Churches in Minnesota want equal treatment with the shopping malls, casinos, bars and restaurants, tattoo parlors, barbershops and hair salons when it comes to government restrictions on their operations.

On Thursday, the Catholic bishops of Minnesota and the Missouri Lutheran Synod announced their intention to defy Gov. Tim Walz’s COVID-19 emergency orders. Starting Tuesday, Catholic and Missouri Synod churches are going to start scheduling services, leading up to Sunday, which is Pentecost Sunday. They will be limiting attendance to 33 percent, with congregants allowed only in every third pew, and maintaining social distancing between family groups.

While all of the establishments listed above will be able to open for business by June 1, at least in a partial capacity, letting in up to 50 percent of their capacity, churches would have continued to be limited to holding services for no more than 10 people at a time. It made no sense.

On Friday, President Trump declared churches to be “essential” and said Governors needed to immediately allow them to open. On Saturday, Gov. Walz made the announcement that Minnesota churches can open to 25 percent capacity.

As the First Amendment says, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

Churches voluntarily stopped holding services and activities before the governor’s executive orders, and they shouldn’t need his permission to start up again.