The COVID pandemic brought many of us into closer contact with mortality than we were used to. With a high proportion of the population being at least significantly ill and high numbers going on to be hospitalised, intubated and even dying, it meant that lots of people knew at least of someone who had been affected.
Of course, as I observed in my initial article looking back at the pandemic, there will still have been many who went through the pandemic without direct relationships to those most impacted. They were however affected by the measures that were taken in an attempt to restrict the spread of the virus. We were all subjected to new rules or guidance. There were periods of time when we couldn’t gather indoors, when we had to socially distance and when we had to wear face masks.
I suspect that our experiences affected our views. If your experience was primarily of the emotional, physical and economic impact of lockdowns and you weren’t particularly aware of people suffering from the virus, then you would be more likely to be sceptical of measures. If you did know someone who got very sick, if you or a friend were bereaved or if you knew that your own health condition made you especially vulnerable then you may have been more likely to see the measures as necessary and more fearful of a return to normal.
This made life challenging for church leaders. From July 2020 onwards in much of the UK, the pandemic was still with us but restrictions on meeting in person were eased, providing measure such as face masking and social distancing were adhered to. Pastors came under heavy pressure from one side that thought the easing of restrictions was happening too rapidly. Some people were desperate for churches to stay on line. Others were pressing for a quick return to in person meeting and indeed wanted churches to go further than the law and guidelines permitted. They wanted church leaders to ignore masking and distancing guidelines and also to resist any future attempts to reintroduce lockdowns.
Often these different views were expressed passionately and at times both sides came across as angry. Not only were judgements questioned but motives too. Some leaders were accused of being reckless and unloving whilst others were accused of compromising with the world and giving in to evil human government. This was perhaps worse in some parts of the US where COVID became a proxy for the culture wars but it was present in other countries too.
Some people even doubted the veracity of claims about the pandemic, claiming that the whole thing was engineered by big money and big government. Rumours abounded that the vaccines were not needed, did not work and in fact were themselves dangerous. Some people even got drawn into some of the darker conspiracy theories that circulate in the internet. Equally, those who were more worried about the virus itself considered governments to be reckless and even accused politicians of having blood on their hands. It seems that the result was that COVID became and remains a point of division amongst some Christians.
It seems to me, that we found ourselves suddenly in an uncertain and chaotic world. It was a world over which none of us had much control. The result was fear. It was this fear, whether of a disease or of those in authority which was often expressed as anger and suspicion.
If this is so, then one of the things we need to consider as we look forward is what it means to have a healthy and functioning theology of fear and control. We may one day face another pandemic again and we may in the future face situations where governments act in a crisis in ways we don’t agree with and don’t like. Will we be prepared and equipped to respond well.
It will be helpful to think about two things. First, healthy and unhealthy control. There is a healthy sense of control, we live under Christ’s lordship, he is the one truly in control but as human beings, we are also called to fill and subdue the earth. Humans are meant to have some authority and control over the planet. What does this mean in terms of disease control, vaccines and cures? However, we are not ultimately sovereign and so we can never completely master the circumstances around us. Does our response to crises show that we trust in God’s sovereignty, not our own strength?
Secondly, we need to think about what we do with our fear. What does it mean for perfect love to cast out fear? Is there an appropriate type of fear? Thirdly, we need to consider how those fears became the cause of friction and division. Do our fears cause us to get things out of proportion? Do they affect which voices we listen to and how does that affect Christian unity?
Faithroots 