Protecting assembly and worship

There’s a good bipartisan bill being introduced to Congress. Somebody pinch me.

Representatives Brad Knott, R-N.C., and Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y., proposed legislation that criminalizes knowingly disrupting or impeding people from attending a worship service. This would include demonstrations within 100 feet of entryways one hour before and one hour after a scheduled religious service. However, there are some important limitations in the bill, including demonstrations taking place with a government-issued permit and distinguishing between the content of speech versus volume, duration, and/or impact.

Knott declared, “Today, many Americans are unable to worship without fear of harassment, assault, or other forms of intimidation. The right to worship freely is foundational to our nation and was one of the motivations for its founding. No American should ever feel that their choice is between worshiping in fear and not worshiping at all.” Likewise, Suozzi insisted that people attending a religious worship service “should not be harassed, threatened, intimidated, or targeted for practicing their faith.” Again, please, somebody pinch me.

It feels like it’s been an eternity since there has been good common sense on the First Amendment shared across both sides of the aisle. It wasn’t that long ago that nuns were being sued for refusing to provide abortions and contraceptives, or that RFRA was presented as an existential threat to the LGBTQ movement and in need of curtailment. But now we have legislation that pinpoints a rising threat to the religious liberty of all Americans.

It’s hard to miss the context of this latest bill. At the forefront of every American Christian’s mind should be the protest that disrupted Cities Church of St. Paul, Minn., in January. Don Lemon and a group of activist protestors interrupted the worship service of the congregation, which had been targeted because a local ICE official served as a pastor there. Chillingly, St. Paul’s prosecutors declined to press state criminal charges against the protesters.

The protestors, however, still face federal law, including the FACE Act, which protects the right of people to freely access abortion facilities and houses of worship. This latest bill by Knott and Suozzi protects religious services themselves from disruption, all while carving out limitations that protect the right of free speech. It is encouraging to see some of our national leaders work to better secure our constitutional rights under the First Amendment.

But it is discouraging to see that there’s a need for this legislation in the first place. It means that, as a people, we are losing our sense of the sacred—of inviolate spaces and times devoted to worship. Our manners have so coarsened, and the passions of our activists have run so high, that violating the sacrosanct isn’t seen as profoundly shameful—as something that “just isn’t done.” Now, there have been other moments in history like ours—episodes of disrupting worship, Christian or otherwise. And those moments are times of conflict and potential disintegration.

One of those conflicts is within the Democratic Party itself. Lemon and his allies personify the bleeding-edge progressive activism that pushes a far-left agenda, to the point of terrorizing Sunday morning worshipers. Suozzi, in his concern for religious liberty, represents an older Democratic perspective. While conservative Christians today don’t agree or identify with either group, we know which one is waging an all-out culture war against traditional biblical faith.

And we need to be honest about that with ourselves and our fellow believers here in the United States. We’ve so long assumed religious liberty that we do not properly value what an asset it is for us to fulfill the Great Commission. We haven’t had to arrange secret worship meetings to avoid disruption. We don’t have to keep our pastor’s photo and information unlisted from our parish websites. We can instead list consistent dates, times, and places for our neighbors to join us in worship and to hear the Word of God openly preached, with a warm and inviting bio of pastoral and church staff. We can just go out and invite people to join with us. But now, the hearts of our neighbors are so darkened that they would invade and disrupt our sacred duty to assemble as His people, to call upon the name of the Lord, to hear His Holy Word, to renew our covenant life in Him, and to partake of the unique heavenly benefits He offers only in that assembled worship, particularly baptism and the Lord’s Supper.

There are now lots of powerful leaders who are tasked with protecting us as citizens who would let these disruptions continue without any consequence. That is the threat of increasingly radical progressivism. Nevertheless, there are lawmakers acting to protect our precious constitutional rights (which are profound blessings to us as believers). May their efforts prove successful.