“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof...”
You’re speaking of a real see saw here as I don’t disagree with you, I’m saying what it was versus what it could have been. About half the states shut down churches in a formal atmosphere during the pandemic whether right or wrong. It was a game of semantics rather than the privileges of the citizens and their ability to make up their own minds concerning their wishes and safety.
Unfortunately the religious community didn’t really press the issue even though they had laws on their sides, working within the system, because they bought into the fear presentation the media supplied to the governments. The government got away with it and the community failed in their beliefs when they got “bluffed.”
wy69
The church should have fought back. I live near Baltimore. There were a handful that refused to cave in. They received some sternly worded letters and nothing else, yet the vast majority, including mine were too worried about their 501C3 status (One of the elders at my church told me that to my face, thereby losing my respect permanently)
Eric Metaxis wrote an incredible book entitled Letter to the American Church in which he compares the American church in the current culture to the Church in Germany as they capitulated to the Nazi’s as Hitler was coming to power.
In general, the church is managed by weak men who are more interested in playing church than being the Church.