President Donald J. Trump. Photo | Courtesy.
President Trump announced Friday that all houses of worship in the United States would be considered “essential services” and urged governors to “do the right thing” and reopen them immediately — adding that he would “override” them if they didn’t.
“Today, I am identifying houses of worship, churches, synagogues, and mosques, as essential places that provide essential services,” Trump said in a sudden White House briefing.
“Some governors have deemed liquor stores and abortion clinics is essential, but have left out churches and other houses of worship, it’s not right. So I am correcting this injustice and calling houses of worship essential. I call upon governors to allow churches and places of worship to open right now,” the president said, adding that he’d overrule governors who don’t comply.
“If there is any question, they will have to call me, but they are not going to be successful in that call,”’ he said.
“The governors need to do the right thing and allow these very important, essential places of faith to open right now, for this weekend. If they do not do it, I will override the governors. In America, we need more prayer, not less,” Trump concluded before leaving the briefing room without taking questions.
Dr. Deborah Birx of the Coronavirus Task Force said moments later that while the president wants houses of worship opened this weekend some may want to wait to protect their congregations.
“We want them protected. I know houses of worship want to protect them. Maybe they cannot go this week, if there is a heightened number of COVID cases. Maybe they wait another week,” Birx said.
Asked repeatedly what authority the president would use to “override” governors, Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany called the question “hypothetical.”
“You are assuming governors are going to keep churches and mosques shut down. That is a hypothetical question,” she said, adding that she believed that “faith communities [would] reopen.”
She also pointed to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines on reopening houses of worship.
“There is detailed guidance about the way you can clean your facilities and promote social distancing so this is something we should all look at and be thankful we are encouraging faith communities to reopen and do so in a safe way, McEnany said.
Trump said Thursday he had planned to take “a very strong position” on church reopenings as the country struggles to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed at least 95,000 Americans to date.
“One of the things I want to do is get the churches open,” Trump told reporters Thursday outside the White House.
“The churches are not being treated with respect by a lot of the Democrat governors. I want to get the churches open, and we’re going to take a very strong position on that very soon. … Including mosques.”
Trump’s comments came after Chicago began fining churches for holding services that do not comply with Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s statewide stay-at-home order.
The Chicago Police Department told Fox News that three churches will be hit with penalties for services that were held Sunday.
Some churches that already reopened later closed after congregants came down with coronavirus.
A Georgia church that reopened a few weeks ago is closing its doors again after several families came down with COVID-19.
Catoosa Baptist Tabernacle in Ringgold welcomed worshipers back into the sanctuary April 26 after shutting down in response to the pandemic, the Christian Post reported.
Two weeks later, on May 11, church leaders announced plans to suspend services after several parishioners tested positive for the virus.
Courtesy of New York Post.
