In the face of stay-at-home orders and shutdowns of nonessential businesses some prominent leaders and public figures are using claims of persecution, tyranny, and the violation of personal rights in order to persuade individuals to disregard legal authority and resist measures put in place with the intention of protecting and bolstering public health. One of the most visible of these discourses is that surrounding the closure of churches in the U.S.and how these measures impact religious freedom.
As the COVID-19 virus began to spread more quickly within the United States, individual states responded with their own measures in attempts to mitigate this spread through the adoption of different rulings on social gatherings including gatherings for religious worship. As of April 24th only ten states had orders in place which prevented in-person worship in its entirety, fifteen states allowed in-person worship in any form, and the remaining states, including North Carolina, Virginia, and Louisiana, allowed worship but limited the number of participants to ten or fewer (Villa 2020). Despite this, surveys conducted into the worship habits of American adults found that in states which restricted worship in some way, large numbers of practitioners were still meeting, with upwards of 40% of evangelical Christians self-reporting as still attending services in states with full restrictions on religious gatherings (Djupe 2020). The leaders of congregations which resist their state’s orders to allow for in-person worship often join other prominent leaders (including President Trump) in using their charismatic authority to condemn legislative restrictions on religious (specifically Christian) gatherings as particularly targeted and in violation of the 1st Amendment (Trump, 2020), with one such individual being Louisiana based pastor, Tony Spells.
Spells leads a congregation of over 1,000 at Life Tabernacle, a megachurch in Louisiana, which, despite state legislation requiring gatherings of under 50 people, has made no effort to meet in smaller numbers. Instead he claims that these restrictions represent a, “Persecution of the faith” (Bote, 2020), and that these closures are, “not about the virus, it’s about an attack on our civil and religious liberties” (Orecchio-Egresitz, 2020), echoing what has been heard from other leaders from around the country. These assertions of his own charismatic authority over legal authority has proven to be effective in persuading members of the community to continue to attend. Not only has Spell’s kept attendance numbers up during his Sunday services, but following his arrest he was able to mobilize members of the faith to flood police telephone lines in protest (Orecchio-Egresitz, 2020). While it should be noted that these claims of targeted suppression of religious gatherings are often untrue (The one case I was able to find involved the city shutting down drive-in church services while permitting drive-in dining) (Department of Justice, 2020). Assertions of charismatic authority over legal authority have far reaching ramifications outside of the questions of religious liberty. These claims, and the empathic responses they seem to be garnishing, indicate a continuing paradigm shift within U.S. social discourse and the continued legitimization of moral authority at the cost of rational authority (Hanna 2013, 19). In the context of the current COVID-19 pandemic this legitimization has led to a disjointed response that has put a greater number of individuals at risk than a unified response based on rational authority would have. These consequences are evident within Spell’s own congregation where this relaxed approach to state restrictions, which Spell has been advocating for, has shown to be detrimental with one confirmed casualty from COVID-19 being reported, and others around the pastor being sickened (Hays, 2020). Outside of the discourse of religious restriction we are beginning to see this legitimization of Charismatic authority lead to increased protests and resistance against social distancing orders including stay-at-home orders and restrictions of non-essential businesses. As this legitimization continues to increase through calls from prominent figures for premature re-openings we may see a spike in future coronavirus cases leading to a worsening of the current COVID-19 global health crisis.
Cover Image
Lindsey, Mark First Baptist Church Wilmington Interior facing Narthex from Balcony. 2016.
Commons.wikimedia.org. Web. 8 May. 2020.
Works Cited
Bote, Joshua. 2020. “Louisiana pastor says he has 1,000 people at services, defying state
coronavirus orders” USA Today, March 26, 2020. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/03/26/coronavirus-louisiana-pastor- has-services-1000-defies-state-order/2914259001/
Department of Justice. 2020. “Attorney General William P. Barr Issues Statement on ReligiousPractice and Social Distancing; Department of Justice Files Statement of interest in Mississippi Church Case” Last Modified April 14, 2020. https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/attorney-general-william-p-barr-issues-statement- religious-practice-and-social-distancing-0
Djupe, Paul. 2020. “Survey numbers chart evangelical defiance against the states” Accessed May 6, 2020. https://religionnews.com/2020/04/17/survey-numbers-chart-evangelical- defiance-against-the-states
Hanna, Bridget, and Arthur Kleinman. 2013. "Unpacking Global Health:Theory and Critique." In Reimagining Global Health: An Introduction, edited by Paul Farmer, 15-32. University of California Press.
Hays, Robb. 2020. “Member of Life Tabernacle Church dies of COVID-19, records say”
WAFB9. April 16, 2020. https://www.wafb.com/2020/04/16/member-life-tabernacle- church-dies-covid-records-say
Orecchio-Egresitz, Haven. 2020. “Lousiana pastor Tony Spell’s followers jammed police phone lines to protest his arrest. He says it’ll keep happening until cops ‘get this ankle bracelet off of me.” Business Insider, April 30, 2020. https://www.businessinsider.com/police-phone-lines-clogged-calls-from-supporters-of- defiant-pastor-2020-4
Trump, Donald. 2020. “Remarks by President Trump and Members of the Coronavirus Task
Force in Press Briefing” Accessed May 6, 2020. https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-members- coronavirus-task-force-press-briefing-2/
Villa, Virginia. 2020. “Most states have religious exemptions to COVID-19 social distancing
rules” Last modified April 27, 2020. https://www.pewresearch.org/fact- tank/2020/04/27/most-states-have-religious-exemptions-to-covid-19-social-distancing- rules
Bio: Michael Luke is a graduating senior majoring in the Study of Religion with a concentration on Religion and Public Engagement and a minor in Bioethics at Wake Forest University. They are interested in the relationships between Religion and Society at large specifically how shifts in policy or authority in one impacts the other.