We are rounding the curve into the reckoning phase.
When disaster strikes, people (or communities, or nations) often move through three stages: crisis triage, reckoning/ regrouping, and finally redirecting. Crisis triage looks like keeping the ship afloat and surviving till tomorrow. Shell-shocked faces try to cope in the immediate. Once people catch their breath, and the fight or flight adrenaline subsides, the mind can turn toward reckoning with the crisis and its aftermath:
- How could we have been better prepared?
- How do we come back stronger?
- What is truly important—what things have proved surprisingly helpful, and what things have I clung to which should have been discarded long ago
I am less optimistic than Justin Poythress that the tide of the pandemic has receded to the point where we can see more of the ground in front of us again. The politicization of the pandemic response has prevented the United States from checking the spread of the virus. New Kentucky cases up 25% so far this week. The positivity rate is rising. People have been making vaccination appointments and then not keeping them. While some pastors are urging their congregations to get vaccinated, others are urging their congregations to ignore the health experts. Rather than working with the local public health agencies to reduce the spread of the virus and mitigate its effects, they are working against these agencies. Their actions are further damaging the reputation of Christianity among a population that is already skeptical of its beliefs and practices.
image credit: reformation21.org
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