeply saddened to hear the story of one central Texas Baptist church that has been nearly gutted over this ghastly year of lockdowns. They were shut entirely for a month, partly due to fear but also because of a confusion over the law. People didn’t know what was and what was not permitted.

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