By Robin G. Jordan
Among the factors that are contributing to the increase of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations across the United States is that a number of states reopened too fast and people abandoned social distancing and face masks too quickly. The reopening of these states may have conveyed the wrong message to their populations, particularly to those segments of the population that were chaffing at state restrictions to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus.
With a cacophony of voices declaring that the seriousness of the COVID-19 pandemic was exaggerated by the media or even a hoax perpetuated to deny President Trump a second term in office and that face masks and other precautionary measures were unnecessary, and influencing people’s decisions, these upticks in cases and hospitalizations are not surprising. The Trump administration has made little effort to counter the misinformation circulating on the internet and has in a number of instances contributed to it.
One reads on Facebook and other social media platforms the claim that the record of deaths is the only reliable statistic and therefore should be used as the sole basis for determining the seriousness of the pandemic. However, health experts point out that recording of COVID-19 deaths typically lags behind the compilation of other statistics such as reported cases and hospitalization due to the documentation required in the confirmation of a death from the COVID-19 coronavirus. The record of deaths is not the reliable statistic that its proponents claim that it is. Unfortunately people believe such misleading claims and conclude that the COVID-19 pandemic is not as serious as the health experts maintain. This also influences their decisions.
Rather than believe the health experts, those who devoted a lifetime to the study of how epidemics spread and what measures work in suppressing or containing them, segments of the US population prefer to believe the purveyors of this misinformation. The result is the surge of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in a number of states, surges that cannot be accounted for by increased testing. The spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus in the United States has so alarmed members of the European Union that the EU is not considering lifting restrictions on travel to and from the United States.
In my own state, the Commonwealth of Kentucky, the number of new cases has held steady for the past few days. At the same time several rural counties have reported an uptick in cases and hospitalizations. My own county is experiencing what the local health authorities describe as “a little spike” in cases. The number of new cases has consistently gone up two Mondays in a row. The total number of confirmed cases is 67.
The COVID-19 coronavirus has a typical infection rate of 1.5. The rate can be higher or lower. An increase in new cases or a reduction in new cases reflects shifts in the rate of infection. An increase in the number of new cases means that for every confirmed case there is likely to be one or more unconfirmed cases. As the number of confirmed cases increases, the number of unconfirmed cases goes up exponentially. The number of confirmed cases is like the tip of an iceberg. The larger mass of the iceberg is submerged beneath the surface of the water. The tip of the iceberg is what shows above the surface of the water. In the case of confirmed cases in a county they represent the smaller number of cases in proportion to the total number of cases, confirmed and unconfirmed.
Based upon articles, comment threads, and social media posts the decisions of Christians returning to their buildings and regathering for in-person services are also influenced by the misinformation circulating on the internet. A number of the purveyors of this misinformation identify themselves as Christians. They include pastors and other church leaders as well as lay persons. To what extent this misinformation is influencing reopening decisions is an open question but the anecdotal evidence suggests that it having an influence upon these decisions. It may not be a direct influence but it is impacting churches in ways that may result in more COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths.
While pastors and other church leaders may work to create and maintain safe environments for returning attendees and first-time guests, uncooperative church members may undermine their efforts. They may refuse to wear face masks and act in other ways that jeopardize the health, safety, and well-being of other people. Church leaders are faced with the difficult challenge of how to deal with such individuals. If church leaders overlook their behavior or acquiesce to it, the church may become the epicenter of a COVID-19 outbreak. The church and its leaders will bear the brunt of the blame, not the uncooperative church members.
Among the steps that churches may need to take before they reopen the doors of their buildings again is survey the members and regular attendees of the church, determine how much they have influenced by the misinformation circulating on the internet, and how willing they are to follow the precautionary measures that the church implements to protect the congregation and the community from a COVID-19 outbreak. This survey will give church leaders some idea of what they will be facing and how they might deal with it.
Once church leaders have decided upon what precautionary measures will be implemented, they will need to inform church members and regular attendees of what will be expected of them when they return to the building. They should use every means available to them to convey these expectations to church members and regular attendees—mailouts, telephone calls, pre-recorded videos, emails, Facebook notifications, blog posts, website pages, etc. They should be prepared to answer questions.
A good rule of thumb in deciding upon what precautionary measures a church will implement is to err on the side of caution, in other words, to put in place multiple layers of protection. It is better to be overly cautious than it is to take the need for caution lightly. Those who do not take care to avoid danger and mistakes run a higher risk of encountering danger and making mistakes.
Rash decisions, those that do not give careful consideration to the possible consequences of an action, should be avoided. Recklessness, lack of regard for danger or the consequences of our actions, is not commended in the Bible. Indeed it is associated with fools and their folly. The Bible has nothing positive to say on that subject as word search on a “fool” and “folly” will reveal.
Church leaders may wish to ask returning attendees to sign a covenant in which they agree to comply with the precautionary measures that the church is implementing for as long as it is determined that they are needed. This covenant should include provision for the implementation of additional layers of protection if they are needed. It can be pointed out to returning attendees that they as Christians are responsible for the health, safety, and well-being of their fellow-Christians but also their neighbors, those who live in their community and beyond. By agreeing to the covenant, they are committing themselves to ensure the health, safety, and well-being of their fellow-Christians and neighbors. They are serving Christ in them.
Those who insist that they are right and the views of other people are wrong should be reminded about what Paul writes about respecting the consciences of weaker brethren in his first letter to the Corinthians. If such individuals prove to be intractable, it may be best to ask them not to attend in-person services when the church reopens its building. It may be necessary to alert the church’s security people to who they are, with instructions to escort them off campus if they do not comply with the church’s precautionary measures or otherwise create trouble such as encouraging other returning attendees not to conform with these measures.
It does not take many people to create the kind of critical mass that can initiate within a church a movement which will undo all the efforts of church leaders to protect the congregation and the community from the COVID-19 coronavirus. Only a small number of people is needed to start such a movement. Some people will go along with the preventive measures that a church is implementing as long as other people are going along with them. However, these people do not fully support what the church is doing and will gravitate to a faction that is opposed to these measures if one forms. It is one of the unfortunate weaknesses of our sinful human nature—the tendency toward “…quarrels, dissensions, factions…and things like these.”
We should not underestimate the spiritual warfare dimension of the various forms of COVID-19 denial and opposition to precautionary measures to prevent the transmission of the virus. The evil one knows our weaknesses better than we do and will exploit them to cause suffering and death.
A phenomenon of which church leaders need to be aware is the tendency of those who are engaging in negative behavior to encourage others to join them in this behavior. They may recognize that the behavior is negative but are able to rationalize it when others join in the behavior. They justify what they are doing with the argument, “Others are doing it too.” It is a form of rationalization typically seen in adolescents but it also seen in adults. It is not an uncommon rationalization for abandoning social distancing and wearing face masks. When people gathered in crowds over the Memorial Day weekend, many of them justified what they were doing in this manner. When people go out in public and do not wear face mask and observe social distancing and see other people doing the same thing, they feel that they were not wrong in their decision.
Another phenomenon of which church leaders need to be aware is what is called the mob mentality, the herd mentality, or the pack mentality. Peers can influence people to adopt behavior on the basis of emotion, rather than reason. When they are influenced by their peers, they will make decisions differently from how they would make decisions as individuals. This phenomenon affects adults as well as teenagers. Returning attendees who are susceptible to the influence of a particular group or faction in a congregation may be persuaded to abandon face masks and social distancing.
As one can see, church leaders who are planning to reopen their church’s building and to hold in-person services and gatherings or who are in the midst of doing so have their work cut out for them. It would be nice if things were a lot simpler. But they are not. Those who underestimate the complexity of the task may be in for some nasty surprises.
In writing my articles on church regathering I sometime feel like one of the characters in C.S. Lewis’ The Silver Chair—Puddleglum the Marsh Wiggle. He was a gloomy individual who expected everything to go wrong. His fellow Marsh Wiggles, however, considered him to be an optimist! Those who have read the book also know that Puddleglum had his strengths. I hope that I am drawing on my own strengths in writing these articles. I greatly value congregational singing and other forms of corporate worship. At the same time I do not want to see happen to my readers’ churches what happened to the church in Greenbrier County, West Virginia and the church in LaGrange County, Oregon. What happened to those churches was someone took the need for caution too lightly. In the case of the Greenbrier County church, it may have not been the church leaders but whoever modified and authorized the guidelines that they were given. Someone placed other considerations before the health, safety, and well-being of churches and their communities.
Human beings are weak creatures. We tend to place our self-interests first. Our natural proclivities run counter to Jesus’ call to love one another, to love our neighbor, to love our enemies, and to serve him in the last and the least. Even the regenerate, the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion, historic Anglicanism’s Confession of Faith, reminds us, retain the propensity to rebel against God and fall into sin. In each of us our sinful human nature is at war with the Holy Spirit.
The good news is that God recognizes our weaknesses. He bestows upon us an abundance of his grace. He works within us to will and do what is pleasing to him. Without the power of Holy Spirit at work in us, we would be in much direr straights than we are now.
My prayer for church leaders who are planning to reopen their church’s building and to hold in-person services and gatherings or who are in the midst of doing so is that the Holy Spirit will keep them from all foolishness and guide them in making wise decisions.
Image Credit: The Episcopal Church of St. John and St. Mark, Albany, Georgia
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