The 3 - April 19, 2020

With three stories of relevance to the Christian community, this is The 3.  The lineup for this week including statements from the U.S. Department of Justice regarding religious freedom.  And, two states (so far) have been sued because of their orders regarding church gatherings.  Plus, an atheist group has been awarded a significant sum of money as the result of a graduation prayer that one Federal judge found to be unconstitutional.

Department of Justice issues statement on religious freedom, indicates interest in Mississippi drive-in church service situation, city mayor backs down

Just before Easter, the U.S. Department of Justice was anticipated to provide religious freedom guidance for churches and government officials, to ensure that First Amendment concerns continued to be upheld during the Coronavirus crisis.  On Tuesday, the 14th, Attorney General William Barr issued a statement and announced that it had filed a statement of interest in the case of a Mississippi church, where attendees at a "drive-in" worship service were fined $500.  According to the Department of Justice website, the Attorney General said:

But even in times of emergency, when reasonable and temporary restrictions are placed on rights, the First Amendment and federal statutory law prohibit discrimination against religious institutions and religious believers. Thus, government may not impose special restrictions on religious activity that do not also apply to similar nonreligious activity. For example, if a government allows movie theaters, restaurants, concert halls, and other comparable places of assembly to remain open and unrestricted, it may not order houses of worship to close, limit their congregation size, or otherwise impede religious gatherings. Religious institutions must not be singled out for special burdens.

The statement also said:

As we explain in the Statement of Interest, where a state has not acted evenhandedly, it must have a compelling reason to impose restrictions on places of worship and must ensure that those restrictions are narrowly tailored to advance its compelling interest. While we believe that during this period there is a sufficient basis for the social distancing rules that have been put in place, the scope and justification of restrictions beyond that will have to be assessed based on the circumstances as they evolve.

WREG Television in Memphis reported on Thursday: "After drawing national attention, including lawsuits brought by two local churches, the mayor of Greenville, Mississippi has reversed his decision to ban drive-in church services." The article went on to say:

After receiving “clarification” from Gov. Tate Reeves, Greenville Mayor Errick Simmons says he’s reversing an April 7 order saying all churches would be closed, including drive-in services, as part of Mississippi’s shelter in place mandate.

Alliance Defending Freedom had filed suit on behalf of Greenville's Temple Baptist Church, and First Liberty took action on behalf of King James Bible Baptist Church.  The television station quoted Jeremy Dys of First Liberty: "There’s no pandemic exception to the First Amendment and so thankfully, today worshipers in Greenville are experiencing a greater degree of freedom than they did yesterday..."

The television station stated, "The city of Greenville will allow drive-in and parking lot services in the city, so long as families stay in their cars with windows up."

Christian legal advocacy organizations sue states

In order to preserve religious freedom rights for churches, there has been legal action that has been taken by Christian legal organizations against the acts of two governors. The Alliance Defending Freedom filed suit in Federal court on behalf of two Kansas churches against the state's governor, Laura Kelly, according to the ADF website, "to challenge a provision of her statewide shelter-in-place order that singles out churches from holding gatherings of 10 or more people while allowing numerous secular gatherings that exceed that number, including bars, restaurants, libraries, and shopping malls."

The website reported on Saturday that the Federal court had granted a temporary restraining order against the governor's policy.  ADF Senior Counsel Ryan Tucker, a recent Meeting House guest on Faith Radio, stated, "...We’re pleased that the court halted the governor from subjecting our clients to that type of targeting and agreed that the churches are likely to prevail on their claim that doing so violates the First Amendment. The order specifies that our clients are to abide by their own proposed, rigorous social distancing practices for the time being while our case continues in court, which these churches are obviously happy to do, since they proposed those rules themselves for everyone’s health and safety."

Liberty Counsel, according to its website, filed suit in Federal court against the governor of Kentucky, on behalf of a Louisville church, for "...violating their religious freedom by targeting churchgoers on Easter Sunday."  The organization's website stated:

On Easter Sunday, Kentucky State Police troopers came to Maryville Baptist Church, wrote down license plate numbers, and placed notices on every car in the church parking lot. The church set up speakers outside for parking lot service. The state troopers did not go inside the church where a small number of people were spread far apart in a 700-seat sanctuary. Following Gov. Beshear’s threat to target anyone who attended a church service, they placed quarantine notices on each car, including those where people stayed in their cars for the drive-in parking lot service. Anyone who did not drive off were given notices, including two media vehicles.

Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver is quoted at the website, stating: "Governor Beshear has clearly targeted this church and violated these church members’ religious freedom. The only reason these people were given notices is because they were in a church parking lot. Had they parked in the nearby shopping center they would not have been targeted. This is clearly Gov. Andy Beshear’s discriminating against churches."  According to WAVE 3 Television: "A motion for a temporary restraining order filed by a Hillview baptist church against an order by the Beshear administration has been denied by a District Court Judge on Saturday."  This was a reference to Maryville Baptist.

Federal judge rewards atheist group in graduation prayer case

Seemingly on an annual basis, there is confusion over the free speech rights and right to religious expression of students regarding graduation ceremonies.  A troubling decision was handed down recently by a Federal court concerning a school in the Greenville, S.C. school district -ChristianHeadlines.com reported:

A federal judge this week awarded an atheist group more than $450,000 in attorney's fees and expenses after the organization successfully fought against high school graduation prayer as part of a 2013 lawsuit.

The group is the American Humanist Association which, according to the article, "sued the school on behalf of parents of a student who objected to students leading prayers at a graduation. The organization also objected to the graduations being held in off-site chapels."  Last year, the judge, Bruce Hendricks, "...ruled for the group and said in a 2019 decision that 'the district shall not include a prayer – whether referred to as a prayer, blessing, invocation, benediction, inspirational reading, or otherwise – as part of the official program for a graduation ceremony.'"

The school district may appeal; it issued a statement which said, in part: "the School District has argued that students, like other citizens, have the right to free speech, including that of a religious nature..."