Religious centres should be re-opened because they ‘provide essential services’

Religious centres should be re-opened because they ‘provide essential services’ - Donald Trump

President Donald Trump has demanded that US state governors allow places of worship to reopen immediately, as the country moves gradually towards a lifting of COVID-19 lockdown measures.

“Today I am identifying houses of worship – churches, synagogues and mosques – as essential places that provide essential services,” Trump told a news conference at the White House.

“The governors need to do the right thing and allow these very important essential places of faith to open right now, for this weekend,” he said.

“If they don’t do it, I will override the governors. In America, we need more prayer, not less.”
Establishing what constitutes essential services has been a prerogative of state and local officials, rather than the federal government, and many have restricted houses of worship from holding group services to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
In some areas, churches have opened under strict social distancing rules, while in others, pastors and priests have held services outdoors, with worshippers staying in their cars.

But Trump said houses of worship should be allowed to open just like other places that were designated essential services — including drug stores, restaurants, supermarkets, hospitals and health clinics, as well as stores that sell alcohol.

“Some governors have deemed liquor stores and abortion clinics as essential but have left out churches and other houses of worship.
It’s not right,” Trump said.

There has been debate in some states over allowing facilities providing abortion services, like those operated by Planned Parenthood, to stay open during the COVID-19 shutdown.

Comments

Hurricane Hits Texas, One Person Reported Dead

Hurricane Harvey hit Texas as a Category 4 storm on Friday, battering the coast with 130-mph winds and torrential rain. It was the strongest hurricane to hit the United States in more than a decade leaving a massive destruction, loss of electricity, wrecked buildings and has so far killed at least one person. Scroll down to see more pictures of the incident:

Togo prime Minister Komi Klassou resigns

Togo’s prime minister and his government have resigned, the West African nation’s presidency said late Friday. President Faure Gnassingbe congratulated prime minister Komi Selom Klassou and his team for their “economic, political and social efforts and the encouraging results despite the health crisis around the world”, a statement on the presidency’s official website said. Togo has been due for a political reshuffle since Gnassingbe was reelected in February for a fourth term in office, but changes were delayed by the coronavirus pandemic. The president’s election win, which came after a constitutional change allowing him to run, extended more than a half-century of dynastic rule over the former French colony by the Gnassingbe family. The victory was disputed by the main opposition challenger, who has faced official harassment in the wake of the vote. The president has led the country of eight million people since taking over in 2005 following the death of his father Gnass...

Kenyan Law Court dismisses case of man seeking compensation after his wife eloped with another man from hospital

A lawsuit filed by a man seeking to be compensated by St Mary's Mission Hospital in Kenya for allowing his wife to leave the hospital with another man after giving birth, has been struck out by a law court. The appellant had sued the St. Mary's Mission hospital at Kakamega law courts in 2020 seeking general damages from the facility on grounds that the hospital had discharged his wife and allowed her to leave with another man. After delivering and at the time of discharge, the wife of the appellant claimed he was the baby's father. The court of appeal judges Patrick Kiage, Mumbi Ngugi and Francis Tuiyott sitting at the Kisumu Court of Appeal, empathized with the man, but disagreed that he (the appellant) be compensated by the hospital for not detaining his wife. They upheld the lower court's judgement which added that there's no remedy that lies in the law for such grievances. Kiage said; "I agree that if a man takes the woman he loves to t...

BAMY BLOG

Search This Blog