Let’s start with “You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” But how do we do that in a Covid environment?
Then the potential disagreement. Any discussion will be influenced by a
perception of how serious the disease is.
If it is just the flu then all of the panic is unfounded and we are
wasting our time. If it is significant,
then we have to respond. I lean toward
the latter – 200,000 deaths in the US over the last year compared with 50,000
flu deaths; 90 people a day in ICU in Iowa; long term affects including mental
and other body-system failures being reported, one of my staff informing me
that they never want to go through that again…
If then, the disease is significant: how do we demonstrate
love; what do people need?
- To hear the Gospel – but they will only listen if we meet the other needs below
- To be protected from getting Covid – I would still argue that this is indeed critical and can’t think of any reason to not do it if it is possible
- To be supported if they get Covid
- To be supported if they lose jobs or income
- To be encouraged while isolated
The elephant in the room is: how many illnesses and deaths are
acceptable against crashing the economy?
Life is precious, yet we all die.
So what is the value of a life? Does it change with age, I.Q., skin
color, economic status or sports ability?
How many jobs lost vs how many sick people?
Maybe a useful way to consider this is on the basis of risk. All jobs involve some risk. Pavement engineering is one of the
worst. No one is allowed to work in my
lab without hours of training. All my
staff on construction sites have to wear hard hats, steel-toe boots, and
reflective vests along with ear- and eye-protection. We seek to control the risk to so-called
“acceptable” levels with “appropriate” actions.
The hard part is defining the details of what is appropriate and
acceptable.
So in an age of Covid, if someone has to go to work, or
chooses to serve, play or fellowship with others, it behooves them to control
the risk, yes to themselves, but just as importantly, to the people they meet
there and come home to afterward. https://covid19risk.biosci.gatech.edu/
indicates that attending a function in Story County with 100 people means a 75
to 99% risk that someone in the group is infectious. The scary part is that that infectious person
may not be aware of their threat to the community.
We are required by scripture to gather, worship, exhort and
encourage, but can we do that with “acceptable” risk? Likewise, we are all bored with isolation
(included us introverts), and the looming winter is aggravating that
frustration; we need each other. A model of managing risk in the context
of worship may be the Chinese underground church. They do gather, quietly and carefully, trying
to fly under the radar of the authorities – they are not filling crystal
palaces. Similarly, when we gather we
should manage risk by doing what we can to limit exposure. We have to consider carefully whether our
practices are truly scripturally required, or just tradition.
I am also very nervous about endorsing any activity solely
based on someone saying “God told me,” because most of us have lousy hearing
and often His voice is drowned out by our own desires. It happens that God does speak to us
directly, but mistakes also happen (been there done that). We have to filter such instruction through all
of scripture. Likewise, “God will
protect me” does not ring true with other diseases, so why should we expect it
to apply here. We have to care for our
temples, by actions such as getting flu shots, not eating excess licorice, not
walking in the middle of the expressway, and by avoiding people who may infect
us.
Also worth noting, is that the Romans 14 passage is
addressing a church that is trying to turn around generations of
indoctrination. To eat or not to eat
certain foods is simply a conscience issue because, in general, food will not
kill us unless indulged in excess (including the guy who died of licorice
poisoning last week). A modern parallel
may be a discussion on whether should I wear a suit to church. A decision either way is not going to affect
the well-being of anyone else involved.
However, in the context of Covid, exposure to the bug could hurt you,
regardless of what you think of it or how invincible you think you are. Choosing to avoid harming others is a moral
issue and far more than just conscience or being religious.
A better picture of how Jesus dealt with contagious diseases are
the passages on leprosy. This illness was
also extremely contagious, debilitating and incurable, hence the laws to
separate the sick from the healthy.
Jesus healed the few lepers he met, but he did not heal all lepers alive
at the time. When those individuals were
healed, they were instructed to submit themselves to the authorities before
they were allowed back into the community.
He did not make leprosy go away, and he did not override the protective
systems in place.
The part where the church should be setting a shining example to
the community is in the other tasks: supporting those in need or are struggling
with being trapped at home. We are
called by scripture to serve those in need – including those who are
infectious. That may include deliberately and sacrificially exposing ourselves
to greater risk, but can we do that without risking them, or our families? An example is the medical staff living in
RV’s rather than going home. We also
need to watch our motivation in providing that service – is it to flaunt our
bravery and resources, or to live out the gospel?
Some argue that masks don’t work,
yet Dr. Fauci, among many others, repeatedly tells us that masks and space go a
long way to reducing risk, and seem to be an easy, “appropriate” and “effective” ways of demonstrating love. Refusing to do that simple action in the name
of invincibility, rights, or because they are uncomfortable and look stupid is
way beyond a matter of eating forbidden food, and appears to be profoundly selfish.
Philippians
2:3-4 “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count
others more significant than yourselves, 4 Let each of you look not only to his
own interests, but also to the interests of others.”
When I go to the office, everyone does it without
complaining. So why are the Christians being
so resistant to doing something so easy?
I suspect it is because they are being manipulated by a politically
informed obsession with “freedom” and “rights” that is not biblical. Jesus clearly instructs us to lay down our
rights for others, and our freedom is not to do what we want, but to do
want He wants: to be a living sacrifice; to love our neighbor.
To quote one of my hockey fan colleagues “Wear the …. mask, it’s
not like we are asking you to wear a Toronto Maple Leafs Jersey.”
