The pushback on Gov. John Bel Edwards’ extension of the stay-at-home order to May 15 is ramping up. Some parishes are deciding to open up on their own economies and now the state attorney general is asking the governor to open up churches.
In a letter to Gov. Edwards, Attorney General Jeff Landry said now is the time to open up churches. On Thursday, he requested that the governor take a proactive approach to opening up places of worship.
”As other states begin reopening and unrest in the Legislature continues, I believe many faith-based congregations will begin to meet with or without guidance," said Landry in the letter. “We are better served by taking a proactive approach by publishing reopening guidelines that take a phased approach to faith services restarting. Without guidance based on best practices in place, this could be disastrous.”
"I wanted to make sure that he saw from this vantage point that as faith-based congregations that we believe it’s time to be able to reasonably and responsibly be able to practice their religion again,” said Landry in a phone interview with News Channel Five.
Grant Parish Pastor Tapas Sarma with James 2 Ministry welcomed the move.
"Praise the Lord for all good things that we have someone in the State of Louisiana who thought of this and advising the governor the right way for the Christians to worship, not just the Christians...all people of faith," said Sarma.
Sarma said regions and individual churches should decide when and how to open up, with social distancing and sanitation practices in place.
"Go region by region,” said Sarma. “Go to restaurants and ask the restaurant owners what is the best way to open restaurants. Go to pastors, what is the best way to open churches. That's how you do it instead of a blanket order."
We are seeing that same sentiment with local governments across the state. LaSalle Parish officials say they are letting businesses decide if they want to open up starting now, asking them to keep occupancy down while practicing mitigation guidelines.
"We feel like out of a population of 15,000 there is no reason why we can't get our small businesses back up and running,” said Sheriff Scott Franklin, LaSalle Parish. “If the state is not going to step in and pay them their lost income, then how can you ask them to keep shut down?"
Earlier this week, West Feliciana Parish President Kenny Havard said they would take a similar approach by allowing church services but with social distancing measures in place and opening up dining services at restaurants with limited capacity. However, on Thursday Havard said they would follow the governor’s guidelines after all.
Earlier this week, Gov. Edwards announced the order would be extended after meeting with state health officials. He said they're concerned about several hot spots in the state, prompting him to extend the order.
“They are not free to be less restrictive,” said Edwards. “It could be the Department of Health, it could be the Fire Marshal’s Office that would enforce the executive order. I remain hopeful that there won’t be instances of political subdivisions that attempt to mover further and faster than my proclamation would allow.”
After the governor met with President Trump on Wednesday, on Thursday the president on 970 KSYL 9 a.m. Weekdays on the Moon Griffon show said reopening could be done regionally.
"But you're right, you have big sections of your state, I hope that they do that, I hope they don't wait to open up the whole state at one time, they can open up large sections and you know that very well," said President Trump.
https://www.kalb.com/content/news/Pushback-on-governors-stay-at-home-order-continues-570100561.html