In an op-ed in the Washington Times, columnist Cheryl Chumley says it’s time for churches to reopen.
Recently, the Department of Justice issued a statement suggesting Virginia acted above and beyond its rightful call of COVID-19 government duty by closing churches to more than 10 people while allowing some private businesses to host untold numbers of shoppers.
Chumley agrees and points out the curiosity — not to mention legal contortion of the Constitution — that Virginia’s Democrat governor, Ralph Northam, has been OK with Walmart remaining open for all shoppers, so long as they social distance, but churches must go online.
The same is true for other retailers including liquor stores.
Chumley points out an inconvenient truth — Churches have the First Amendment.
Walmart doesn’t.
But more than that, the idea of government picking which set of people can protect themselves versus which can’t — shoppers can; church-goers can’t — she calls a new level of overreach.
The right to freely worship is ingrained in America’s founding, underscored in America’s Constitution, a pillar of Americans’ God-given rights.
But Virginia’s Northam stretched even the limits of sensible COVID-19 restrictions and responses by setting churches as subservient to private businesses — and government.
Chumley calls that “dangerous un-American territory.”
It appears the Justice Department will soon be addressing this particular case.