Op-Ed: Especially Because of COVID, Easter Is a Perfect Reminder We Need to Be Together
Photos of worship services back at full capacity and communities singing together for the first time in two years are flooding social media, drawing emotional responses and sighs of relief and gratitude.
Whether one believes this was a necessary sacrifice or not, it’s important to reflect on how we got here and the underreported casualties of the lockdowns.
March marked two years since a pandemic was declared and mask, capacity and eventually vaccine mandates flooded the lives of billions around the world. In the U.S., the approach to “stop the spread” took an ugly turn that could charitably be attributed to religious illiteracy and in some cases to bigotry.
Although some houses of worship closed of their own volition, most had to fight hard, through advocacy and litigation, to reopen and serve the communities they exist to sustain.
Churches cited the desire to help parishioners mourn as a reason for their urgency to return to some form of worship. Others noted the essential nature of their sacraments and their care for the people they shepherd.
One stood out to me the most: the need to continue hosting Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. The in-person accountability and routine of these meetings are key to living sober, one day at a time. Staying the course is only possible with access to a support group.
Alcohol-related deaths saw an unprecedented 25 percent jump in 2020, with the largest increase affecting adults aged 35 to 44. One of the first lockdown cases to move through the courts was in New Mexico, where liquor stores were deemed essential and could stay open but churches had to stop AA meetings and Zoom or desist.
The list continues with a 26 percent increase in suicide attempts among young girls and an 8.1 percent increase in domestic violence incidents. The full cost of lockdowns is too great to count and too hard to swallow.
The lesson from this is that the human element in these fights is one we cannot forget. Religious worship and freedom represent that human element in our legal system. Even in emergencies, the courts should defer to the people and not the government when First Amendment freedoms come into play.
The pandemic religious liberty cases are a perfect example of this important balance.
A leading figure in the unequal treatment of religious communities was then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who decided to target Orthodox Jews in New York in imposing restrictions on gatherings. Other states and municipalities relaxed the rules for what they viewed as important industries, like casinos in Nevada, leaving religion behind.
But the truth will out. Nine months into the pandemic, the Supreme Court asked for proof from New York that it actually needed to restrict worship. The government failed to provide this proof, and the courts changed course.
Proof that the restrictions were necessary was hard to come by. There was no evidence that religious worship or gatherings were more dangerous than any of the many allowed functions and activities.
A survey of Americans’ opinions on the First Amendment, the Religious Freedom Index, shows that majorities of U.S. citizens believe worship and funerals at houses of worship should be considered essential activities in a pandemic. And, relevant to ongoing battles in the courts today, more respondents support religious exemptions to vaccine mandates in the workplace than oppose them.
Vaccine mandates still hang over the American people, a dark cloud reminding them of isolation and government-mandated quarantine. But holding the government accountable — forcing it to bear the burden of proof — was a lesson Americans and the courts needed to learn.
Whether you’re celebrating Passover, Easter or Ramadan, don’t forget the importance of being together and how it should have shaped our coronavirus response.
Montse Alvarado is vice president and executive director of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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