We are now 4 years on from the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and 2 and a half years on from the full re-opening of life in the UK which effectively marked its end. The UK have been holding a public inquiry to learn lessons from the pandemic and some Christians have been encouraging the Church also to use the opportunity to reflect. I’ve included a few articles here on Faithroots attempting to contribute to that.
Whilst a public inquiry is not intended to act like a court in order to pass judgement and find blame, it is clear that many people have viewed the COVID inquiry as such. I think it’s fair to say that to some extend the discussions among Christians have moved to a similar line of questioning. Did we get it wrong? Not only is the question about whether we made mistakes but also, were we in sin?
Whilst some people have been quite strident in accusing those churches that opened up against guidance and regulations of recklessness, it does seem that generally speaking, the accusations have primarily been coming from those who did not think that the church should have complied with measures and so on several occasions, I’ve seen people argue that the church was guilty of cowardice, we allowed fear of the virus and fear of man (governments and public opinion) to dictate how we responded to the pandemic and to lockdowns.
I do not think that those charges are fair or justifiable. So, I want to respond to them first of all. First, let’s deal with the question of “cowardice”. Did we allow fear to take over. There are, I think two elements to this. First, some people are arguing that we gave into fear, whipped up by the State when actually there wasn’t that much to be afraid of. The argument goes that we complied with lockdown for something of little more danger than the common cold. If only 250,000 people died and they were primarily elderly, over 81 years of age then we were worrying over nothing.
It is helpful to remember at this point three things. First, that we were heading into the unknown. We did not know exactly how serious the virus would be both in its initial form and as it began to mutate. What we did know was three things, first that it was spreading rapidly and secondly that people were getting seriously ill leading to hospitalisation and death. Thirdly, we were also picking up quite early that unlike some other illnesses it seemed to be something that transmitted asymptomatically at quite a high level of frequency.
But what did we begin to see as time went on? With hindsight can we say that it wasn’t that serious. I think there are two very good reasons for saying no. First, the obvious point needs remaking that the mortality, hospitalisation and transmission rates happened even with all of the Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions (social distancing, lockdowns, masks) that were enforced as well as with the vaccines being introduced from January 2021.
Secondly, the pandemic happened against the backdrop both of better medical care and of generally better public health and physical fitness than say 100 years ago when the “Spanish” Influenza pandemic hit. Whilst only 250,000 people died, remember that one million were hospitalised in England, equivalent to nearly 2% of the population or a city the size of Birmingham. With different levels of health-care, we may well have seen a greater proportion of that one million succumb and die. Furthermore, there were perhaps a significant number of people who experienced severe symptoms but did not quite cross the threshold for hospital admission. Again, I suspect that 100 or more years ago with different levels of physical fitness, that many of them would have faced a bleaker outlook. All of this is to say that COVID was serious and that we should be cautious about false comparisons with previous pandemics.
If some people have argued that the virus was over-egged, others have argued that even if it was serious that Christians should not have acted in fear because this betrayed a lack of trust in God. We should have had confidence in God either to protect us, to keep us free from the illness and provide healing or to take us safely home to be with him. Did we prioritise physical needs over spiritual needs. Some Christians have even commented that we did not protest that churches were closed whilst hospitals remained open.
Let me invite you in on a secret. The NHS in effect did physically close, just as much as churches and other things did. During the pandemic, we saw cancellations of operations, consultations and investigations. We saw telephone GP appointments replace face to face contacts. So the church was not doing what the NHS wouldn’t. But that is in fact not the point. That’s not how we make decisions. Just as we didn’t comply personally only because we believed politicians were but because we thought it the right thing to do, so too with churches.
Repentance is required where there has been sin. It is clear that churches that sought to obey the law of the land, to love their congregations and to find ways to gather the church through technology were not in sin.
Faithroots 