Editor's Note: During Christmas and New Year, our team will be spending time with family and celebrating the birth of our Savior. We will be back with The Weekly on January 8, 2021. We hope you have a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year!

Courts overturn pandemic restrictions that discriminate against houses of worship

In issuing pandemic restrictions, governors in several states have violated the Free Exercise clause of the First Amendment by treating religious organizations less favorably than secular organizations. As the ERLC has repeatedly advocated in our engagements with governor’s offices and city halls around the country throughout this pandemic, churches must be treated the same as similar businesses, spaces, and activities. Fortunately, several recent court decisions have upheld religious liberty and overturned these non-neutral applications. The national turning point in this judicial shift was the religious liberty case decided by the Supreme Court the Wednesday before the Thanksgiving holiday, Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn v. Cuomo. As more cases have worked their way through the federal courts, it appears this New York case has set a new standard for how such disputes should be resolved.

The Roman Catholic Diocese case was based on restrictions imposed in October by New York Gov. Mario Cuomo. The governor issued an Executive Order that imposed severe restrictions on attendance at religious services in areas classified as “red” or “orange” zones. In red zones, no more than 10 persons could attend each religious service, and in orange zones, attendance was capped at 25. While a house of worship in a red zone could have no more than 10 persons, businesses categorized as “essential” (which included such services as acupuncture clinics) could admit as many people as they wanted. In orange zones, churches were limited to 25 persons, while nonessential businesses could decide for themselves how many persons to admit into their facilities.

This Week at the ERLC

Last week, the ERLC made a big announcement about saving lives: In the next six months, we will place 10 ultrasound machines in pro-life pregnancy resource centers.

Jason Thacker was on The Reconnect with Carmen talking about the future of AI, technology ethics and Parler.

What You Need to Read

Several COVID-19 treatments and vaccines have come under scrutiny because their development included testing using cells from the tissue that might have come from an aborted fetus. Here is what you should know about the fetal tissue cells and the ethical concern about using them to develop therapeutics and vaccines.

Life as a creature in a fallen cosmos is hard. We are vulnerable in more ways than we’re willing to admit, susceptible to the smallest of inconveniences and the largest of calamities, all marching onward to face our final enemy, death. Lamentation, therefore, should be a central part of the church’s shared vocabulary. As children cry out to their parents when in dismay, the children of God should cultivate a greater proclivity for lament.

In recent months, a new social media platform gained growing popularity in light of controversies over content moderation and fact-checking on traditional social media sites like Twitter and Facebook. Parler was launched in August of 2018 by John Matze, Jared Thomson, and Rebekah Mercer. While it still has a smaller user base than most social platforms at just over 2.8 million people, the app saw a surge in downloads following the November 2020 presidential election and has become extremely popular in certain circles of our society.

News From Capitol Hill

This morning in Washington at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, Vice President Mike Pence, Second Lady Karen Pence, and Surgeon General Jerome Adams received the COVID-19 vaccine. The public officials join frontline healthcare professionals and senior citizens in long-term care facilities at receiving this first to market in the U.S. vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech.

"Karen and I wanted to step forward and take this vaccine to assure the American people that while we cut red tape, we cut no corners. Thanks to the great work at the National Institutes of Health, and the great and careful work of the FDA and the leadership of our president and Operation Warp Speed, the American people can be confident we have one, and perhaps within hours, two safe and effective coronavirus vaccines for you and for your family," said the vice president, according to a report by NBC News.

Our nation is nearing the end of a wearisome year from a historic pandemic that reached yet another grave milestone passing 300,000 Americans deaths from the COVID-19 virus. Such a statistic is difficult to grieve because it’s challenging to even comprehend. And yet, many more people every day, have friends and family members who have or are now battling for their lives after contracting the virus.

As the people of God we know that in such battles, we need our church communities. We need to pray together, provide meals for one another, support the nurses and doctors and pharmaceutical professionals providing healthcare, and yes, we need to gather together as the church. As the ERLC policy team helps defend fundamental religious liberty rights during this crisis, we also want to help Christians understand public health officials' guidance to keep one another, especially our vulnerable neighbors, safe.

Specifically, the ERLC is equipping Christians with information about the COVID-19 vaccines and the public servants, like Dr. Francis Collins, the director of the National Institutes of Health, who made them possible.

“There’s an awful lot of information floating around, particularly on social media, that frankly doesn’t represent truth. It represents some certain degree of fear and anxiety and some just frank conspiracies that are pretty outrageous. I come back to Philippians 4–brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things. That would apply really well right here, and this is where we are making every effort to be as transparent as possible.” – Dr. Francis Collins, NIH Director, in conversation with Dr. Russell Moore

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Featured Podcasts

On this episode of the WeeklyTech podcast, Jason Thacker is joined by Dr. Paul Miller, professor in the Practice of International Affairs at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. They talk about his forthcoming book, Just War and Ordered Liberty, and the use of technology in the international order.

With the first COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer being delivered throughout the U.S., we wanted to bring you a discussion about the vaccines between Russell Moore and Dr. Francis Collins, the Director of the National Institutes of Health.

From The Public Square

Why We Plan to Get Vaccinated: A Christian Moral Perspective
Matthew Arbo, C. Ben Mitchell, and Andrew T. Walker, Public Discourse

If by being vaccinated we can protect others from illness, then we have a corresponding obligation, given our Lord’s command to love neighbors, to be vaccinated. Vaccinations not only protect me, but also protect other vulnerable members of society.

Hunger study predicts 168,000 pandemic-linked child deaths
Associated Press

Economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic has set back decades of progress against the most severe forms of malnutrition and is likely to kill 168,000 children before any global recovery takes hold, according to a study released Monday by 30 international organizations.

Federal Agencies Loosen Requirements For Faith-Based Grantees
Howard Friedman, Religion Clause

The Release amends existing rules to loosen restrictions on faith-based organizations operation of programs and activities funded by federal grants. The new rules impact grants by the Departments of Education, Homeland Security, Agriculture, Justice, Labor, Veterans Affairs, Housing and Urban Development, Health and Human Services, and Agency for International Development.

Church vandalism exposes divisions over faith and politics
Elana Schor, Associated Press

Vandalism at four downtown Washington churches after rallies in support of President Donald Trump is exposing rifts among people of faith as the nation confronts bitter post-election political divisions.