KentForLiberty pages

Thursday, May 28, 2020

Opening the churches

A church my grandfather built


In all the debate over whether the churches should be allowed to open during the coronapocalypse, the thing that keeps being ignored is that government has no right or "authority" to force them to close nor to demand they stay closed. Nor even to dictate how they are allowed to conduct their services.

Even if you irrationally believe the U.S. feral government is legitimate, the First Amendment doesn't allow it to have that power. In fact, it forbids it from more than one direction: freedom of religion, freedom to assemble, and probably freedom of speech. 

That it is mostly state governors giving the orders changes nothing. The 14th Amendment binds the state governments to obey the Bill of Rights.

I've heard some government-supremacists argue that no one is violating anyone's freedom of religion since they can still believe what they believe, they just can't gather in a church building.

That would be wrong.

Many people believe they are directed to gather, in person, with other believers. To forbid this is to violate their freedom of religion. It violates their freedom to assemble.

Statism is a religion. Government is its god. Government is a jealous god and doesn't like competition.

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