Editor’s Note: This article was originally published on Thomas Hwang’s blog, “Tom Talks” here. It has been edited lightly before it was republished here with permission from the author. Check out the rest of his blog here.
I remember March 15, 2020 being a historic day for us. It was the first time our church wasn’t able to physically gather as a congregation due to the spreading coronavirus virus. At the time, California had recorded 335 reported cases of coronavirus and six deaths and seemed to be increasing by the day.
As a result, Governor Newsom made the decision to close all bars, restaurants, and yes, religious gatherings. While there were always a minority of churches that protested this decision, it seemed like most Christians agreed that we shouldn’t gather to worship in order to love our neighbors (Mt 22:39) and submit to our governing authorities (Rom 13:1).
Today, there are now over 450,000 reported cases of coronavirus and 8,000 deaths. But while most churches seem to still be complying with civic authorities, some churches are now choosing to resist. For example, Grace Community Church recently took a strong stand calling every local church to physically gather because “compliance would be disobedience to our Lord’s commands.” While I respect the conviction to follow Christ and His commands over man, I tend to agree that this is more a matter of Christian freedom than faithful obedience.
At the same time, I do find this whole situation a bit strange. Unless you think COVID-19 is a huge “plandemic,” I wonder why it’s so difficult for churches to simply meet outdoors or continue meeting online. I understand that it’s not ideal, but if there’s a global pandemic going on, then isn’t this a small price to pay? Yet, I constantly hear Christians fight to re-open for several reasons. Below are the most frequent ones that I’d want to consider and address.
1. “Worship Is Essential”
Perhaps the main argument I still hear on why churches need to re-open is because like hospitals and grocery markets, worship is essential. In fact, it’s even more essential than hospitals and markets because our spiritual health is even more important than our physical health. If we’re willing to risk our health to pick up groceries, we should be willing to risk our health to go to church.
Here’s the problem: Going to church is a completely different setting than some of these other examples. If the coronavirus spreads through viral particles that especially spread indoors, then the risk of infection increases when you are a) with a large group of people b) remain indoors together for a long period of time c) are exposed to activities like singing while indoors together.
In other words, the problem is not that worship is being treated as inessential. The problem is that the risk of a church physically gathering for a prolonged period of time is incomparable to the risk of going to a grocery market. Yes, there are risks in everything you do, but it’s important to measure the risks — especially if you are calling people to put themselves at risk.
2. “Local Churches Are Being Unfairly Targeted”
Another issue that’s being brought up is how the government is targeting churches in general. The primary example cited to support this argument is the recent George Floyd protests. “If the government allowed people to gather together to protest, why don’t they allow Christians to gather together to worship?”
However, I’m not sure if this is a fair comparison. After all, our local government seems to be only prohibiting any type of large, indoor gatherings. But just as the protesters were able to gather and protest outdoors, Christians are able to gather and worship outdoors as well. Therefore, I think it’s strange to see how local churches are being singled out in any way.
Perhaps I could see churches being targeted if other secular organizations were being allowed to gather indoors while places of worship were told to remain closed. Should that ever take place, perhaps it’s a different story on how churches should respond. But I don’t see that being the case at all right now nor do I see that happening in the near future.
3. “The Coronavirus Is Not As Bad As We Thought”
It’s interesting that some Christians are still comparing the coronavirus to the flu and pointing to the low percentage of deaths as a reason to re-open. In one sense I can understand. Perhaps people originally thought there’d be far more deaths, which is why they were open shutting down the economy. But if there seems to be about a 1% mortality rate, that means about 99% of the population will be ok. So why remain closed?
One thing that’s important to realize though is that even if the mortality rate is as low as 1%, that’s still over 320,000 people who can die from this virus. This also doesn’t include the amount of hospitalizations, possible permanent lung damage, and strokes that will transpire because of the effects of COVID-19. To compare this to the flu seems to be ignorant; to attribute cases to more testing seems to be untrue; and to focus on the 99% while ignoring the 1% seems to be antithetical to the Christian faith that prioritizes the vulnerable.
What makes this different from the mortality rate of driving on the freeway or eating something unhealthy is that there seems to be a clear way to avoid the spread of this disease. But instead of playing our role, it seems like we’d rather downplay its effects.
4. “We Are Being Denied Our Civic RightsTo Religious Freedom”
If it is so clearly biblical that compliance with local authorities would be disobedience to the Lord’s command,
why aren’t more churches choosing to meet? Why do only American churches feel their liberty is being stripped? In fact, the churches that feel this way seem to be predominately White, right-wing conservative churches. Could it be that these convictions are far more American than biblical?
Even if your rights are being violated, aren’t Christians called to lay down our rights for the sake of the gospel (1 Cor 9:1-23)? Do we consider what our gatherings look like before a watching world? Yes, I understand some Christians seeing gathering together as a sign of worshiping Christ over Caesar, but does this really qualify as a time for civil disobedience?
As I’ve heard from a brother recently, perhaps the real problem is that American Christians don’t know how to “be the church” without large gatherings and activities. Perhaps it’s not persecution that we’re resisting but inconvenience, something which Americans are just not used to. In other words, before we consider calling our churches to physically gather together again, I hope we can truly examine our cultural context and discern what the Lord calls us to do.
Conclusion
When the coronavirus began to spread, the only thing Americans were able to compare this pandemic to was the 1918 Spanish Flu. However, if you research it, there’s not much written about the flu. As New York Times columnist David Brooks points out, there were no plays, books, or movies written about it. In fact, nobody really talked much about the Spanish Flu until COVID-19 hit. Why?
According to Brooks, when the flu got worse, people stopped caring for each other. They stopped volunteering. And according to Brooks, this explains the mystery why the Spanish Flu left little mark in our culture. It’s because after it was over, “People didn’t like who they had become…it was a shameful memory and therefore suppressed.” That’s why nobody talks about it.
My fear is if we’re not careful right now, then nobody — including churches — won’t be talking much about COVID-19 in the future either.