Collins Backs President’s Call to Re-open Places of Worship Across the U.S.

U.S. Representative Doug Collins came out in support of President Donald Trump’s directive for States to allow churches to reopen.

Last Friday, the President declared church services and other religious services “essential services” for the health and well-being of citizens.

And he called on governors nationwide to let churches, synagogues, and other religious institutions reopen this past weekend even though some areas remain under coronavirus lockdown.

Speaking on Fox News Monday, Collins said he supports the President’s view.

Collins says keeping churches closed violates a citizen’s First Amendment right to freedom of expression.

“You’re getting into the very fundamental fact of how in some of these states we’re stopping people from exercising their fundamental right to exercise their freedom of religion. We can do it safely. President has taken a bold step forward to say these are essential services. There’s a mind, body, and spirit effect here. As one who serves as a Chaplain, it’s understood that you have your physical, you have your mental, and you have your spiritual. And having all of those protected and all of those brought forth in our Constitutional rights, it’s something we need to have and I’m proud of him for doing that,” Collins said.

Collins, along with and Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.) recently led 18 of their colleagues in sending a letter to Secretary of Defense Mark Esper urging him to protect the religious liberty of U.S. servicemen and women.

Because of the coronavirus outbreak, military chaplains were forced to adjust their methods in order to fulfill their obligations to their fellow servicemen and women.

However, in the letter, Collins and other Congressmen said that despite Federal mandates and guidance from the Army Chaplain Corps allowing religious freedom among the military, the letter states an outside group called the Military Religious Freedom Foundation have written to commanders at bases in South Korea and Germany demanding some chaplains be punished for holding services on Facebook and sending copies of a book to other chaplains entitled, The Coronavirus and Christ that says the virus is a judgment from God.

Several of those chaplains’ actions, the letter said, are now coming under review by their commanding officers.

In the letter, Collins wrote that the Department and the Army have been far too quick to restrict the religious freedom of chaplains and the service members they serve as a result of this group attacks.

“In recent weeks, an outside organization with a reputation for preying on military chaplains has exploited the current pandemic in an effort to ruin the careers of the hardworking men and women who serve as military chaplains,” Collins said. “As a chaplain in the Air Force Reserve, I find these attacks especially atrocious as they threaten the very freedoms our servicemembers fight to protect. I appreciate Congressman Lamborn for partnering with me to stand up for the religious freedom of our servicemembers, and I hope Secretary Esper will take action to ensure each Service is protecting its members’ religious liberties.”

“Far too often, commanders react hastily to vocal anti-religion activists who attempt to obstruct our troops’ first amendment rights,” said Lamborn. “These decisions are often overturned, but only after the intervention of Congress. These infringements on the constitutional rights of our service members must end. I am thankful for Congressman Collins’ leadership on this critical issue, and I hope that our military will enforce the religious liberties of our chaplains and servicemen and women.”