Planned Parenthood Provides More Abortions than Health Services
Tax dollars should never fund abortions.
One of the greatest blessings of living in a free country is the religious liberty that we enjoy. Our founders built our nation on the principle of soul liberty – the idea that every person should have the right to worship as he or she pleases. Our constitutionally guaranteed religious freedoms include two facets. On one hand, the government cannot force us to worship in a certain way. On the other hand, the government cannot prevent us from worshiping in the way that we choose. We are thankful that our founders recognized that our responsibility in religious matters is to God, not to the government.
Wisconsin’s Constitution guarantees us the right to worship as we choose, saying, “The right of every person to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of conscience shall never be infringed.”[i] One way that many people of faith choose to worship is by gathering in houses of worship such as churches. According to this guarantee in our Constitution, the government does not possess the right to tell us when we may or may not go to church.
Unfortunately, as we probably all remember clearly, in 2020, that guarantee was broken through a loophole. While our current Constitutional protections ought to have been enough some in government believed that a public health emergency allowed government to have authority over how churches can operate. During the pandemic, lockdown orders prevented us from exercising our rights—often with discrimination when compared to secular organizations. In one instance, police interrupted a service at Pilgrim Lutheran Church in West Bend and sent attenders home – even though the church had carefully complied with Governor Evers’s “safer-at-home” order.[ii]
In another instance, in May 2020, Dane County allowed entertainment activities such as restaurants, bowling alleys, and trampoline parks to operate at twenty-five percent capacity while capping in-person worship services at 50 people. After issuing the order, Dane County Health Department contacted religious leaders informing them that overseers would be attending their churches to ensure that they adhered to the 50-person limit. Churches were also informed that they would be fined up to $1,000 for every instance the order was broken. In this case, Dane county officials used the COVID lockdowns as a means of discrimination against people of faith.[iii]
This November, Wisconsinites have the opportunity to close the loophole that was exploited during COVID that will protect their religious freedoms through a constitutional amendment. On January 21st, the Wisconsin State Senate passed Senate Joint Resolution 4, a constitutional amendment that protects houses of worship from government shutdown – even in public health emergencies. Now that the amendment has passed through the legislature twice, it will be turned to the people for a vote in November giving voters the opportunity to protect churches and other houses of worship from future government shutdowns.
The events of the 2020 pandemic revealed loopholes that government officials across our nation and in our state used to restrict religious freedoms. At the time, all three liberals on the Wisconsin Supreme Court believed that the Constitution did not guarantee a right to gather for worship in a state of emergency. Since our Wisconsin Supreme Court is now under activist control, constitutional amendments securing our freedoms are more essential than ever before. In this case, passing this amendment would protect individuals from government overreach and ensure that religious freedoms remain unassailable. A yes vote, for the amendment eliminates any room for confusion by clearly stating that our constitutionally guaranteed religious liberties prevent the government from closing houses of worship. A no vote, for the amendment would result in the status quo which provides ambiguity for governing authorities in the executive and judicial branches to determine whether to shut churches down during a public health emergency.
Allowing the government to determine when churches are essential is a slippery slope. It doesn’t take much imagination to foresee scenarios where the government could declare an emergency for any kind of reason thereby granting itself the ability to infringe upon our right to worship. Considering the abuse of religious freedoms that took place during 2020, it is not farfetched to imagine these scenarios and to try to prevent them from becoming a reality.
People of faith should never need to ask the government for permission to gather for worship. Wisconsinites deserve the security of knowing that their religious freedoms will be respected regardless of the situation.
For Wisconsin Family Council, this is Daniel Degner reminding you that God, through the prophet Hosea, said, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.”
[i] https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/constitution/wi_unannotated
[ii] https://www.wpr.org/health/police-shutdown-west-bend-church-service-misunderstanding
[iii] https://becketfund.org/case/wisconsin-churches-reopen/