In California, government entities are fining some churches. Like Grace Community pastored by John MacArther, others have received court orders to refrain from gathering.
The First Amendment of the US Constitution reads, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."
Are these assemblies not peaceable? Are they administering violence, burn buildings, and damaging public property? Are these churches exercising their religion? Regardless of the circumstances, we must answer these questions before seeking to understand when it is appropriate and constitutional to place rules on religion's free exercise or religious assemblies.
Now, let us be reasonable and fair. Church gatherings must submit to fire codes and be ADA compliant. It's against the law to yell "fire" in a crowded building, potentially causing harm or death to those who could panic and trample each other trying to get out. Building codes ensure safety for all who participate and are required if people gather inside a building. Food safety laws are placed on church cafes and other gatherings involving food. Churches submit to tax laws (i.e., proper recording and sending a tax statement to donors in January).
However, due process was involved in putting the laws mentioned above in place. What is the due process in a pandemic?
Anyone arguing that we throw due process out the window in a pandemic should rethink that position because this question prevents police officers from changing the rules of force arbitrarily in a pandemic. The Constitution and due process keep the government from taking your property to set up a COVID hospital on your front lawn without appropriate standards and steps. We must understand the thresholds the government must meet to act. These standards and stipulations help us function together in a diverse society. Local legislatures and the US Congress should argue, debate, vote, and slog through these standards and stipulations to get them right. It’s a part of the process.
What is the threshold or line for a government entity to prohibit a religious gathering altogether? Masks, social distancing? Only ten new COVID cases per day? No cases? What is an acceptable risk of illness, and is that standard applied to all types of contagious disease? What is appropriate under the US Constitution? What is the threshold? Is the threshold being used only for churches or fairly to everyone?
In an ideal system, the executive branch (mayors, governors, and the President) enforce the laws made by the legislative branch (councils, senates, and congress). At times, the executive branch can enact executive orders to implement and carry out the legislative branch's laws. When conflicts arise, the judiciary branch interprets the laws and actions to determine if they are inside our outside the bounds of state constitutions and our US Constitution. The governed people vote for their leaders in both the executive and legislative branches (sometimes in the judiciary too). In an ideal system, the people vote leaders in and out after careful consideration of the candidates, track records, and issues.
We see the designed and essential conflict between the executive, legislative, and judicial branches in some ways. We are witnessing the working out of our rights under the US Constitution and government systems in the US. It's messy and unpleasant at times.
But in other ways, we see the impact of sinful desires, rebellion toward God, and idolatry. The system is sound on paper, but it doesn't consider the rotten fruit of sin as severely as it should. Sin takes reason out of the process. Sin makes it about identity with party or power over what is doing right before God and the people being governed. Because of sin, there's tremendous infighting. James 4 tells us why we fight and why there are wars.
"What is the source of wars and fights among you? Don't they come from your passions that wage war within you? You desire and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and wage war. You ask and don't receive because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend in on your pleasures" (James 4:1-3).
What is a Christian to do in this political mess?
You could play the political game the same way the world plays, but James goes on with a severe warning about that. He writes, "You adulterous people! Don't you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? So whoever wants to be a friend of the world becomes the enemy of God" (James 4:4). You could avoid the political system altogether, but then you'd be in disobedience to 1 Peter 2:13-17 and Romans 13:1-7. The gist of both sections of Scripture commands the disciple of Christ to submit to government (in-so-much as it is not sinful before God). Yet, this is where Americans and those living in a democracy need to ask, "And who is the government?"
Let us not forget how the US Constitution opens: "We the people of the United States. . . " The governed form a government in the name of the people. We do not have a government formed in the name of a Queen. Nor do we have a King or a dictatorship. Therefore, in the ideal system explained above, the executive, legislative, and judicial branches are a part of a self-governed people (under God), with roles filled by those people. Therefore, one significant way to obey 1 Peter 2:13-17 and Romans 13:1-7 is to participate and fulfill your governmental role as a "people."
The first and most important thing you are called upon as a Christian to do is to pray for your elected and non-elected leaders. 1 Timothy says, "First of all, then, I urge that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, for kings and all those who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity." Could it be that the lack of tranquility and quiet is directly related to the lack of prayer for everyone, including our leaders in authority?
Next, register to vote, educate yourself about the candidates (especially the local candidates where your vote and voice are more substantial), and vote.
You could run for office. Or support those who do with your time and resources. Both voting and running for office are conditions of our US and state constitutions.
See something for which you don't care? The First Amendment of the Constitution (remember, the one that protects the free exercise of religion) stipulates that you have the right to petition the government for a redress of grievances. You also have the right to free speech. You can write to your elected leaders. You can start petitions and seek that others join you. You even have the right to peaceably assemble to voice your grievances as a group of "we the people."
But as you exercise the rights afforded to you under the US Constitution, remember James 4. What is your motivation? Are you waging war and fighting, or are you obeying Romans 13 and 1 Peter 2 with humility and obedience to God? For, "God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble" (1 Peter 5:5).
