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Mohler said: "In Mendocino County, California, the public health authorities even mandated that churches that are video streaming their services cannot include singing in the service." IF there are multiple people from different households gathered. You can sing/stream from home. https://twitter.com/albertmohler/status/1249707668912160773
2/ "Those operations necessary for venues, such as concert halls, auditoriums, churches, temples, and playhouses, to enable a recorded and/or live-streamed event to be shared virtually with the public with the following limitations ..."
https://www.mendocinocounty.org/home/showdocument?id=33694
https://www.mendocinocounty.org/home/showdocument?id=33694
3/ "Only four individual may be present for the live event. All others must participate remotely;
Social Distancing Requirements must be maintained, include maintaining at least six feet social distancing from other individuals..."
Social Distancing Requirements must be maintained, include maintaining at least six feet social distancing from other individuals..."
4/ "frequently washing hands with soap and water for at least twenty seconds as frequently as possible or using hand sanitizer ... covering coughs or sneezes (into the sleeve or elbow, not hands), regularly cleaning high-touch surfaces, and not shaking hands;"
5/ "No singing or use of wind instruments, harmonicas, or other instruments that could spread COVID-19 through projected droplets shall be permitted unless the recording of the event is done at one’s residence, and involving only the members of one’s household or living unit..."
6/ "because of the increased risk of transmission of COVID-19."
That's the Mendocino County Public Health directive. It's really long, but that's the section Mohler thinks is a violation of religious liberty. https://www.mendocinocounty.org/home/showdocument?id=33694
That's the Mendocino County Public Health directive. It's really long, but that's the section Mohler thinks is a violation of religious liberty. https://www.mendocinocounty.org/home/showdocument?id=33694
7/ Mohler went beyond his Briefing. He also wrote a piece in The Federalist called "Government Officials Use Pandemic As Excuse to Attack Christianity" where he again mentioned the Mendocino County order. He didn't link to it though. He interpreted. https://thefederalist.com/2020/04/13/government-officials-use-pandemic-as-excuse-to-attack-christianity/
8/ Mohler said, "The policy in Mendocino County is particularly chilling. It would make sense to require that designated singers in a video-streamed worship service must follow all guidelines about distancing, etc. That would almost surely be respected. But a ban on singing?"
9/ "... In Christian worship? This is not a generally applicable order, fairly applied, it is a government authority intruding upon the integrity of Christian worship."
This likely isn't an assault on religious liberty, but awareness that the virus can spread through aerosols...
This likely isn't an assault on religious liberty, but awareness that the virus can spread through aerosols...
10/ ... as happened in a choir practice in March in Washington when dozens of choir members caught the virus and 2 died. Singing uses the lungs in a different way and blasts the viral aerosols out of lungs, even when carrier is asymptomatic. https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-04-01/superspreading-choir-practice-coronavirus
11/ "Similarly, Loudon and Roberts investigated the role of singing in the spread of tuberculosis and showed that the % of airborne droplet nuclei generated by singing is 6X more than that emitted during normal talking and approximately equivalent to that released by coughing..."
12/ Mohler can't conceive why a ban on singing would be realistic, and I'm not saying its necessary, but perhaps the directive has more to do w/ the reality of the quote above included in this Nature study than being a specific attack on religious liberty? https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-019-38808-z
13/ I'm no expert on epidemiology. I've said that often. I'm just saying there might be other reasons for some of these things than "Government Officials Use Pandemic As An Excuse to Attack Christianity." Maybe they are attacking? Or, maybe they're imperfectly trying to protect?
14/ I'm a huge proponent of religious liberty and there are real threats out there. But, this particular Mendocino County case might not be best example unless we have reason to believe county is attacking churches in particular. Or, was it this fear: https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/01/us/washington-choir-practice-coronavirus-deaths/index.html
15/ I'm not advocating for a ban on singing nor do I know if that's the right approach or overkill. I'm simply saying the motivation could be different from wanting to use the pandemic to attack Christianity. Let's not assume the worst of people in an unprecedented situation.
