Is Church “High Risk, Low Reward”? Monday, December 28, 2020 @ 11:39 AM Some leftist government officials, in the name of trying to fight the spread of COVID-19, have come down hard on churches. For example, California Governor Gavin Newsom declared (5/7/20), “We’re looking at the science, epidemiology, looking again at frequency, duration, time, and looking at low risk-high reward, low risk-low reward.” [Emphasis added] He has defined abortion clinics as essential. But churches were categorized as non-essential. Christian legal groups have had to fight with the governor to be able to practice religious freedom, which the Constitution guarantees. Newsom was not alone in his attempt to hamstring the churches.