When COVID first spread in 2020, many state and local government officials across the nation seized on their newfound power to force the closure of churches while granting exemptions to favored businesses.

That would not be allowed again under a bill that has advanced from an Oklahoma Senate committee.

Senate Bill 513, by state Sen. Micheal Bergstrom, would make it illegal for the governor or any local government officials to prohibit any “activity in a place of worship during a declared state of emergency that is otherwise legal under state law.”

“When something happens that results in a state of emergency being declared, it’s not a time to suppress the free exercise of our citizens’ religious practices,” said Bergstrom, R-Adair. “Instead, it’s the right time to encourage them, to encourage us all, to encourage and support each other, to raise our voices in congregational prayer and praise, to find strength together. No governor, no county commission, no mayor or city council, no one should be able to take that away from us, from the citizens of Oklahoma—ever. Senate Bill 513 protects our right to gather in places of worship.”

State Sen. Michael Brooks, D-Oklahoma City, objected, saying some churches were the source of “super-spreader” events during COVID.

“At least in my district, churches were the super-spreader places,” Brooks said. “And there was one church in particular in my district that probably had between 30 and 40 people pass away because they contracted COVID there at the church.”

Bergstrom noted church leaders could independently decide to cease in-person worship in response to a health event, but he said church leaders could not be required to take that step if SB 513 becomes law.

He also noted the closure orders imposed during COVID had little real link to super-spreader concerns.

“I found it interesting that you could take and go to a Walmart, but you couldn’t go to your church,” Bergstrom said.

In 2020, then-Norman Mayor Breea Clark championed regulations that allowed gyms, tattoo parlors, and pet groomers to reopen on May 1, 2020, but not houses of worship.

That drew a rebuke from then-Attorney General Mike Hunter, who warned that “the city cannot discriminate against religious groups by shuttering churches while allowing other establishments—such as restaurants, gyms, retail stores, hair salons, and massage and tattoo parlors—that pose the same or greater risk to open.”

SB 513 passed the Senate Public Safety Committee on a 5-2 vote that broke along party lines with Republicans in support and Democrats opposed.