Michigan governor blames GOP and 'separation of church and state' on failure to ban megachurch

[Soph0571]

gatherings

“One thing that kind of puzzles me is that you have limited groups of people to 50 or fewer,” Roberts explained. “Yet, there is an exemption for places of worship. Why would a place of worship be any less likely to transmit diseases in a larger gathering than another place?”

“It’s not,” Whitmer agreed. “And we’re discouraging people from gathering at all.”

“So, why this exemption?” Roberts pressed.

“Well, you know, the separation of church and state, and the Republican legislature asked me to clarify that that’s an area that we don’t have the ability to enforce and control,” Whitmer said. “We are encouraging people though, do no congregate.”

[link:https://www.rawstory.com/2020/03/michigan-governor-blames-gop-and-separation-of-church-and-state-on-failure-to-ban-megachurch-gatherings/|]

Yet another example of the grift being more important than the people. Megachurch gotta get paid after all - so they can spend their congregants bucks on buying influence from the republicans, who are then telling the governor that he cannot shut churches down. And round and round and round they go - not caring about the risk to lives.

[Historic NY]

1. Its called an emergency declaration due to public safety...

somebody need to get their act together. I'm almost positive the church wasn't built w/o any public officials approvals, due to building codes etc.

[Phoenix61]

2. What a chicken shit answer. This has nothing

to do with separation of church and state and everything to do with fear of separating himself from their donations.

[Takket]

5. Whitmer is a woman, and a Democrat

She wants the churches shut down but the GOP holds the legislature and won't let her.

[Yonnie3]

3. Perhaps Darwin will take care of this.

Unfortunately the collateral damage may be extreme.

That pesky First Amendment vs. the public good.

[Takket]

4. what exactly does the GOP legislature in MI have to gain from encouraging their primary voting block

to congregate and possibly die?

Are they really that stupid?

[PhilosopherKing]

7. Yes, they are that stupid.

Money > Lives

[DBoon]

6. So does the 2nd Amendment require gun shows to be exempt too?

[degage]

8. That's a really bad, pathetic answer. It's also wrong. She should ask her AG, not legislature.

I'm not sure how the AG gets into office in MI. S/He may be a Republican too and no better than the legislature.

I was reading a real attorney's blog on this subject. That person said, basically, a ban on gathering that bans all groups from gathering, without any bias can ban religious groups without violating the First Amendment. If the ban treats all groups equally and the government has a sufficient interest in putting the ban in place it will pass legal muster.

The government definitely has a sufficient interest in protecting ALL citizens from becoming infected and possibly dying.

There is nothing about the ban that strikes at groups simply because of their religion or because they are religious. Yes, it does impose a substantial burden on them. They are not allowed to practice their faith in public on their preferred dates and times. It does not prevent them from practicing their religion otherwise. The interest in preventing mass illness and death among the general population outweighs this burden.