Oklahoma House passes bill to prevent forced closure of churches

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – The Oklahoma House of Representatives has passed a bill that would block state and local government officials from forcing houses of worship to close, even under circumstances like a pandemic, the Christian Post reports. House Bill 2648, the Oklahoma Religious Freedom Act, passed by 80-18 votes in the House and now goes to the state Senate for consideration.

Dealing with pandemic-like scenarios in which a governor may seek to close houses of worship, House Bill 2648 provides that: “No governmental entity shall substantially burden a person’s free exercise of religion unless it demonstrates that application of the burden to the person is … essential to further a compelling governmental interest; and … the least restrictive means of furthering that compelling governmental interest.”

The bill was sponsored by Republican Rep. Brian Hill, who explained in a statement that the original settlers had come to America “seeking religious freedom and to escape a tyrannical government,” and that, accordingly, the founders “had the wisdom to specifically outline the freedom to worship in one of our founding documents.”

Democrats opposed the bill, arguing that the temporary closure of houses of worship during a pandemic does not constitute a “substantial burden” because there remain other ways to worship, the Christian Post reports.

According to state figures, as at Sunday Oklahoma had 4,534 coronavirus-related deaths in a population of 3.9 million people, and some 429,000 COVID-19 infections.

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