Close the Churches: Shutdown Orders Shouldn’t Exempt Religious Gatherings - Word&Way

Close the Churches: Shutdown Orders Shouldn’t Exempt Religious Gatherings

What is a church to do in the time of the coronavirus pandemic? For many religious traditions, gathering for worship is not just a friendly suggestion.

Some Jewish practices require groups of 10. Muslims consider Friday’s congregational prayer one of their most important. Catholics celebrate the Eucharist together during Mass. As the German Lutheran theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote in 1930, “A Christian who stays away from the assembly is a contradiction in terms.”

Government restrictions extending to churches are almost certainly legal. What’s interesting is why.

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