In a new set of coronavirus guidelines, the California Department of Public Health requires houses of worship to end singing and chanting — and discourages church attendance in general.
The guidelines were released at the beginning of July and warn that “convening in a congregational setting of multiple different households to practice a personal faith carries a relatively higher risk for widespread transmission of the COVID-19 virus, and may result in increased rates of infection, hospitalization, and death.”
The guidelines are specifically targeted at “Places of Worship and Providers of Religious Services and Cultural Ceremonies.” Under the policies, “Places of worship must therefore discontinue singing and chanting activities and limit indoor attendance to 25% of building capacity or a maximum of 100 attendees, whichever is lower.”
Religious leaders wondered if the policy means singing is prohibited even for churches hosting live streams with no worshippers physically present. The California Department of Public Health responded: “Singing and chanting in person in places of worship are not allowed at this time.”
That raises the question: Is it the coronavirus that’s the problem, or is it just religious singing that’s the problem that California’s government is determined to quell under the guise of public health?
dditionally, the document reiterates the department’s policy on the use of masks, which “broadly requires the use of face coverings for both members of the public and workers in all public and workplace settings where there is a high risk of exposure.”
Churches have long been a target in the official coronavirus hysteria. Many media outlets have highlighted the supposed necessity of limiting worship with fear-mongering pieces such as one published by the New York Times, which reads:
Imagine the scene: You’re at church, belting out a hymn, and the sound is so joyful that you turn, smiling, to look around. You notice a spray of spit coming from the mouth of the person next to you: One particularly large droplet arcs toward the person in front, then lands, right on their neck.
A piece by the Los Angeles Times cited “experts” who “advised choirs and performing arts groups not to gather again to sing in person until a vaccine or treatment for COVID-19 becomes widely available.” The Atlantic argued that it is “obvious” that people should not sing in groups, and applauded Germany for outlawing singing in churches while lamenting that American churches “are effectively exempt from much of the legal system.”
Both articles blasted President Trump for declaring religious worship “essential,” a move that was followed by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) deleting a warning on its website that deemed church singing hazardous and recommended that congregations “consider suspending or at least decreasing use of choir/musical ensembles and congregant singing, chanting or reciting.”
“The government’s abdication of its duty to provide basic information on managing coronavirus risk is especially dangerous because, in addition to the documented super-spreading events, there’s clear physiologic reason to be concerned about singing — or chanting, yelling, wailing, or even wassailing. Doing so in proximity to other people, especially when airflow in a space is limited, is a pandemic nightmare scenario,” the Atlantic’s James Hamblin writes.
Reacting to the California guidelines, some Twitter users pointed to the double standard of demanding that chuches restrict their services even while the government tolerates large gatherings of Black Lives Matter protesters.
Some California churches are striking back at the policy. Senior Pastor Jim Clark at Crossroads Community Church in Yuba City said his congregation will continue singing.
“I think it’s ridiculous personally,” Clark said. “I really believe that it is stepping on the constitutional rights from the Bill of Rights on churches.”
He said his church will do other coronavirus safety precautions, such as allowing only 25 percent of capacity to attend, distancing seats, and checking attendees’ temperatures. “We’ll be singing and praising the Lord, that’s part of the worship, we think it’s guaranteed by our Constitution,” Clark added.
The California Department of Public Health maintained that the ban is enforceable since it was added to official state guidelines.
New York has taken a similarly hard-handed approach to COVID-19. New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio even took heat from the Jewish community for threatening them with arrest over “illegal” religious gatherings and for kicking out Hasidic Jewish children from a Williamsburg park.
Yet the city refuses to let contact tracers ask COVID-positive individuals if they have attended Black Lives Matter protests.
The agenda is clear to see: The pandemic hysteria was never anything more than a way for the Deep State to target its enemies in a way that would have a large portion of the public cheering the tyranny on.
True Discernment 