Is our constitutional right to protest, or go to a strip club for that matter, more protected than our constitutional right to attend worship services during the Covid-19 pandemic? If your arguments are based on facts and reality, (mordant humor) than the answer to this question would be an astounding, Yes.
In a society soaked with hypocrisy, we are conditioned to "overlook" just how illogical and revolting things have gotten. That in a society which apparently affords it's citizens the freedom of religion, it is unlawful to attend worship services. Before getting into this issue deeper, however, I must cover myself and say: I support the first amendment; correspondingly, I support the right to peaceful protest (in spite that many protests this past year were not peaceful).
However, I do not support government lockdown orders that are enforced on our churches, yet not on protests with (literally) thousand of people standing and yelling within inches of one another. Or when strip clubs can legally open while houses of worship are to remain closed. Or when the main stream media praises non-socially distanced protests yet thrashes churches for reopening, calling them hypocrites for not caring about their neighbor.
With all this said, my stance needs to be taken with nuance. In spite of what the 1st Amendment says, I am not against government lockdowns. I believe that during the height of the pandemic, government enforced lockdowns had the best interest of the publics safety in mind. I am, however, against the double standard of imposing lockdown on some entities and not others.
- Freedom from governmental establishment of religion
- Freedom from governmental interference with the practice of religion
- The right to free speech
- The right to freedom of the press
- The right to assemble peacefully
- The right to petition the government for redress of grievances
Not only does the Constitution grant Americans the freedom to assemble peacefully, which not only encompasses protesting but attending worship services, the Constitution goes a step further to explicit grant citizens the right to (and from) religion. I also believe it was with intentionality that the religion freedom clauses are the first clauses written in the Constitution. This makes sense considering "many of the British North American colonies that eventually formed the United States of America were settled in the seventeenth century by men and women, who, in the face of European persecution, refused to compromise passionately held religious convictions and fled Europe" (loc.gov). In other words, America was, in large, created as a result of fleeing religious persecution.
In conclusion, it is not hard to find constitutional discrepancies in our nation, probably because we live in a nation where our own people do not really care about the constitutional. And I include myself in that statement; I too do not know much about the founding principles of our nation. But I am trying to learn more about it. It is only by learning and thinking critically about the needs, not solely of ourselves, but of our national corporately that we may make true progress.
Sources:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/08/us/coronavirus-churches-outbreaks.html
https://www.lamag.com/citythinkblog/hollywood-protest-sunday/
Image Source:
https://www.insider.com/black-lives-matter-protests-aerial-footage-photos-2020-6
https://data1.ibtimes.co.in/en/full/753458/church.jpg?h=450&l=50&t=40
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