By Bruce S. Ticker
PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania — No doubt that millions of Americans have prayed as much or more than they ever prayed since the coronavirus crisis clutched us by the throat. They prayed at home – for survival and a return to pre-Covid-19 life.
While we are it, many of us can pray for the resumption of traditional religious services where we will again be surrounded by friends and relatives inside a comfortable building such as a synagogue, church or mosque.
The Covid-19 virus’s toll exceeded 100,000 American deaths on Wednesday and more than 1.7 million cases were registered the same day. I have lost two acquaintances, and three of my relatives are directly vulnerable. Few of us need even decent governors like Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan and Andrew Cuomo of New York to warn us against taking unnecessary risks.
Yet our president is demanding that our houses of worship be allowed to reopen. One would think that the president would have enough sense to avoid making matters worse. I guess we have resigned ourselves to political realities…until Nov. 3, hopefully.
His exact words on Friday, as quoted in The New York Times: “The governors need to do the right thing and allow these very important, essential places of faith to open right now for the weekend…If they don’t do it, I will override the governors.”
Is Donald Trump trying to kill us? Why not ask? He already asked if TV host Joe Scarborough had an affair with and killed a 28-year-old staffer when he a member of Congress nearly two decades ago.
Strangely enough, our president is mostly risking the lives of people who intend to vote for him because they believe him.
Trump even opined, “In America, we need more prayer, not less.”
Which brings us back to my opening point: More prayer will likely help, and we can pray anywhere – on the sofa, in bed, at the grocery store…or inside a hospital’s intensive care unit.
A minister in New Jersey does not “want our people to feel like they’re lawbreakers because they are exercising their First Amendment right to religious liberty” by physically attending a church service, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.
But Rev. Charles Clark III and his congregants would be violating Gov. Phil Murphy’s order restricting religious services. That would not make them lawbreakers? Maybe they think of themselves as juvenile delinquents committing a harmless prank.
Clark, pastor of Solid Rock Baptist Church in Berlin outside Philadelphia, went on, “Our church members are citizens of New Jersey. They should be respected instead of being looked at as renegades.”
“Renegades” would attack us with their fists, knives, guns and other known weapons to injure or slay us, I suppose. Clark and his congregants would harm or kill us by gathering in large groups, risking the transmission of the deadly virus – first among themselves and then the rest of us.
Like “renegades,” they knowingly endanger everyone. The only difference is their way of doing it. Rabbis quoted by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency offer sensible responses to this kind of thinking – or lack of thinking.
“(We) will continue to look to the wisdom of medical professionals to guide us on when reopening our synagogues can be done safely in keeping with our values,” said Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism.
“While we long to gather in person,” he continued, “we believe that there is no higher value than pikuach nefesh, saving a life.”
“Yes, our synagogue is essential. We are open,” wrote Rabbi Rachel Blatt, spiritual leader of Congregation Kol Ami, a Conservative shul in Tampa, Florida. “The building we meet in, however, is closed. Join us on zoom where we have been and continue to pray, to study, to sing, and to gather safely.”
We all have the right to worship as we choose, exercise our freedom of speech and “peaceably to assemble,” as the First Amendment describes some of our liberties. Clark and others who stand behind their First Amendment rights must have forgotten the Preamble to the Constitution, which outlines the purposes of the Constitution.
The Preamble states that “We the People of the United States…do ordain and establish this Constitution to…insure domestic tranquility” and “promote the general welfare.” The other listed purposes are only possible to achieve if we are alive.
With Broadway stages and all other stages shut down, it must be distressing for newly-minted First Amendment advocates. They cannot even shout “fire” in a crowded theater.
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Bruce S. Ticker is a freelance writer based in Philadelphia. He may be contacted via bruce.ticker@sdjewishworld.com