Church leaders could benefit from more precise guidelines to help them make COVID-19 transmission risk assessments of their churches. Right now a lot of guesswork is involved in assessing the risk to members of the congregation and members of the community. Denominations that have worked together to develop such guidelines are ahead of the game but they need to update these guidelines so that they reflect the latest scientific knowledge as to how the COVID-19 coronavirus is transmitted and what churches can do to reduce transmission risks.
Vaccinating the population will take time and may not prove the “magic bullet” that some are hoping it will. The anti-vaxxer movement is likely to put obstacles in the way of any mass vaccination program and will leave the United States with an unvaccinated population in which the virus can thrive, infecting those who have not yet been vaccinated. We also do not know how long the vaccines that have been developed will confer immunity to the virus.
What will be critical to the fight to contain the COVID-19 coronavirus will be the reestablishment of a common reality where the virus is concerned, a shared perception of the seriousness of the threat that infectious diseases like the COVID-19 coronavirus poses to the health, safety, and well-being of the US population. Churches can play an important role in educating the public regarding the dangers of these diseases and the need for measures to prevent their spread. Due to natural and anthropogenic climate change—climate change caused by human activity, human encroachment upon wild animal habitats, the air transportation revolution, and other factors we can expect further outbreaks of such diseases. While we might like to avoid any discussion of the contribution that President Trump has made to the spread of the COVID-coronavirus in the United States in the wake of a highly contentious presidential election which has exacerbated the divisions in the United States, the President’s proclivity to make bad decisions and to stick with them rather than admit that he made a mistake, a proclivity that he showed early in his business career, has played a key role in the failure of a segment of the US population to take the pandemic with the seriousness that it warrants. This segment of the population has been led to believe the COVID-19 coronavirus is no worse than influenza and the pandemic is a hoax perpetuated to prevent the re-election of the President to a second term in office. It has also been led to believe that mask-wearing, social distancing, and other safety measures are unnecessary. As a consequence the virus has spread into the nation’s heartland, given rise to untold suffering, wrecked lives, and caused needless deaths.
The divisions over the COVID-19 pandemic that President Trump has fostered have weakened the nation. Letting a dangerous virus go unchecked will not restore a nation to its former greatness. Among the factors that contributed to the collapse of the Roman Empire were a number of pandemics that decimated its population. As the empire expanded, its legions and others whose business brought them into newly-conquered territories or territories that Rome was seeking to conquer were exposed to diseases that the Romans had previously not encountered and against which they had no natural immunity. Legionnaires and others returning from these territories and the captives and slaves that they brought back with them spread these diseases to the Roman population. The bubonic plague that beset the British Isles and Europe from the thirteenth century to the seventeenth century caused political and social change and reshaped that part of the world. We should not underestimate the impact that an epidemic can have on the history of a particular area.
In my state the number of new cases reported yesterday was the highest to date. Thirty-five new cases were reported in my county and one fatality. Last week county and municipal officials pleaded with local businesses to enforce mask-wearing on their premises. My county was one of the first counties in the region to be declared a red-zone county due to its high incidence of infections. My county is a rural county.
In my county some churches have heeded the governor’s request to temporarily suspend in-person services until the middle of December. Others are ignoring his request, meeting with no restrictions on the number in attendance, no face masks, and no social distancing. As long as divisions over the pandemic persist in states and counties throughout the United States, the virus will keep spreading.
Jesus enjoined his disciples to love others and to treat them as they would wish to be treated. He taught that the greatest in God’s kingdom were those who served others. He also taught that those who served others served him. When they performed a deed of kindness, an act of mercy, to someone, they were performing that deed, that act, to him. With our divisions we have lost sight of this important truth. When we wear a mask, social distance, take other safety measures to protect others as well as ourselves, we are serving Jesus. On the day of judgment some of us who believe that we are disciples of Jesus may be surprised to hear our Lord say, “‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was in danger of catching a deadly virus and you refused to wear a face mask to protect me from that virus….” As Jesus himself told those who had gathered to hear him, “Let those who have ears, hear.” Let those who have eyes, read.
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