In our health district in Ontario it has been many weeks since a single case of COVID-19. While this is reassuring, we continue to take precautions when we're out and about. We wear mask for our few forays into stores, we aren't visiting restaurants, and we aren't going to church. The latter is because in person gatherings or worship are suspended for the summer in our congregation. A handful of United Churches are offering Sunday services but it seems that they have figured out how to do so outdoors, although I wonder what's happening during this heat wave. I don't fault them for doing so if they can ensure safe conditions.
The majority of denominations and other faith communities have decided to wait a few months before resuming collective worship and prayer. This doesn't mean there aren't concerns for the faithful. Many are suffering because they can't come together with friends and deeply miss the weekly rhythm of Word, song, and sacrament.
It's a different story in the United States. The premature opening of society in a number of States has led to a spike in coronavirus cases, hospitalizations and deaths. And churches have been among the "super-spreaders", public gatherings where the virus transmissions take off. We see photos of people packed together and choirs singing without masks.
Why have churches insisted on reconvening south of the border? And why do many of the people in mega-churches claim that this is a freedom enshrined in the constitution, as though this matters more than scripture? A lot of theses Christians seem to have some notion that Jesus is a magic charm, protecting them from illness. This despite the fact that they may depend on doctors when ill and wear seatbelts on their drive to church.
This past week the story circulated of a teen girl who died from COVID-19 after attending a church youth gathering with 100 others in Florida, an outbreak hotspot. She went despite having a compromised immune system Yet when she got sick her parents, including her nurse mother, didn't take her for diagnosis until it was too late because they felt COVID was a hoax.
I wonder as well if there is a need in some of these congregations for the "high" of mass gatherings with the euphoria of praise which comes in a larger collective? Does this almost cult-like rush into danger come from a desire for the uplift of this sort of worship even though it supersedes Jesus' new commandment to "love another as I have loved you."
I can't get the thought of that young woman whose life has been cut short. I appreciate that she likely lived with resurrection hope, but this just seems wrong.
God give us wisdom and strength for this uncertain journey.
2 comments:
Yes, this was a heartbreaking story, all the more so because it was completely preventable. I hate to keep picking on the Americans, but what the heck is going on down there? They have become the laughing stock of the world(as if the orange blob leader hadn't already made them so).
I saw on the news something that should make every American politician shudder. It took 99 days for the Americans to get to 1 million COVID cases after the very first diagnosis. It took something like half that time to get their next million cases, and only about 25 days to go from 2 million to 3 million.
I guess sticking your heads in the sand is the American way to avoid COVID.
The moral and spiritual decline in America under Trump was completely preventable. "Heads in the sand" is the more respectable way of putting it Roger!
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