Posted on 05/24/2020 8:53:41 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Days after Minnesota’s Catholic and Lutheran churches publicly declared they would defy Gov. Tim Walz’s order restricting in-person services to not more than 10 people, the state has announced it's lifting that limitation to let larger groups gather for worship beginning Wednesday.
At a press briefing Saturday, Gov. Walz announced that churches will be able to hold services starting Wednesday if they follow social distancing guidelines and limit the gatherings to not more than 25% of a building’s capacity, MinnPost reported.
The governor has recognized that churches can reopen safely and carefully in the same way as malls and other business operations, the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which along with Sidley Austin LLP had written to Waltz about his pervious order violating the First Amendment, said in a statement Saturday.
Last Wednesday, The Minnesota Catholic Conference and The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod had also sent separate letters to the governor saying they would defy the reopening order.
“We were disappointed to find that instead, you allowed retail and other non-critical businesses to open, setting a plan in place for bars and restaurants to reopen while limiting churches to meetings of [10] people or fewer,” the Lutheran body wrote in the letter. “In the absence of a timeline or any other assurances that churches will soon be able to reopen, we find that we must move forward with our religious exercise in a safe manner.”
After the governor’s change of mind following a meeting with church leaders, Archbishop Bernard Hebda of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis expressed gratitude.
“We are grateful that Governor Walz entered into respectful dialogue with us, recognized the spiritual needs of our faithful, and agreed that it is possible to resume worship services safely and responsibly,” Hebda said. “Hopefully, our experience of constructive dialogue can serve as a roadmap for churches across the country suffering from similar inequities, whether intended or unintended, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
The Rev. Dr. Lucas Woodford, president of the Minnesota South District of The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod, said the ability to meet “responsibly in person to worship God and support one another is invaluable to our community of faith.”
He continued: “We cherish the church’s stewardship of the gospel and sacraments that enables Christians to live out their daily vocations as citizens contributing to the public good and serving their neighbors in love. We are grateful that Minnesota decided to reopen churches, without needing to resort to legal action. We will remain prayerful and watchful, so that this agreement is just the beginning of a return to full, safe and responsible, in-person worship.”
On Friday, President Trump spoke to the Center for Disease Control about releasing guidance for reopening houses of worship as essential operations.
At a press conference, Trump said, “At my direction, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is issuing guidance for communities of faith. I’m identifying houses of worship — churches, synagogues and mosques — as essential places that provide essential services.”
Trump also said he plans to “override” governors who are not allowing churches to reopen. “Some governors have deemed liquor stores and abortion clinics as essential, but have left out churches and other houses of worship — that’s not right. So I’m correcting this injustice and calling houses of worship essential.”
How has Minnesota been treating the mosques during all of this?
Optics of ministers rabbis, priests and monsignors being handcuffed and stuffed into patrol cars won’t be good——but may be coming.
What license can the Whitmers revoke? The annual “Freedom of Religion License” for $100 at the DMV?
The same as all the other houses of worship.
Let's call in questions to Omar's MN district.
Probably police escort to get them to the mosques and then ring of police outside to make sure they have full freedom to worship. They apparently worshipped these past 8-10 weeks according to little side reports at the bottom of news stories. I may be wrong as this was second hand to me. I live an hour's drive outside Tlaib's district.
So mosques were shut down in MN? Actually?
I’m being sarcastic here, I’m just asking. Because, it seems to me that some of the recent Muslim imports to Minnesota wouldn’t obey a government order about whether or not they could go to a mosque. Was it actually enforced?
Your reply is more along the lines of what I would have expected. A government edict, ignored because it would be too inflammatory to enforce.
HOORAY Catholics and Lutherans for not worshipping at The Church of State.
Life, liberty BUMP!
The restrictions have been in place and followed until this recent discussion with Walz. Keith Ellison, the Minnesota AG has brought suit against a central Minnesota bar and eating establishment for opening despite orders to the contrary. Nothing of the sort has been necessary WRT religious establishments which have cooperated voluntarily until most recent events. In fact, many churches will continue the virtual services and not reopen until government gives them the all clear. The discussion which is the topic of this article was between the Catholic bishops of Minnesota along with representatives of the Missouri Synod Lutherans and the state ... no one else.
Catholics across the street celebrating mass right now.
I said about a week ago, things will reopen when the citizens say enough is enough and rebel.
Politicians scrambling now to keep up with the citizens, who have had enough needless tyranny.
The mosques followed the state’s guidelines for closing, at least officially.
I never heard of any of shutdowns of religious services ‘enforced’?
What say Minnesota FReepers?
My understanding is that the mosques are choosing to remain closed for a longer time.
My church, Northwoods Community, will meet next Sunday on Pentecost. We had 20,000 attend online on Easter. Northwoods.online
See #9.
I'm reminded again of the book Crisis and Leviathan. Every time there is a "crisis", the government implements actions that the people soon oppose as being over-reaching. Then the government eases the actions, but never back to the level they were "pre-crisis". The people accept the loss of freedoms, rationalizing it as at least not as bad as what they had to put up with for awhile.
Now, people can go shopping again... but they have to wear a mask. People can go to church again... but only if the church is at no more than 25% capacity. People can go to parks or to a gym... but they're required to maintain an arbitrarily defined adequate social distancing. And people go along with it because of the implicit threat that if they don't, those scraps of limited freedom can be taken away again.
Will my chocolate ration be reinstated? Oh goody.
Yes but it’s victory chocolate. Not the good stuff
That depends on whether or not you'll acknowledge your acceptance of the restrictions placed on you, not only by the government, but by the voluntary enforcers among the general population. There are plenty of people, even here on FreeRepublic, that will loudly express their disapproval of anyone going out in public without a facemask.
Sadly, I hear things are the OPPOSITE in Nevada... the government announced they would "allow" churches to reopen, but the gutless Catholic church officials are going to keep suspending church indefinitely ANYWAY. Not sure what the protestant churches are up to. And as another post noted, the media has had a complete blackout about what the mosques did during Ramadan. Hmmm!
For what its worth here in Illinois, the Archdiocese of Chicago still has masses suspended indefinitely. My Catholic parish is NOT a member of the Archdiocese and NOT under the jurisdiction of Cupich (praise God for that!) and our bishop is located in Ohio. He said he would allow pastors to begin re-opening parishes on May 18th, on an individual basis. My pastor sent out a letter saying public services will resume on Pentecost Sunday, May 31st, with proper "safely guidelines" in place (like letting people participate by standing in the lobby or listening in the parking lot).
The ball is in Lard Butt's corner now, I'm pretty sure there will be more than 10 people in attendance next Sunday.
Catholics and Lutherans, eh? The Missouri Synod Lutherans have been through a few schisms since the ‘90’s, splitting reformants and traditionalists. Now, saying that, where are the baptists and pentecostals voice, since they have been preaching for 37 years of, “Taking this nation back for gawd.” Why are they silent, now?
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