Are church gatherings in houses of worship an essential service?

President Donald Trump announced houses of worship have been classified as essential services by the federal government.

Is it really essential that they gather in large groups, indoors, where it is likely they will pass on C-19 if any attendee has it?

President Donald Trump announced houses of worship have been classified as essential services by the federal government.
Rightly so. Worship is a communal affair and essential part of life for people of faith.
Is it really essential that they gather in large groups, indoors, where it is likely they will pass on C-19 if any attendee has it?
Christians faced lions in the Coliseum. Their faith sustained them when they came to America where nothing could stop them in their efforts to build the country. Americans would never have gone to the moon if they were afraid of death. Christian families don't break up and their familial ties extend throughout their community. Togetherness is essential till death do they part.
Worship is a communal affair and essential part of life for people of faith.
Is that right? Well they need to conduct their communal affairs so that they don't spread C-19 to people in general, including not infecting us proud infidels.
Christians faced lions in the Coliseum.
They didn't bring the lions back out into the greater community to multiply and eat other people.
Americans would never have gone to the moon if they were afraid of death.
Being religious doesn't necessarily make someone unafraid of death. And there are people who are not religious who are not particularly afraid of death. Btw, are you claiming that none of the men who went to the moon were not religious?
Christian families don’t break up and their familial ties extend throughout their community. Togetherness is essential till death do they part.
Really? Now you are saying that no Christians get divorced? Wow.

 

They didn’t bring the lions back out into the greater community to multiply and eat other people.
Lions in the Coliseum symbolizes Christian persecution in history. These days, atheists have taken over from the lions.
Being religious doesn’t necessarily make someone unafraid of death.
People who are afraid of death are not religious.
And there are people who are not religious who are not particularly afraid of death.
Do you know of any to back up your claim?
Btw, are you claiming that none of the men who went to the moon were not religious?
Guess so. Look up info on the Apollo Program. Our astronauts read from the Bible while orbiting the moon and brought a copy of the Bible to the lunar surface.
Really? Now you are saying that no Christians get divorced? Wow.
Not all who consider themselves Christians are people of the one true faith. They are copies of the real thing.

 

TimB: They didn’t bring the lions back out into the greater community to multiply and eat other people.

Sree: Lions in the Coliseum symbolizes Christian persecution in history. These days, atheists have taken over from the lions.

TimB: Really? Was that a Christian I had for breakfast. Hmmm. They taste like bacon.

Sree: Our Astronauts had to be Christians so that they would be unafraid of death, going to the moon. (paraphrased)

TimB: Being religious doesn’t necessarily make someone unafraid of death.

Sree: People who are afraid of death are not religious.

TimB: How about this lady > She was dying, with her 5 year old in their remote and cutoff cabin. She had had an accident and was bleeding to death. She was lying on the floor with her 5 year old child crying not only in terror but in the rending of the intensely raw dyadic bond that the child has with her mother. And the woman’s final prayer -“Dear Jesus. please, I fear for what this will do to my child and for how she will survive…”

TimB: And there are people who are not religious who are not particularly afraid of death.

Sree: Do you know of any to back up your claim?

TimB: me

 

TimB: Btw, are you claiming that none of the men who went to the moon were not religious?

Sree: Guess so. Look up info on the Apollo Program. Our astronauts read from the Bible while orbiting the moon and brought a copy of the Bible to the lunar surface.

TimB: You’re probably right. At least none of them could have admitted agnosticism or atheism. The whole NASA program, especially early on, was rooted in the competition against the Soviet Union who were nasty Godless Communists.

Sree: Christian families don’t break up and their familial ties extend throughout their community. Togetherness is essential till death do they part.

TimB: Really? Now you are saying that no Christians get divorced? Wow.

Sree: Not all who consider themselves Christians are people of the one true faith. They are copies of the real thing.

TimB: Good Grief, you must have eaten a lot of burgers and steaks from the Holy Cow, because you have suddenly seemed to have become a fundamentalist hypocrite.

Are you really just an AI bot designed to defeat the Turing Test, but your algorithm is just too glitchy, too often?

 

Church services are not essential. If they want to worship their god they can do it in the homes with family or watch it on the TV, stream it, or what have you. There is no rule/law in the Bible that says they have to go to a building to worship and pass a disease around.

@sree

People who are afraid of death are not religious.

I beg to differ. People who are afraid of death ARE religious, believing in things such as heaven to live with a deity when there are no such things. If the religious were not afraid of death then they would not cling to the idea of an afterlife. That tells me the religious are afraid of death and want to believe there is life after death. Try to tell the religious there is no such thing as life after death and they freak out, another sign of being afraid of death. Whereas, and atheist doesn’t freak out about about death, though they don’t want to die. There is a difference.

I beg to differ. People who are afraid of death ARE religious, believing in things such as heaven to live with a deity when there are no such things. If the religious were not afraid of death then they would not cling to the idea of an afterlife.
Good point!

But Sree is like a target going back and forth at the shooting booth, at the County Fair. Pop him 3 times in a row and you win a kewpie doll from the selections 3 rows up from the bottom shelf.

And there are people who are not religious who are not particularly afraid of death. --TimB Do you know of any to back up your claim? -- Sree
::raised hand icon
TimB: And there are people who are not religious who are not particularly afraid of death.

Sree: Do you know of any to back up your claim?

TimB: me


Who are you? Or should I ask, what are you? What is it that dies? If you are not afraid of death, you don’t hang onto your social security checks, health insurance, or care where you get your next meal. You would live in the moment, like Jesus, who said: “Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them.” (Matthew 6:26 NKJV). And even Jesus was afraid to die.

Sree NOW says: And even Jesus was afraid to die.

Sree EARLIER said: People who are afraid of death are not religious.


What the hell is up with your hodgepodge of contradicting attempts at holier-than-thou rhetoric?

What the hell is up with your hodgepodge of contradicting attempts at holier-than-thou rhetoric?
No contradiction. Jesus was not religious because he was not a member of the Christian faith. Do you get it? Please show some sign that you get this. I feel like the Son of God in this forum talking to you guys. Duds.

Jesus was not religious?

You may feel like the Son of God, but you sound like the lord of preposterous assertions.

Combine that with joining the Ministry of Funny Walks and you might have something.

Jesus was not religious?
Jesus was a Jew. So Sree is right that Jesus was not Christian. It could be also be stated as; The writings of and about Jesus were written by Jewish writers using Jewish texts and oral traditions as their basis. But, he wouldn't say that because that really sounds like religion.

This is how religion constantly reinvents itself. There is always something new that says it is not that old “religion”.

John Shelby Spong has a book, “Jesus of the non-religious”. It’s the closest book there is to one that I began reading as a Christian and ended up an atheist. But that’s not what Spong was going for. Even though he broke down all the major myths and laid bare all the NT contradictions and forgeries, in the last couple chapters he rebuilds some kind of “living relationship” he has with Christ. It didn’t make sense at the time and I haven’t found anything by him since then to help it make sense. Either, you’re like Sree, and you have these nonsensical things in your head, or you don’t.

“Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them.” (Matthew 6:26 NKJV). And even Jesus was afraid to die.
I had an idea to write a counter legend to this. It would be something where the characters came upon a field of dead lilies. I haven't worked out the details yet.

What does fear of death have to do with public health policy?

Are church gatherings in houses of worship an essential service? I’m not sure. Do Christians have a right to assemble even at the expense of harming themselves and others? No.

Tacitus said that Christians were roundly despised by the Romans for their “hatred of humanity.” Why? Because the ultimate good for Christians was to spread their faith. Tertullian said that the blood of the martyrs was the seed of the church. In principle, evangelism and witness realtivized every other value for them. Considerations of family, friends, society and tolerance were always secondary.

The drive to re-open churches is being used by some Christians for poltical and apologetic purposes. These Christians will scream that they are being presecuted for their faith. Tertullian would be pleased. But to the rest of us, this seems like a brazen disregard for the public good. Maybe Tacitus was right.

Jesus was a Jew. So Sree is right that Jesus was not Christian. It could be also be stated as; The writings of and about Jesus were written by Jewish writers using Jewish texts and oral traditions as their basis. But, he wouldn’t say that because that really sounds like religion.
I wouldn’t say that because that is not relevant. I stated that Jesus was not religious because he was not a member of the Christian faith. Full stop! If, regardless of that, you still want to make a case against and incriminate him like the high priest of Jerusalem, then lay it out so that I can order his crucifixion like Pontius Pilate.
This is how religion constantly reinvents itself. There is always something new that says it is not that old “religion”.
Says you. It would be good if you could offer facts to back up your accusations.
John Shelby Spong has a book, “Jesus of the non-religious”. It’s the closest book there is to one that I began reading as a Christian and ended up an atheist.
You dumped Christianity after reading a book? What made you profess the faith in the first place? You are like a US Navy deserter. I don’t think a deserter is a good candidate for casting aspersions on the military code.
But that’s not what Spong was going for. Even though he broke down all the major myths and laid bare all the NT contradictions and forgeries, in the last couple chapters he rebuilds some kind of “living relationship” he has with Christ. It didn’t make sense at the time and I haven’t found anything by him since then to help it make sense.
Spong was a fool to take on his own religion. He couldn’t give up the faith. So, he cherry-picked what he liked and dissed what he didn’t like and said: “The sin of Christianity is that any of us ever claimed that we had somehow captured eternal truth in the forms we had created." In doing so, he shot himself in the head with the very gun he used to shoot holes in Christianity.
Spong was a fool to take on his own religion. He couldn’t give up the faith. So, he cherry-picked what he liked and dissed what he didn’t like and said: “The sin of Christianity is that any of us ever claimed that we had somehow captured eternal truth in the forms we had created.”
Says you. Can you offer any facts to back that up? Come on, lay out your case against Spong so we can crucify him. Try reading a few books first. These are roughly chronological, so you can see where Spong came in.

@elphidium55

What does fear of death have to do with public health policy?
Nothing, if those who are afraid of getting killed by the virus isolate themselves and stay out of the public space.
Are church gatherings in houses of worship an essential service? I’m not sure.
Then, mind your own business. I am not sure if abortion clinics and adult stores provide essential services. I mind my own business if folks want them open.
Do Christians have a right to assemble even at the expense of harming themselves and others? No.
No? How can people who want to assemble for any reason harm you if you are isolating yourself in lockdown and observe the Presidential covid guidelines when you go out for reasons of your own? Wear your mask and stay 6 feet away from everyone until the pandemic is over and we have a sure-fire vaccine.
Jesus was a Jew. So Sree is right that Jesus was not Christian.
Sree did not say that Jesus was not Christian. He said "Jesus was not religiousbecause he was not a member of the Christian faith. (And he further said) Do you get it? Please show some sign that you get this."

I know that Jesus was a Jew and that he was (by the stories) quite religious, even as a boy. SO I gave Sree the sign that I did NOT get that Jesus was NOT religious.

Btw, Sree followed that, in the next sentence, with “I feel like the Son of God in this forum talking to you guys. Duds.”

Apparently, his erroneous statements make him feel like the “Son of God” talking to us “duds”.

I suspect that Sree is not Jesus, and I know that Sree said “Jesus was not religious”. So you are mistaken, Lausten, in saying that Sree is right.

But the rest of your comment is worthy as usual.