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Texans Vote in Favor of Prohibiting Governments from Limiting Religious Services

By Alejandra Molina
Texas services worship church religious
Valerie Hines worships during services at Cornerstone Baptist Church in Arlington, Texas, June 7, 2020. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

Texas voters on Tuesday overwhelmingly supported a measure barring governments from taking any kind of action that limits religious services, such as the public health orders that shut down houses of worship and businesses earlier in the COVID-19 pandemic.

Proposition 3, which will add a clause to the Texas Constitution forbidding state or local authorities from prohibiting or limiting religious services, garnered 62.4% of votes, according to unofficial results from the Texas secretary of state

The measure had the support of the Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops and some other — but not all — religious groups.

John Greiner, who pastors the nondenominational Glorious Way Church in Houston, called the measure crucial. He said individual churches and people who go to church “should be in charge of their own health care decisions, their own risks-to-reward behaviors.”

“The church should be the place where people go to get healed. There’s lots of churches and some don’t believe in healing. … They should be free to close if that’s what they want to do, but I don’t think that the government should impose that upon any group at all,” Greiner said.

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Amanda Tyler, executive director for the Baptist Joint Committee, said the measure was overly broad and unnecessary. She previously said it sends “a damaging message that religious people are more concerned about special treatment than they are about the good of their communities.”

Tyler said Texas already has strong protections, pointing to the state’s Religious Freedom and Restoration Act “that we believe provides the right balancing standard to decide issues in the free exercise rights of individuals and communities (that) might come into conflict with government interests.”

Alejandra MolinaAlejandra Molina is a national reporter for Religion News Service.

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8 Responses

  1. Glory to God!! Although technically this was always implied, after the Covid measures, it became apparent that we had to spell it out much more specifically!! Bravo Texas!!!

  2. Yay! Good job fellow Texans ❤️ Praise the Lord. Keep praying for Texas. God help us ???? Lord please do a miracle and help my husband keep his job without jib ????

    As a former Californian, I will fight for Texas. I won’t be afraid to speak up even if I lose my reputation.

  3. Will this Texas prohibition stand against Federal authority. I see a parallel with segregation in the mid-1960s, where Governor George Wallace of Alamaba signed off on State legislation which nullified (LBJ sponsored) Federal rulings regards educational desegregation. I have vague adolescent memories of Wallace wanting to use the Alabama national guard as part of this nullification. These State level attempts to prevent educational and other desegregation, squashed by Federal power.

  4. Also Texans don’t typically wear masks in church like the picture shows at the top. I live in a liberal, very diverse area an hardly a soul wears the mask. Perhaps we could start posting ourselves as the Lord created us without masks to reflect reality better. Just a thought.

    1. Based upon that comment I guess you are OK with doctors doing surgery on you not wearing a mask, or workers dealing with hazardous dust or fumes not wearing masks, or firefighters not wearing full face-masks when they do their job either. […]

      1. Doctors doing surgery usually don’t post pictures of themselves in action, at least they shouldn’t. Neither do workers cleaning up hazmat or firefighters putting out fires.

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