The governor keeps extending his lockdown.
Its like we don’t have a Bill of Rights anymore!
Maybe because they're about the only places where large crowds could congregate in close quarters that haven't been shut down completely?
Sorry...Separation of Church and State. The government can’t tell them how to run their religion in any way, shape or form.
I remember when we were free men.
Amendment 1
ongress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof...
The physical gathering of believers to receive the body and blood of Christ in His Supper is not a matter for any earthly authority to deny or prescribe. While we pray for earthly authorities, and obey them in their lawful exercise, there does come a point where we must obey God rather than men. It appears we are at that threshold.
WHAT STATE is this???
Short of major sporting events and movie theatres, Church is the one place large numbers of people congregate closely.
Not only that, but in many instances they remain silent while one man, the pastor, expounds upon the biblical text(s) for several minutes or more.
I do not think the Indiana Governor has it out for Christians. He is trying to curb the spread of a particularly stealthy and potent illness, which is his prerogative.
The rub comes in having to prescribe activity that impinges upon matters of faith and piety, where consciences are sorely tested.
When you consider the federal lawsuits convicted felons have over minor violations of civil rights this is amazing.
These Governors either feel very protected by liberal judges or have no clue how this could end.
April 20, 2019 by RadicalDiscipleship
The Resurrection is Against the Law
An excerpt from Bill Wylie-Kellermann’s classic Seasons of Faith and Conscience (1991).
The sealing of the tomb is, I believe, notoriously misunderstood. I grew up with a Sunday School notion that to seal the tomb was a matter of hefting the big stone and cementing it tight. The seal, in my mind’s eye, was something like first-century caulking–puttying up the cracks to keep the stink in. Not so. This is a legal seal. Cords would be strung across the rock and anchored at each end with clay. To move the stone would break the seal and indicate tampering.
The event conspicuously echoes the story of Daniel sealed in the den of lions. “And a stone was brought and laid upon the mouth of the den, and the king sealed it with his own signet and with the signet of his lords, that nothing might be changed concerning Daniel” (Daniel 6:18). As there, this is a legal lock on the tomb door–not air tight, but politically tight. To move the stone and break the seal is a civil crime. The resurrection is against the law.
The seal is also a recurring theme in the book of Revelation. Remember the scroll of history sealed with seven seals? Only One is worthy to break them and look upon or unveil the truth: that One is the Lamb who was slain. The seal is a claim of ownership and authority. Its meaning in Revelation is at least that God in Christ reigns sovereign over all history and in all events.
Caesar, in Pilate, on the other hand, violently disputes the claim. He has set his seal of approval on Jesus’ death, and now he guarantees it with troops. Secured by security forces. When the seal is broken in the resurrection, it stands among the signs that the power of the powers (death in all its forms) has been broken. The dominion of political authority–especially inflated, aggressive–and imperial authority has been cut to the heart.
Ahh, the boringly passive voice of the bureaucratic memo / order / etc.