I’m writing this on Easter Sunday, April 12. We’re still in the throes of the COVID-19 pandemic. On top of that, severe storms are pushing through Mississippi at this very moment. By the time you read this, Passover and Easter will have come and gone. Ramadan is just around the corner.
Religious freedom has grabbed a few headlines this week as a few Christian pastors have declared that they were going to defy orders and/or recommendations to, in the interest of the health and safety of all concerned, suspend corporate worship services. In televised interviews, pastors emphatically stated that they were going to keep the doors of their churches open and conduct services as protected under the Constitution of the United States of America. Some sited the slippery slope belief that if organized religions followed the instructions of Federal and/or State governments by not congregating, the line between civil and sacred would be breached, eventually ceding the authority of organized religion to earthly powers.
There’s a big difference between organized religion and spirituality. Religion can be thought of as the outer trappings of faith―houses of worship, rituals, clergy, etc. Spirituality is the inner experience and outward expression of belief on an individual level. Religion and spirituality are not mutually exclusive. They can co-exist, but they can also manifest individually as in a person who is religious but not spiritual, or spiritual and not religious.
Those who insist on corporate worship during the COVID-19 era have a point, and I respect their freedom to hold their convictions. But I must wonder if this is the hill the organized faithful want to die on―literally. That being said, it’s a free country and people can choose to stay home or not. Still, since we know that social distancing is one of the best things we can do to stop the spread of the Coronavirus, why, pray tell, would religious leaders encourage their followers to create such a danger zone?
Taking a stand against the government under these circumstances seems shallow and shortsighted to me. Technology allows just about any organization to meet virtually rather than virally. If the point of faith is life―full and meaningful here and in the hereafter―doesn’t it stand to reason that stepping in the middle of a highly contagious disease is counter-intuitive? And if the higher power of a faith really is a higher power, doesn’t it stand to reason that they can’t be confined to a building? If humans can confine a deity in four walls, maybe we need to take that deity’s badge away.
The axiom, “God helps those who help themselves,” isn’t in any scripture book, nor are a lot of other such sayings, but it makes sense. It seems to me that the common sense thing to do is remain as safe as possible and not tempt fate by grandstanding in the middle of a pool of pus. But if you believe you must gather, I guess you must gather.
A certain man of deep faith lived in a major flood zone. Torrential rains caused a local dam to burst and the man’s house was directly in the path of the raging waters. Emergency personnel came to evacuate him in a rescue boat. The man said, “I’m a man of faith. The good Lord’s gonna take care of me.” The waters rose and the man climbed on his roof. Another rescue boat came by to save the man, but the man repeated, “I’m a man of faith. The good Lord’s gonna take care of me.” The waters continued to rise until only the tip top of the roof was visible. A rescue helicopter came by, but the man refused to go with it, saying, “I’m a man of faith. The good Lord’s gonna take care of me.”
The waters covered the man’s house. He was swept away and drowned. He arrived in heaven and upon meeting the good Lord said, “Lord, I’m a man of faith and I trusted you to save me. Why didn’t you rescue me?” The good Lord replied, “I sent two boats and a helicopter. What more did you need?”
A Facebook post said that the spread of the Coronavirus was dependent on two things: 1) the density of the population, 2) the density of the population.
Saint Forrest the Gump once said: “Stupid is as stupid does”. Go figure.
…and that’s the view from The Balcony
