Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Evangelical
Politics and Religion
Back to Church, Finally!

Back to Church, Finally!

Last updated on: May 11, 2020 at 6:00 am by Gene Veith

0 Comments

Back to Church, Finally! 2020-05-10T18:06:23-04:00 Gene Veith

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Our state, Oklahoma, is “opening up” from the coronavirus shutdown so we were able to go to church for the first time in seven weeks!

We still had to be socially distanced, which was awkward. We couldn’t sing, since that activity projects droplets from the lungs. The liturgy was somewhat truncated and it had to be spoken, not chanted.

But how good it was to be there! To be absolved! To receive the Sacrament of Christ’s Body and Blood! To be immersed in God’s Word! To see everyone again, though at a distance!

Though we had been bearing up well during the quarantine, going to church was a big boost to our mood, our morale, and our sense of well-being.

I had mentioned here that our county was hard hit by the coronavirus. A few weeks ago, Oklahoma released a more detailed breakdown of the cases by city. It turns out, nearly all of our county’s cases were concentrated in a much larger municipality, which has had a total of 48 cases and 7 deaths. But our little community has had only 2 confirmed cases, no deaths, and 2 recoveries. Even though we had drive-through testing at our hospital, that number has not changed for weeks. In fact, our county total has just gone up by one over that time.

Still, we are social distancing, wearing masks, not going out, and sheltering in place. It’s interesting how our country, indeed most countries, is approaching this pandemic. Instead of identifying the sick people and putting them in quarantine–the usual practice through the centuries–we are putting everyone in quarantine, the well along with the sick. We treat everyone the same, with our restrictions and our bailouts, regardless of how they are affected by the virus.

Our governor, Kevin Stitt, is getting criticized in some circles for relaxing the restrictions too early. He and the other governors who are trying to get their states going again are not really following President Trump’s guidelines of waiting for two weeks of downward epidemic numbers before starting phased re-openings. Gov. Stitt made his decision based on the drop-off of the demand for hospital facilities. We have plenty of Intensive Care Units. Putting it that way sounds kind of grim, but it’s pragmatic.

Since increased testing means more discoveries of cases, and since death reporting varies so much from place to place–with some counting only tested COVID-19 mortalities, some counting “presumed” cases, some adding deaths from related causes and some not, and some adding into the total deaths from weeks ago that have been re-classified as COVID-related–it’s hard to know where we stand with this epidemic.

Already the media is trumpeting increases in new cases as evidence that the states relaxing their restrictions have made a deadly mistake. But, as A. G. Hamilton points out, the data they cite is highly misleading:

(1) Given the incubation period and a lag in testing, new cases that are identified on a certain day are unlikely to have any relationship to policies implemented days earlier.

(2) “New cases” is a very misleading metric because it does not account for increases in testing. The rate of positive tests in Texas has declined significantly.

Mainstream outlets have attempted to tie new cases and deaths to recent re-opening actions in Florida, Georgia, and Texas, despite it being clear that any spike in cases or deaths would not be apparent for weeks after such policy changes. Such actions could lead to a spike in new cases, but trying to tie them to those seen right now is clearly incorrect.

More revealing is the percentage of tests that turn out to be positive for COVID-19, and Hamilton cites data and gives a chart showing that those numbers are going down.

But we’ll have to see. Maybe Oklahoma and these other states are opening too soon. But we cannot keep the economy shut down for long. Just these seven weeks have been catastrophic. At some point, we’ll have to give up the effort and accept the consequences.

We cannot afford to wait the year or 18 months or more until we have a vaccine. We may not ever get a vaccine. The World Health Organization (WHO) has said that “there is no evidence” that having antibodies for the virus confers immunity. “No evidence” simply means that science has come to no determination one way or the other, another example of how little we know about this virus. There have reportedly been cases of re-infection, with some individuals testing positive, then negative, then positive again. But that might be due to the inaccuracy of the tests, which is another reason why we cannot look to testing as the pre-requisite for removing the restrictions. The point is, if antibodies do not confer immunity to COVID-19 and since vaccines work by causing the body to produce antibodies, doesn’t that mean that a COVID-19 vaccine would be impossible? (Someone please correct me if I’m wrong. Please! I hope I am!)

We may just have to learn how to live with–and die with–the coronavirus.

Being able to go to church will help with that.

Photo: Church Is Open
cc-by-sa/2.0 – © Keith Evans – geograph.org.uk/p/4297841

coronavirus and the church

coronavirus epidemic

coronavirus restrictions

COVID-19 vaccine

ending COVID-19 shutdown

Previous Post

May 8, 2020

Reversing Religious Decline

Next Post

May 12, 2020 Singing Is Unlikely to Spread COVID-19

Recent Comments

0 | Leave a Comment

"VCRs, tape decks, and cassette players are all having a revival among a segment of ..."

Tom Hering

Luther on Tools

"As a (retired) lawyer I see potential liability from sharing things like power or sharp ..."

reg

Luther on Tools

"I am not sure the items you mentioned, though disused, discontinued, discarded, could be considered ..."

reg

Luther on Tools

"“Friend, use me in your relations with your neighbor just as you would want your ..."

DakotaLutheran

Luther on Tools

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category America Apologetics Art baseball Bible Blog Christ Church crime Culture Economics Education Ethics Family Food Football Government History Holidays Holy Week Humor International Islam Language Law Life Issues Literature Media Medicine Movies Music Nature News Personal Philosophy Politics psychology Reformation Religions Sacraments Science sex Social Science Sports technology television terrorism Theology Uncategorized Vocation war

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008 April 2008 March 2008 February 2008 January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who said: "Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken the love you had at first"?

Select your answer to see how you score.

The Spirit John Jesus (to the church in Ephesus) An angel

Books by This Author Books by Gene Veith

See All Titles »