The Oklahoma House overwhelmingly passed a bill Wednesday that would ban the government from closing churches and places of worship in scenarios like the COVID-19 pandemic.
“My faith, like many Oklahomans, is at the core of who I am, and this bill further protects our God-given right to worship,” Hill added. He did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The bill defines the phrase “substantially burden” to mean “to inhibit or curtail religiously motivated practice,” declaring that closing places of worship is a substantial burden on Oklahoma citizens’ freedom of religion.
“This country was founded by individuals seeking freedom to worship in the manner they so choose without persecution,” Oklahoma state Republican Rep. Jon Echols said, KOCO 5 News reported. “I can think of nothing more patriotic than protecting those rights for future generations.”
“If the situation were to ever become so dire that church services needed to be canceled by the government all other similarly-sized and situated gatherings would also need to be canceled as well,” Hunter said at the time, News On 6 reported.
Republican Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, who reopened the state in June 2020, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the DCNF.
“In America, the standard for normal is freedom,” he added. “It always has been, and it always should be.”