From: Drew Robertson
Columbus
As a physician I have been skeptical about many of the fears regarding the coronavirus outbreak from the beginning.
I suspected early on that the projected number of deaths from the virus was vastly overestimated. I thought “the curve” would be flatter than anticipated, especially in sparsely populated areas, and I concluded that the shutdown of normal business was an exaggerated response.
I continue to think that antibody testing will reveal more Americans who have already had the virus with few or no symptoms than is currently presumed.
It could turn out that I am wrong about some or all of the above, but that becomes less likely as time goes on.
I was alarmed, then, at Gov. Holcomb’s order restricting religious gatherings immediately before Good Friday and Passover.
Was he relying on models that have already been proven wrong? Did he take into account demographic differences across the state that might have allowed a more nuanced approach? Did he think that religious leaders could not be trusted to do what’s best in their own situations?
The governor undoubtedly hopes that others will credit him with good intentions here. It struck me more as the arrogance of power. The editors of The Republic, though, are prepared to go along. They assure us that this is not an issue of church and state.
Are they serious? The governor commanded that worship spaces be closed. In the case of drive-up services he specified who could and could not be in a car, and how the cars would be spaced. He urged no communion. If offered, he specified how the elements of communion would be prepared and presented. If this isn’t a matter of church and state, then nothing is.
Thomas Jefferson warned us that the price of liberty is eternal vigilance. His contemporary, Edmund Burke, noted that all that is required for evil to triumph is that good men do nothing.
Now is precisely the time for the good citizens of Indiana and the United States to address the powerful clearly. They must know that in the current situation they have exceeded the bounds of what we will accept.
It is said that the coronavirus pandemic is a once in a lifetime event. Restrictions on our religious practices should be so, too.
