Earlier this month, Governor Inslee’s office sent an email outlining the governor’s new “guidelines” for religious institutions. They’re just as outrageous as what you might have guessed.
Here’s the unspoken reality of what these new guidelines actually say: Governor Inslee still believes he has the dictatorial authority to control church capacity limits. Now, he is adding a caveat – you can raise capacity limits in your church, if you create a section for vaccinated people.
Regardless of your opinion on the use or efficacy of vaccines, this is a prime example of government coercing churches into abiding by rules and capacity restrictions that it has no moral or constitutional authority to create in the first place.
You can view the full text of the new, very detailed and authoritarian guidelines here.
From the perspective of individual freedoms and religious conscience rights, Washington State has completely bucked the national trend in favor of authoritarian rule. While other states are passing legislation to prohibit so-called “vaccine passports,” and open up, Washington is moving towards continued restrictions and openly punishing those who choose not to obtain a vaccine.
Even worse, there are currently 26 states with ZERO COVID restrictions – they are back to normal living! Is COVID more deadly in those states? Are more people dying or becoming ill in those states? Of course not—the data is clear. Why is the media not demanding that Governor Inslee justify why he’s still taking away our constitutional rights, still refusing to get legislative approval, or now making churches check vaccine passports while 26 states are completely free?
It seems those on the radical left, like Governor Inslee, have completely abandoned their support of both freedom and of the “separation of church and state.”
Think beyond COVID for a moment. What other future public emergency restrictions are we going to allow government to impose on churches? Will we allow government to tell us how many people we can have in church if, God forbid, a terrorist attack took place? How about an earthquake? How about higher-than-normal influenza infections?
There is a time to submit to authority (Romans 13:1) and a time for standing strong when those authorities want you to bow down to false idols (Daniel 3) or compromise your beliefs and values.
As Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego did in response to King Nebuchadnezzar, I believe it is time for us to move towards respectfully protesting the rules set by authorities who hate Jesus Christ and worship pagan idols and agendas.
Christians and pastors: you have scriptural mandates to go into the world and make disciples. There is no exception or caveat to that mandate that allows us to opt-out due to illness, plague, or a rogue governor. Today, the governor’s continued mandates are morally and scientifically wrong – especially in a nation where the God-given right to worship freely is enshrined in our national identity.
We have two Americas today: one with free states who respect constitutional rights and one with dictatorial states who disregard constitutional rights. Just look at this map and you’ll clearly see the stark difference between the states where people live free and their basic freedoms are protected, and the states like Washington where leaders rule as a dictators with no plans or criteria to restore freedom.
This is the United States of America, for goodness sakes! It’s not Communist China, though Governor Inslee and many of Washington’s leaders seem hellbent on imitating them.
We must have a public debate about the merits of freedom in America – and especially in states like Washington. It is time for us to publicly challenge Governor Inslee’s never-ending restrictions on our right to worship and live free.
Governor Inslee plans to reevaluate his restriction in one week’s time and he needs to hear from you. Please email Governor Inslee at this link and tell him it is time to end all his restrictions, like 26 states have done, and bring all our freedoms back – especially our right to worship freely! Please pray that he makes the right decision.
