The Daily 202: More churches rebel against state orders, as Trump reverses course on releasing reopening guidelines

PowerPost  Analysis

The Daily 202: More churches rebel against state orders, as Trump reverses course on releasing reopening guidelines

By James Hohmann

May 22 at 11:49 AM

with Mariana Alfaro

President Trump announced Thursday that his administration will soon release guidelines to help churches safely reopen, an apparent reversal after senior White House officials blocked the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from doing so. 

The decision comes as a growing number of faith leaders have announced plans to reopen in the absence of federal guidance and, in many cases, in direct violation of state orders aimed at slowing the spread of the novel coronavirus.

“We’ve got to open our churches,” Trump told reporters traveling with him to a Ford plant in Michigan. “People want to go in.”

Social conservatives in Vice President Pence’s circle, as well as officials at the Office of Management and Budget and the Domestic Policy Council, objected to the propriety of government telling religious institutions what to do. Public health experts responded that they were not requirements – but best practices. After weeks of back-and-forth, the White House made the decision not to release any guidance for houses of worship as the CDC put out road maps earlier this week for safely reopening schools, child-care facilities, restaurants, colleges, summer camps and mass transit systems.

The absence of advice from the prestigious health agency has added to confusion, fueled a patchwork of approaches and laid the groundwork for clashes between religious leaders and local officials. Trump’s order to put out the guidance appears to be a belated effort to address this fallout.

A leaked draft of the CDC’s guidance last month included suggestions that faith leaders consider temporarily limiting community sharing of prayer books, hymnals and other worship materials; consider using a stationary collection box, the mail or electronic payment instead of shared collection trays or baskets; and avoid or consider suspending choir or musical ensembles during services.

The leaders of Minnesota’s two largest flocks, the Catholics and the Lutherans, announced Thursday that they will resume indoor worship services next week in defiance of Democratic Gov. Tim Walz’s orders. The Catholic archdiocese and the Lutheran synod will allow their congregations to gather indoors, at one-third capacity, starting on Tuesday. They say it’s “extreme and prejudicial” that fewer people are allowed to gather for a church service than in a store at the mall. “Our community members are suffering from financial and social and emotional strain,” Archbishop Bernard Hebda told reporters on a conference call organized by Becket, a religious liberties law firm. “It’s our sacred duty to meet the spiritual needs of the suffering.”

“Eric Rassbach, vice president and senior counsel at Becket, said faith groups have filed roughly 30 legal challenges to state and local officials’ reopening plans, the vast majority of them by smaller evangelical churches,” Michelle Boorstein reports. “Asked why the denominations decided to announce plans to defy Walz’s executive order instead of pursue a legal appeal, Rassbach said the order treats churches ‘unequally’ and is thus illegal. ‘If it’s illegal, you don’t have a duty to follow it,’ he said.”

More than 1,200 pastors in California have signed onto a letter announcing they plan to resume in-person services on May 31 in defiance of Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s stay-at-home order. “Newsom has gradually allowed some businesses to reopen as the state’s number of virus-related hospitalizations has flattened. But churches are still banned, along with hair salons and sporting events. Newsom said Monday churches could reopen in weeks, not months,” per KPIX, the San Francisco CBS affiliate. “But many churches are tired of waiting.”

The Justice Department, following the recent directive from Attorney General Bill Barr, warned Newsom in an open letter on Tuesday that California must do more to accommodate in-person religious gatherings or face federal intervention.

Meanwhile, a Christian church, whose pastor was charged with violating Virginia Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam's prohibition on large gatherings after holding a Palm Sunday service last month, lost a First Amendment-based bid in federal court on Thursday to stop the governor's order.

A Pentecostal church in Holly Springs, Miss., which has been challenging the city’s restrictions on religious gatherings in court, burned to the ground on Wednesday. Investigators believe it was arson, and they found graffiti on pavement in the church parking lot that said, “Bet you stay home now you hypokrits (sic),” according to WLBT, the Jackson NBC affiliate. Jerry Waldrop, who has pastored the church for 31 years, said in a 14-page lawsuit, filed last month, that police officers disrupted a midweek Bible study and his Easter service 10 days before that. He said they will rebuild.

Embers smolder Wednesday on the remains of the First Pentecostal Church in Holly Springs, Miss. The church burned after it filed a lawsuit challenging city restrictions on gatherings amid the coronavirus pandemic. (Major Kelly McMillen/Marshall County Sheriff's Office via AP)

While the CDC has not issued guidance, the agency has released several studies tracking how the virus has spread like wildfire through houses of worship. A report released earlier this week looked into an Arkansas outbreak, for example, which began when a pastor and his wife attended church events over six days in early March and spread the virus to dozens of congregants. The CDC report said an additional 26 infections and one death in the community were probably linked to contact with people infected at the church events. Another CDC report released last Tuesday described how one asymptomatic person infected as many as 52 others during a March choir practice in Washington state. A CDC report published last month on the spread of the contagion in Chicago documented how someone came down with the virus after sitting within a row of an infected person at church for a service.

The failure to release guidance for churches in a timely manner is one of several communications missteps by the administration. The CDC updated its website earlier this month to clarify that touching contaminated objects or surfaces does not appear to be a significant mode of transmission for coronavirus. The same goes for exposure to infected animals. But there was no formal announcement or explanation. A CDC spokeswoman said the revisions were the product of an internal review that involved “usability testing,” but she added that the site has consistently made clear that the biggest danger comes from person-to-person contact. “Right-wing social media exploited the website tweaks this week,” Ben Guarino and Joel Achenbach report. “Fox News commentator Sean Hannity promoted a ‘breaking’ report about the change.”

“A persistent problem in this pandemic has been the lack of clear messaging from governmental leadership, and this is another unfortunate example of that trend,” said Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the Columbia University School of Public Health.

The CDC has also not held a public news briefing since March 9, and Trump ended his nightly coronavirus task force briefings several weeks ago.

Tony Fauci, who runs the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Thursday night that he hopes the White House will allow the American people to begin hearing on a more regular basis again from him and Debbie Birx, the coordinator of the White House coronavirus task force. Fauci told CNN that he has had conversations with the White House communications team about the need to allow experts to deliver routine updates. “They realize we need to get some of this information out,” Fauci said. “Hopefully you’ll be seeing more of us.”