‘I am SO angry!’ Kansas Republicans rebuked by Norman for lifting church restrictions

The decision by Kansas Republican leaders Wednesday to revoke Gov. Laura Kelly’s order limiting religious gatherings to 10 people as a defense against the COVID-19 virus has drawn a seething rebuke from the state’s top health official, who urged residents to ignore the action.

“Whatever Kansas legislators do doesn’t reverse what The Public needs to do,” Lee Norman, secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, said in a tweet late Wednesday night. “Stay home so we can beat this scourge. Despite what the ‘leaders’ of the Legislature say. We are so close, and they are doing politics. Don’t fall for it! I am SO angry! Shame!”

The decision to cancel the order reverted the state back to a patchwork of local restrictions ahead of Easter Sunday and sent officials in some counties scrambling Thursday to figure out what would be allowed and not allowed.

It also placed Kansas in a small group of states effectively allowing church services to continue unfettered during a pandemic featuring a highly-contagious virus.

The Republican legislative leaders who voted to revoke the order – House Speaker Ron Ryckman, House Speaker Pro Tem Blaine Finch, House Majority Leader Dan Hawkins, Senate President Susan Wagle and Senate Majority Leader Jim Denning – came under crushing criticism after the vote even as they insisted they were protecting religious freedom.

“It is important we abide by the Kansas Constitution and not criminalize religious gatherings, however, places of worship should take CDC recommendations and not meet this Sunday if the gathering will exceed 10. We need to stay safe and use precaution during these times,” Denning, of Overland Park, said in a tweet. He didn’t immediately answer a call Thursday.

The clash over the order brought tensions between the Democratic governor and Republicans to their highest point since the start of the COVID-19 crisis weeks ago. The vote to revoke, during a meeting of the Legislative Coordinating Council, was the first time the Legislature has overruled Kelly during the pandemic.

Kelly had issued the order on Tuesday, which explicitly included religious gatherings in a statewide ban on mass gatherings of more than 10 people.

In the aftermath of the vote, Kelly and Republicans couldn’t even agree on whether her overall ban on mass gatherings remained in effect. Kelly said late Wednesday afternoon that she didn’t know whether the decision had repealed the entire ban, but Attorney General Derek Schmidt said he believed it was still in effect.

The confusion filtered down to the county level. Johnson County spokeswoman Lori Sand said the state’s most-populous county was examining its options and hoped to issue a statement on Thursday.

But Sedgwick County – the state’s second most populous – took a more assertive stance. On Wednesday night, it said that because the statewide order was revoked, its local order was once again in effect. The county order prohibits in-person religious gatherings of more than 10.

Sedgwick County Commissioner Pete Meitzner said most churches have already changed their services to adhere to the county order and that they should use good judgment while the order is in effect. So far, he said, there have not been any law enforcement sent to churches to break up services.

If law enforcement were to show up, they would focus on educating and not enforcing the order.

“There’s a lot of reasoning that can happen,” he said. “We’re kind of a Christian-based community anyways, and I’m hoping everyone is OK with that.”

Nationally, Kansas, Arkansas, Michigan and New Mexico provide broad exemptions from executive orders prohibiting large public gatherings, according to Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

After taking what could ultimately be a life-or-death vote, Republican leaders defended their decisions as pushing back against overreach by Kelly and securing constitutional rights. But they also urged churches to either not hold in-person services or practice social distancing.

Wagle, a Catholic, said in a message to supporters she would watch Mass online and encouraged people to stay home. She said Kelly was right to be concerned about large gatherings but that she shouldn’t use the crisis to infringe on constitutional rights.

Pressed about public health by reporters after the vote, Wagle said she that she had heard from Kansans who felt like it was a “bridge too far.”

Some religious groups have raised objections. Although Catholic churches in Kansas have suspended public Mass, the Kansas Catholic Conference had called Kelly’s order “troubling” and questioned its constitutionality.

But the extent of the outcry was in dispute. Sen. Dinah Sykes, a Lenexa Democrat, said she had heard from “dozens who are pissed” about the revocation of the order.

Finch, of Ottawa, said he trusted faith leaders to exercise good judgment and “do what’s right and keep people safe.” Ryckman, of Olathe, said faith leaders have a responsibility to look out for those who turn to them for guidance.

Ryckman said Kansas needed to grant clergy the flexibility to serve their congregation while trusting them not to do anything that puts congregations at risk.

“No evidence has been shown to indicate that faith leaders are violating that trust,” Ryckman said.

Three of the state’s 12 case clusters stem from church gatherings, Norman has said. One of them was a ministers’ conference in Wyandotte County last month, another occurred in Sedgwick County. Norman hasn’t divulged information about the third.

The ministers’ conference, held March 16-22 at the Miracle Temple Church of God in Kansas City, Kan., came before Kelly’s statewide stay-at-home order or her order limiting gatherings to 10 people. Republicans seized on that point in explaining their votes.

“This comes down to one or two churches in one county,” said Hawkins, of Wichita.

A better solution than reprimanding the majority of churches following safe practices is to work directly with county and faith leaders on a solution, Hawkins said. He called for looking at personal protective equipment and social distancing “before we go to the extreme.”

The Wednesday vote came as the Kansas death toll from coronavirus jumped 40 percent to 38 and reported cases climbed above 1,000.

Health officials have emphasized that even a single gathering can ripple across the state. If the virus is transmitted during a service to a even a few people, the number infected can quickly multiple as those people interact with others outside of church.

The twelve clusters in Kansas have led to at least 165 cases and 12 deaths, Norman said. Last week, a husband and wife in Montgomery County died after the wife attended a church conference in Wyandotte County.

“We are not even able to trace all the contacts that those two individuals had because they’re dead,” Norman said.

The Kansas City Star’s Sarah Ritter and The Wichita Eagle’s Chance Swaim contributed reporting

This story was originally published April 9, 2020 at 1:43 PM with the headline "‘I am SO angry!’ Kansas Republicans rebuked by Norman for lifting church restrictions."