Fresno pastor says church will reopen May 31. ‘Constitutional rights were being violated’
Fresno’s Cornerstone Church pastor on Wednesday announced church leaders will move forward with plans to reopen May 31, following civil rights concerns raised by the U.S. Department of Justice on places of worship during the coronavirus pandemic.
Pastor Jim Franklin, in a brief statement, said the Department of Justice’s stance on the issue “confirms” the local church’s beliefs.
“This is what we predicted would happen all along,” Franklin said in the statement. “We stated from the beginning that our Constitutional rights were being violated and that we were not being treated fairly... This gives us more reason to continue with our reopening.”
The Department of Justice on Tuesday sent a letter to California Gov. Gavin Newsom raising ”several civil rights concerns with the treatment of places of worship.”
The letter mentions a statement recently released by Attorney General William Barr on religious practice and social distancing. That statement was released in conjunction with a Mississippi case in which the Department of Justice participated.
In the statement, Barr noted the importance to practice social distancing to control the spread of COVID-19 but also highlighted restrictions that would be unacceptable in normal circumstances might be justified.
“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,” the letter reads. “Thus, government may not impose special restrictions on religious activity that do not also apply to similar nonreligious activity’.”
The letter further says, there are no pandemic exceptions to the U.S. Constitution and its Bill of Rights. California, the letter says, “facially discriminates against religious exercise” in its initial executive order, but the unequal treatment is even more pronounced in the state’s reopening plan.
Churches would be allowed to reopen under Stage 3, while several other venues, such as schools, restaurants and shopping malls, would be able to reopen earlier under Stage 2, according to the letter.
The Department of Justice acknowledges it cannot tell California what to do, but it says its duty is to uphold the protections of civil rights, according to the letter.
Newsom’s office forwarded comments the governor provided to a network on the issue.
“I have deep reverence for congregants and parishioners that want to reconnect to their community and to their faith and be able to practice,” he told MSNBC. “Accordingly, we’re just a few weeks away from meaningful modifications that will allow just that to happen.”
Franklin told The Bee when the church reopens on May 31, it will operate under the same guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that other businesses, such as Costco and Walmart, follow.
The church will practice social distancing and will make sanitizing available. Franklin said given that masks have been “controversial,” the church will make some available for those choosing to wear one.
“If you can be safe at Walmart, you can be safe at church,” he said.
Franklin said he hopes Newsom will take the letter seriously. The Department of Justice’s letter, he said, reaffirms the church’s position, but in its reopening, it will make the welfare of churchgoers a priority.
The church, he said, will urge the elderly and those with compromised immune systems not to attend.
“We are going to protect our people,” he said. “Not only are we going to protect their health, but protect their rights to worship.”
Meanwhile, more than 1,200 clergy members on Wednesday sent a letter to Newsom informing the governor that they will be reopening on May 31 with or without permission, according to a news release issued by the law firm of Tyler & Bursch, LLP.
According to the letter, pastors tell Newsom they believe he “overlooked the essential and critical nature of the services provided by clergy and religious assemblies throughout California.”
Pastors say communities have endured various needs during the pandemic, and they are “convinced that they must reopen” to meet some of those needs, according to the letter.
This story was originally published May 20, 2020 at 1:37 PM.
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