A Bad Bet
Freedom of and Freedom from (Religion) Coronavirus
If you want to go out and take the risk of getting coronavirus by not wearing a mask, not physical distancing, not taking sanitary precautions…that is your choice. However, the big challenge with this illness is not so much your vulnerability as the vulnerability of everyone around you; you have the capacity to be a vector for spreading the illness without even knowing it. Each of us has the potential to represent lethality to another, even if that is not our intent. By listening and responding to the science of how disease is spread, we can reasonably keep our illness to ourselves and thereby save the larger society.
A similar conundrum is the foundation of the tension between religion and politics in America. What “saves” one person is death, violence or oppression to another. Our system that speaks vaguely of a ‘separation of church and state’ (these actual words do not appear in our founding documents, but they are inferred) attempts to make space for the “freedom of religion” through the establishment clause:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…[1]
This is the clause that the President and the pseudo constitutionalists seem up in arms about when insisting that houses of worship open during this health crisis. The President is quoted from his briefing room address on May 22 below:
Today, I am identifying houses of worship, churches, synagogues, and mosques, as essential places that provide essential services. Some governors have deemed liquor stores and abortion clinics is essential, but have left out churches and other houses of worship, its not right. So I am correcting this injustice am calling houses of worship essential. I call upon governors to allow churches and places of worship to open right now. If there is any question, they will have to call me, but they are not going to be successful in that call. These are places that hold our society together and keep our people united. The people are demanding to go to church and synagogues, or a mosque. -or a mosque. Many embrace worship as an essential part of life. The ministers, pastors, rabbis, and other faith leaders will make sure that their congregations are safe as they gather and pray. I know them well. They love their congregations. They love their people. They don’t want anything bad to happen to them or to anybody else. The governors need to do the right thing and allow these very important, essential places of faith to open right now. For this weekend. If they do not do it, I will override the governor’s. -the governors. In America, we need more prayer, not less. Thank you very much. Thank you.[2]
Among the many problems with this statement is the insistence that governors somehow “closed” churches. Although they may have put limitations on public gathering and included houses of worship in the broader category of non-essential buildings, governors (and I would argue presidents) do not have any say over whether or not or how people worship together. Challenging though it may be, communities of faith and spirit have continued to find ways to remain connected and inspired and committed to their faith. Zoom, outdoors, snail mail, telephone…me and my colleagues are using it all. There is literally nothing that can be a permanent barrier to our efforts as leaders of committed communities, particularly in a time of crisis.
Having a carnival barker confuse the issue of faith in public with his pandering for votes … has the potential to do actual harm.
His statement also exposes the degree to which the president is wildly ignorant about corporate worship spaces. He has clearly only identified church with the physical, spatial performance of worship. As someone who has built a career on branding and appearances, he only seems to be concerned with the show. There is no sense of internal spirituality, prayer, family worship, grace…none of it.
The challenge that has faced worship leaders has not been simple. How do we keep communities united, how do we perform important rituals, how do we keep our communities engaged and cognizant of their spiritual lives and how do we do it at a distance? What are the messages people need to hear that incorporate hope and a sense of continuity and safety? What are the innovations that people will be willing to receive while managing the broader trauma and crisis surrounding them in this moment? How do we help our communities continue to feel loved, by each other and by their faith?
Faith leadership is serious business. Having a carnival barker confuse the issue of faith in public with his pandering for votes from people who’s faith he doesn’t begin to understand has the potential to do actual harm. The part of the First Amendment that we should really be concerned with is toward the end:
Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.[3] (emphasis mine.)
If assembling in large groups represents a significant public health risk (and the numbers of infection connected with houses of worship support this assumption) then I would argue that assembling, even in a house of worship, regardless of your faith or faith tradition, becomes an act of public violence and therefore is no longer “peaceable.” Gathering in this way is inflicting risk upon the broader community that those who are not gathered then have no say in defending themselves against.
We need to remember that our constitution points toward both the freedom religion and the freedom religion. Just as our broader rights and responsibilities point toward each of our right to be free from threat of harm as we see it.
Mr. President, considering your record with casinos, I’d rather you didn’t gamble with my faith.
[1] First Amendment, Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School
[2] Transcript of May 22, 2020 Statement from C-SPAN
[3] First Amendment, Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School
*Note on the image accompanying this piece: I chose this public use image because I think it combines the gravity and importance of defending our rights to faith in the shadow of Memorial Day.
Originally published at http://spirituwellness.org on May 23, 2020.
