April 22, 2020
Hudson County – City Baptist Ministries in Hudson County, pastored by Phil Rizzo, is just one small example of Governor Phil Murphy’s selective implementation of executive orders with regards to essential vs nonessential businesses. After watching the Governor interviewed on national television, Pastor Rizzo wrote to United States Attorney General William Barr.
“I am writing to you after watching an interview on Tucker Carlson. New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy was interviewed by Carlson on the evening of April 15th. They discussed the Governor’s executive orders which ban, among other things, religious services. When Carlson asked Governor Murphy by what authority he can abrogate portions of the Bill of Rights, Murphy responded that it was ‘above my pay grade’ and that he never considered the Bill of Rights when issuing his edicts.”
Pastor Rizzo continued:
“Governor Murphy has ordered the arrest of those who peaceably assemble to practice their religious faith. In contrast, Murphy has designated such businesses as liquor stores and abortion clinics as ‘essential’. In other words, I could take a given space and use it to sell booze, but I could not use it to preach the gospel.
The Governor told Tucker Carlson that liquor stores are an essential element for ‘mental health’ but apparently that is not the case in states like Pennsylvania, our neighbor to the west, which closed them in March. Murphy could not answer why liquor stores were more essential to mental health than churches.”
The Pastor made this appeal for help:
“I am asking you for your guidance and assistance in determining what we should do. I am asking on behalf of myself and my congregation. We want to practice our faith which, as I understood it, is protected by the Bill of Rights. Much like those who had their civil rights repressed by state governors during the 1960s, we simply want the rules to apply equally. If there is a healthy way to use a given space, why must it prohibited based on how we use it? Especially when that use in specifically protected by the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights?”
The Center for Garden State Families is a Christian family advocacy organization. We exist to protect and advance the Natural Family and the First Amendment of the United States. Gov. Murphy’s selective intrusion into the free exercise of religion is unacceptable. The first freedom in the First Amendment is not freedom of speech; has is the impression of some. The first freedom in the First Amendment is the Freedom of Religion. In fact, one-third of the First Amendment is dedicated to the free exercise of religion. Freedom of speech is second. The reason the framers of the Constitution put freedom of religion first is they understood that there is no freedom of speech without the freedom to believe. These rights and liberties are unambiguous, undeniable, and we will not surrender them to Philip Murphy.
AG Bill Barr.pdf ATTACHMENT: Pastor Phil Rizzo’s April 16, 2020, letter to U.S. Attorney General William Barr.
