Governor Cooper Admonishes Lawmakers as ‘Irresponsible’ for Promoting Church, Defying His Stay-at-Home Decree

RALEIGH – At a press conference Governor Roy Cooper called state lawmakers promoting church services amid ‘Stay-at-Home’ orders “irresponsible,” accusing them of using faith to lure people into dangerous situations. That is, apparently, Cooper’s take on those pushing for the State to honor religious freedom as it, and other core rights have been effectively strangled under shutdown policies.

According to the Carolina Journal, the governor didn’t call anyone out specifically, but there have been several Republican lawmakers calling on the governor to relax the inconsistent restrictions on religious services and sympathizing with citizens that believe the coronavirus mandates have gone so far as to represent core infringement.

From the Carolina Journal:

“[…] Senate Leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, is among those who have criticized county stay-at-home orders, such as Wake’s, that restrict religious activity. 

“In NC’s capital city: “No communion,” “no tithes,” “no [religious] literature.” Yet the same gov’t orders allow ppl to pay cash for take-out food after reviewing a menu at the local McDonalds,” Berger tweeted April 16. 

Wake County’s stay-at-home order is an outrageous and unconstitutional overstep of government authority, Berger said. 

Wake County has come under fire for prohibiting a drive-in Easter church service. The county’s new stay-at-home order, which extends to April 30, now allows drive-in services so long as cars are six feet apart and occupants are from a single household. But other religious restrictions remain including forbidding the personal collection of tithes, handing out literature, and distributing communion.

The controversy has grown. Thursday, Sen. Jim Perry, R-Lenoir, wrote Cooper, asking him to exempt religious services from the “mass gatherings” ban if congregants practiced social distancing. […]”

The push back against the draconian ‘Stay-at-Home’ orders from Cooper and local municipalities runs the gambit. From small-business owners that want to earn a living, to people that simply want to go to church (even if it means sitting in their car); the suppression of basic freedoms under these orders is beginning to weigh more heavily than the virus itself.

Cooper and other government leaders embracing lockdown measures, in contravention of the Bill of Rights and the general welfare, only compound the opposition to such orders with a sanctimonious attitude that presumes people are incapable of acting responsibly without government compulsion. Whatever the specific impact on any one person, from the coronavirus or the shutdown policies, that fundamental theme girds them all.

Such is the unifying factor among the grassroots movement called Reopen NC, which will host it’s second protest of the Stat-at-Home order on April 21, outside the governor’s mansion. We’re sure they’ll be some of those ‘irresponsible’ politicians standing with the folks for respecting each person’s right to their own life, which ought to annoy King Cooper that much more.