Outrage erupted from faith leaders all over California after Gov. Gavin Newsom banned singing and chanting in houses of worship last week due Covid19.
Singing, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), is a proven way to spread Covid19.
“Places of worship must, therefore, discontinue singing and chanting activities and limit indoor attendance to 25 percent of building capacity or a maximum of 100 attendees, whichever is lower,” the new guidelines read.
State health officials have recommend churchgoers sing along with services from their homes.
The hypocrisy of state health officials banning dozens of parishioners from singing in their house of worship while allowing tens of thousands of protesters to fill the streets of California for the past few weeks was not lost on many.
“For the last several weeks, tens of thousands of people have been gathering outdoors in cities all across California and they have been screaming and chanting and protesting, and all the while state officials are encouraging them as they do this,” said Sean Feucht, a worship leader at Bethel Church.
Feucht called the order an “unprecedented attack.”
In an instaram post, Feucht shared photos of him leading “illegal worship” in Iraq, North Korea and now in California.
“We’ve spent the last 20 years mobilizing worship in places where it is illegal. Never in my life would I believe that it would be California in 2020,” he wrote.
The Rev. Samuel Rodriguez called Newsom’s order “discriminatory.”
“How can you permit, not for one day, but for many days, tens of thousands to march in protest without wearing masks and then demand that 100 worshipers refrain from singing?” Rodriguez wrote.
Newsom’s often misguided orders have been met with defiance from increasingly large portions of Californians recently. Last week the Governor tried to ban Fourth of July celebrations in the state but patriotic Americans had other ideas.
Photo by Katiefelix2015