The underlying problem here is government intrusion into religious *sacraments*. Unless religions put their foot down and reject government involvement, they will discover themselves entirely co-opted by government.
Marriage has been taken away from religion (and corrupted) by government. As has the registration of birth, now by the government instead of churches. Now burial is being taken away (and as this article notes, they are trying to corrupt it).
Government *definitely* wants to involve itself with confession (”Or else the terrorists win!”), by monitoring what is said directly, or at least by being able to legally coerce priests, pastors and ministers to break the privacy of the confessional (like the government broke doctor-patient privacy with the HIPAA Act (thank you, W. Bush)).
I imagine also that administering last rites to the dying will be taken away from clergy, likely because of euthanasia. Since murderous medical people can kill at the time of their choosing, they will choose to do so, involuntarily, when there are no witnesses around, especially clergy.
I just wonder how the government will try to horn in to the rites of Baptism, Confirmation and the Eucharist?
Perhaps gravity and Occam may supply the explanation for the ‘Sterling’ performance of the officious in Sterling, Colorado.
First, as Google shows, there is a large prison facility near Sterling, so an authoritarian streak is well funded in that area’s people.
Note that Sterling is east of Denver and Denver is east of Boulder. Boulder is at the highest altitude and is the most Liberal.
Consider the SRDH concept. SRDH (Sh*t Runs Down Hill) would explain how Boulder Dementia Syndrome spread to Denver and thence eastward to Sterling.
As Occam said, Simplest hypothesis is best.
Conclusion: Liberal SRDH is approaching you. Are you prepared?
>>Unless religions put their foot down<<
Religions are the same as government, they are made up of the people/voters. If the parishoners don’t tell the leaders of their churches to stand up, nobody will.