Proof that religion is an addiction [View all]

Leaders of two of Minnesota’s largest faith groups are planning to resume indoor worship services next week in defiance of the governor’s order, saying it’s “extreme and prejudicial” to put religious gatherings in a reopening category similar to that of tattoo parlors or hair salons and subject them to limits stricter than those placed on retail stores.

In a conference-call news conference Thursday, Archbishop Bernard Hebda, Catholic leader for the state, and the Rev. Lucas Woodford, president of the Minnesota South District of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, said they were fine with restrictions earlier in the pandemic. Now that there is a reopening plan, however, they said they can’t accept gathering limits for worship that surpass those affecting places such as the Mall of America.

“Our community members are suffering from financial and social and emotional strain,” Hebda said on the call, which was organized by Becket, a religious liberties law firm representing the two groups. “It’s our sacred duty to meet the spiritual needs of the suffering.”