Covid – 19 blog April 12, 2020
GOD AND THE EASTER BUNNY BOTH GET IT…
I wrote/researched this blog when it actually was Easter but I hesitated to send it out into the world before I thought about it at least overnight (or over a couple months). I know that things can get really touchy when religion and politics are the subject, but I’ve been called a fence sitter a good deal of the time on many issues because I tend to see a little of both sides of an argument. This particular subject is no exception, but I will be calling out a few of the extremist nut jobs.
I keep reading and hearing about churches wanting to open the doors to have services and I wonder about some of the logic being used to justify this action. First of all, I want this nightmare to end so people stop dying and those of us physically unaffected can stop being paranoid about every stranger that comes within coughing distance. I want the churches to be available for worship. I also want movie theaters, restaurants, businesses (including my workplace) and all the venues currently closed due to the outbreak to be able to resume normal operations. I’m not comparing churches or their importance to things we do for fun and our livelihoods.
I have heard some say “I’m not worried. God will protect me.” Hmmmmm. God gave us many gifts. Probably the greatest of Gods’ gifts is our brain and the ability to think and reason. We don’t walk into an oncoming train and we don’t hand-feed a Lion in the wilderness because we instinctually sense the danger. We won’t eat food if it has mold or an unusual odor, or drink water that has dead fish floating in it because our brains know it can do us harm through learned experience. Over-simplifying? Sure, but mankind has also learned to solve complex problems by employing intellect. Science is perhaps one of the greatest outcomes from using the mind. I believe God protects us with these gifts of instinct and intelligence rather than blind faith.
Unfortunately, throughout history there are some who try to profit from fear and ignorance. There are people who, under the guise of religion try to twist the truth. The following is some of what was going on in the name of god in April:
The likelihood that evangelical churches can become major disease vectors for COVID-19 is based in immediate reality: One such church in Sacramento County, California—the Bethany Slavic Missionary Church near Rancho Cordova—is the source of 71 confirmed cases of novel coronavirus, and one death so far. Overall, more than a thirdof that county’s 314 cases are connected to church services.
Resistance among churches that insist on holding services appears to be mostly occurring in pockets around the country. In Pennsylvania, a Pittsburgh evangelist announced plans to hold a large outdoor service: “I’m gonna announce it, we’re gonna hold an outdoor Easter blowout service. Not online. A national gathering. You come from all over, like Woodstock. And we’re gonna gather and lift up Jesus Christ,” the Rev. Jonathan Shuttlesworth told Fox News.
In Louisiana, a Baton Rouge pastor is similarly defiant: “We feel we are being persecuted for the faith by being told to close our doors,” said the Rev. Tony Spell after police officers visited his gathering of more than 300 congregants on Sunday, issuing a warning that the National Guard would break up any future such gatherings.
Most of the resistance, as the Los Angeles Times reports, is coming from pastors at megachurches, where the flow of money always depends on having worshippers in the seats. They represent only a tiny minority of such churches—perhaps 15%—and an even smaller portion of religious Americans. Nonetheless, the harm being done by them remains immeasurable. Those that are continuing to have services are most likely to be those who subscribe to prosperity gospel beliefs that claim God will protect them from adversity or are pitting their claims of religious freedom against the welfare of those they would like to evangelize. This percentage of large churches having service is roughly the same as smaller congregations who are still meeting, at least according to the few recently released polls and surveys.
Many churches around the nation will be holding large gatherings in part because there are no stay-at-home orders in their states—primarily red Republican states such as Alabama, Arkansas, Nebraska, the Dakotas, South Carolina, Iowa, and Missouri.
In Texas, Gov. Gregg Abbott’s stay-at-home order includes an exemption for religious services—and while most Texas churches have nonetheless closed their doors for the time being and moved services online, a number remain resistant to doing so. A group of Houston-area pastors told the Texas Tribune that they intend to hold Easter services, as will more pastors they know.
A number of evangelical pastors are also proceeding apace with their plans for large tent gatherings in the summer and fall, claiming that COVID-19 represents a “Satanic agenda” with a “demonic assignment” including preventing a series of evangelical events planned in the South and Midwest. It includes a mass gathering on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., in June.
Rodney Howard-Browne, meanwhile, used his newfound national profile to continue promoting his far-right brand of Christianity. A Friday tweet he posted tried to make hay with new government recommendations for ordinary people to wear protective masks by suggesting it is just a preparatory step for forced Islamic beliefs: “Masks now Burkas next—get ready!” he wrote.
Enough already! This is not a permanent ban on religious gatherings nor is it an assault on religion, but rather an assault on a deadly virus to buy time to come up with vaccines or treatments. I also know that most churches are led by good, smart men and women and they see this as it is – a crisis requiring listening to science and getting through this as best we can. Prayer doesn’t require a large group of people. Here is another voice of reason in all of this;
Florida state attorney Andrew Warren said, “Loving your neighbors is protecting them, not jeopardizing their health by exposing them to this deadly virus.”
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