{"id":455841,"date":"2021-04-26T12:20:48","date_gmt":"2021-04-26T16:20:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=455841"},"modified":"2021-04-26T12:22:41","modified_gmt":"2021-04-26T16:22:41","slug":"indiana-gov-eric-holcomb-signs-legislation-deeming-churches-essential","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/indiana-gov-eric-holcomb-signs-legislation-deeming-churches-essential\/","title":{"rendered":"Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb Signs Legislation Deeming Churches Essential"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Findiana-gov-eric-holcomb-signs-legislation-deeming-churches-essential%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=455841&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Republican Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb signed a law last week protecting the state\u2019s churches by designating them as essential and forbidding state authorities from treating them differently than secular establishments during public health emergencies.<\/p>\n<p>Sponsored by Republican state Sens. Eric Koch, Liz Brown, and Aaron Freeman, the <a href=\"https:\/\/legiscan.com\/IN\/text\/SB0263\/id\/2268822\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Senate Enrolled Act 263<\/a>\u00a0(SB 263) says <a href=\"http:\/\/iga.in.gov\/legislative\/2021\/bills\/senate\/263#document-6e852013\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">in part<\/a> that \u201creligious organizations provide essential services that are necessary for the health and welfare of the public during a disaster emergency.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[T]he state and a political subdivision may not impose restrictions on \u2026 the operation of a religious organization; or \u2026 religious services that are more restrictive than the restrictions imposed on other businesses and organizations that provide essential services to the public,\u201d the bill further reads.<\/p>\n<p>SB 263 goes on to clarify that it \u201cdoes not prohibit the state or a political subdivision from requiring a religious organization to comply with a generally applicable health, safety, or occupancy requirement that is neutral towards religious organizations and equally applicable to any organization or business that provides essential services.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHowever, the state or political subdivision may not enforce any health, safety, or occupancy requirement that imposes a substantial burden on a religious service unless the state or political subdivision demonstrates that applying the burden to the religious service in this particular instance is essential to further a compelling governmental interest and is the least restrictive means of furthering that compelling governmental interest,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n<p>SB 263 passed the state House of Representatives by a vote of <a href=\"http:\/\/iga.in.gov\/documents\/375799ac\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">74\u201320<\/a> and the state Senate with a vote of\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/iga.in.gov\/documents\/c54f8e9a\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">36\u201310<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) Legal Counsel Greg Chafuen praised the new law in <a href=\"https:\/\/adfmedia.org\/press-release\/gov-holcomb-signs-bill-protecting-churches-discrimination-during-emergencies\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Friday statement<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>Houses of worship and religious organizations provide soul-sustaining operations that are essential to our society and protected by the First Amendment. While public officials have the authority and responsibility to protect public health and safety, the Supreme Court has made clear that the First Amendment \u2018cannot be put away and forgotten\u2019 even in a pandemic. This means that the government can\u2019t treat churches worse than shopping centers, restaurants, or gyms without violating the Constitution. We commend Gov. Holcomb and the Indiana Legislature for making it clear that officials cannot use a public crisis to discriminate against religious operations.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Indiana, on the other hand, did not offer support for the bill.\u00a0\u201cThe right to exercise one\u2019s faith, including the freedom to hold and attend worship services, is among our most fundamental rights,\u201d the organization <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aclu-in.org\/en\/legislation\/sb-263-religious-activities-essential-services\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">said<\/a>\u00a0in January.\u00a0\u201cBut religious freedom does not entitle religious institutions to receive special exemptions from the law if it would pose a grave risk to the health and lives of individuals and the public health. SB 263, however, would authorize just that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Related<\/strong>: <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/sickening-polish-pastor-who-threw-gestapo-calgary-police-from-church-gets-another-visit-kicks-them-out-again\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u2018Sickening\u2019: Polish Pastor Who Threw \u2018Gestapo\u2019 Calgary Police From Church Gets Another Visit, Kicks Them Out Again<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><i>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a <\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><i>member<\/i><\/a><i>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Republican Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb signed a law last week protecting the state\u2019s churches by designating them as essential and forbidding state authorities from treating them differently than secular establishments &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2276724,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-455841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=455841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455841\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2276724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=455841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=455841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=455841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}