{"id":12155,"date":"2020-05-04T13:27:38","date_gmt":"2020-05-04T17:27:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/?p=12155"},"modified":"2020-05-04T13:27:38","modified_gmt":"2020-05-04T17:27:38","slug":"the-law-means-churches-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/?p=12155","title":{"rendered":"The law means churches, too"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Churches in <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/050fc32d6a194b8d08e1af714b683bab\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kentucky<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/administration\/495915-justice-dept-argues-virginia-stay-at-home-order-interfered-with?utm_source=Pew+Research+Center&#038;utm_campaign=525f36bbfb-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_05_04_02_20&#038;utm_medium=email&#038;utm_term=0_3e953b9b70-525f36bbfb-400679469\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Virginia<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/news.wttw.com\/2020\/05\/03\/judge-stay-home-order-doesn-t-violate-religious-rights?utm_source=Pew+Research+Center&#038;utm_campaign=525f36bbfb-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_05_04_02_20&#038;utm_medium=email&#038;utm_term=0_3e953b9b70-525f36bbfb-400679469\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Illinois<\/a> have lost their demands for exceptions to assembly bans.  There are doubtless churches in other places that are challenging the bans but haven&#8217;t had their day in court yet.<\/p>\n<p>Malls, restaurants, casinos, sports venues, schools and colleges &#8212; the tens of dozens of places where people gather &#8212; are sucking-it-up and waiting for this hell to end.  Why do churches think they ought to be excepted?  A couple possibilities come immediately to mind.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<p>Financial need.  The shutdown has been especially hard on churches, because the overwhelming majority of them are barely making it and a sharp, 6-weeks long decline in revenue can be ruinous.<\/p>\n<li>\n<p>Ignorance.  Many churchgoers simply lack the intellectual subtlety to understand that belief is protected but not privileged, that the same laws which apply to everybody else includes them, too.<\/ul>\n<p>Fortunately the courts have &#8212; so far &#8212; had the good sense to reject the demands.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Churches in Kentucky, Virginia, and Illinois have lost their demands for exceptions to assembly bans. There are doubtless churches in other places that are challenging the bans but haven&#8217;t had their day in court yet. Malls, restaurants, casinos, sports venues, &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/?p=12155\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12155"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12155"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12155\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12158,"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12155\/revisions\/12158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bobfelton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}