Houses of worship denied their rights

Governor Lamont:

I am reaching out to you because of the unprecedented steps that you are taking to limit the First Amendment rights of houses of worship in Connecticut through authorizing an executive order you have said will come from you giving the commissioner of the state Department of Economic and Community Development, David Lehman, executive order authority over houses of worship in the state. Members of the Connecticut Faith Leaders Collaborative, or CFLC, have met with you and your representatives after seeking an audience with you for several weeks. In fact, the core of the document that have released has been presented to your team by the CFLC.

While several key points and suggestions have been left out of your final document, which has also not been fully vetted by legislative leadership, your overreach through placing inequitable restrictions on the exercise of citizens rights to worship is unacceptable. Through taking a “one size fits all” approach to the challenges that faith communities face you have, although informed of the prejudices, placed an unfair and unconstitutional restriction on the opportunity for many members of varied faith communities in our state to safely exercise their right to assemble and worship.

While there are many examples of this, one is cemented in my memory. When asked how many citizens, practicing social distancing, with face masks and all other sanitation, sterilization and other recommended protocol in place, could attend a worship experience if we rented Rentschler Field in East Hartford, which seats more than 30,000 people, we were told that only 100 could attend. This typifies the absurd lack of consideration for our desire to exercise our constitutionally and God-given right to worship here in the Constitution State.

I urge you to reconvene the state Legislature, along with representatives of the faith community and the judicial branch reconsider your proposed actions.

To date houses of worship in the state, including the Shiloh Baptist Church of Bridgeport, where I have served for 26 years as senior pastor, have exercised sound judgment in temporarily closing facilities and providing both spiritual and community services from places as diverse as the sidewalks of their cities to the trunks of their cars. We have exercised the restraint, decorum and scientific sensibility so as not to have been the source of any COVID-19 outbreak since full information regarding the dangers have been made know. We, of all people, care about those who worship in our facilities and the millions of residents who benefit from the myriad community services that we provide.

I ask that we have the respect of continuing to do so in an agreed upon (you, the legislature and the faith community) manner, adopting the guideline the CFLC initiated when we approached you to address these issues, unless or until there is reason to turn in another direction. If that time arises, those of us who approached you to set guidelines will support additional appropriate alternatives for insuring continued safety of our citizenry, within the bounds of the U.S. Constitution and legitimately established laws of our dear Connecticut.

I seek the professional and personal courtesy of a swift and detailed reply.