President Trump floated the idea Friday that houses of worship would be deemed “essential” by his administration. “They use the word ‘essential.’ I think churches are essential,” Trump said in a press conference.
The president told reporters that “literally I just got off the phone with CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] and I talked about churches. I said I want the churches to open and the people want the churches to open. And I think you’ll have something come down very soon from CDC.”
Trump is nobody’s idea of a regular churchgoer. Yet his remarks showed he’s been paying attention to the virtual religion that faithful folks have had to live with for the past few months. “People want to be in their churches. It’s wonderful to sit home and watch something on a laptop, but it can never be the same as being in a church and being with your friends,” Trump said.
What would “come down” from the CDC would be guidelines about how to reopen houses of worship for business, safely. Those guidelines would likely be followed on by more instructions from the Department of Justice about how the First Amendment guarantees religious freedom and that states have to respect that freedom as they come up with various schemes to “open up” slowly.
