For the first time in probably 1700 years, Christians around the world will not be permitted to celebrate Easter in public.

What is a country founded on religious liberty supposed to do when the government locks the churches?

This is Verdict with Ted Cruz.

Welcome back to Verdict with Ted Cruz and happy Easter.

I'm Michael Knowles, Senator.

Sorry, we can't be celebrating today together.

We're at a safe social distance.

I think I am not exaggerating here when I say, this might be the first time since the

Diocletian persecution that Christians have not been able to go to their churches on Easter. Is that an

exaggeration? Well, you know, I got to say it is so commonplace to have podcasts talking about the

Diocletian persecution. I mean, I mean, it really, I'm

worried that we're going to run into the traffic online with that. That's true. The views

spiked through the roof, right? We, you and I have never seen anything like this in our lifetimes.

And it's, you know, all of us, we're doing everything from home. Yeah. And whether that's church, whether that's work,

whether that's time with the family. It has good aspects to it, and it also makes people pretty stir crazy.

This, I think, is the big issue for people. I think for a while, people like taking a few days off work.

Obviously, that got real old, real fast when people lost their jobs. I think people actually,, people like taking a few days off work. Obviously, that got it real old,

real fast when people lost their jobs. I think people actually, for the first few days of this

shutdown, were kind of excited. It was something new. It was dangerous. Maybe we were all going

to band together. Again, that kind of got real old, real fast. The one thing that I think was

always a sticking point was the churches, the government closing down the churches.

To my mind, that's unprecedented in the United States. Is that what you're hearing and seeing as well?

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