{"id":26343,"date":"2020-03-12T10:47:36","date_gmt":"2020-03-12T17:47:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=26343"},"modified":"2020-03-12T10:47:36","modified_gmt":"2020-03-12T17:47:36","slug":"confronting-covid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/confronting-covid\/","title":{"rendered":"Confronting COVID"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dr. Rebecca McLaughlin gives us a fascinating read this week in Confronting Christianity: 12 Hard questions for the World’s Largest Religion<\/em>.\u00a0 <\/em>I actually read this over Christmas break and had outlined my blog post, making a marked, yet lively reference to Ryan Dunn of MTV<\/a> fame.\u00a0 However, the recent COVID 19 news, and how the virus has caused so many people of faith to reimagine their communal life together, has made a shift in my thinking.<\/p>\n

In the section entitled \u201cReligion: A Miracle Drug\u201d[1]<\/a> McLaughlin tells of a USA Today article written by Harvard professor Tyler Vander-Weele and journalist John Siniff entitled \u201cReligion May Be a Miracle Drug.\u201d\u00a0 Discussing the numerous health benefits for practitioners the authors \u201coutline the mental and physical health benefits that are correlated with regular religious participation \u2013 for most Americans, going to church \u2013 even to the extent of reducing mortality rates by 20-30 percent over a fifteen year period.\u201d[2]<\/a> Further, \u201cresearch suggests that those who regularly attend services are more optimistic, have lower rates of depression, are less likely to commit suicide, have a greater purpose in life, are less likely to divorce, and are more self-controlled.\u201d[3]<\/a><\/p>\n

The issue today is that currently for a good portion of the flock that I serve, gathering to worship God by \u201cgoing to church\u201d is NOT in their best interests.\u00a0 You see, due to COVID 19, commonly referred to as the Coronavirus, 56% of the church I serve falls into the demographic that the Center for Disease Control has labeled as at risk, or people who are 60 years of age or older.[4]<\/a>\u00a0 According to the CDC, people that have been deemed high risk, should not go out to large gatherings, opting instead to \u201cstay home as much as possible.\u201d[5]<\/a> This has caused quite the opportunity for clergy and church leaders to demonstrate . . . wait for it . . . leadership!<\/p>\n

The church I served in New York has already cancelled ALL ministry and programming for the next four weeks.\u00a0 They of course are right next to a quarantine zone.[6]<\/a>\u00a0 The mood is so intense even the National Guard has been brought in to help \u201ckeep the peace\u201d.[7]<\/a> But what they are doing is to still hold worship services through live stream.\u00a0 The current pastor and church organist will brave the travel restrictions and meet on Sunday mornings to still, \u201clife every voice and sing\u201d and proclaim the good news of hope and resurrection.\u00a0 Bulletins will be prepared but the worship order will be emailed to the congregation and posted on the church website.\u00a0 Online giving is a possible, tangible and faithful way for the community to fulfill their pledging and tithing.\u00a0 Though not the same, the community will still gather in this fashion, praying to live boldly into an uncertain future.<\/p>\n

But not every church can live stream worship.\u00a0 For instance, the church I currently serve is not so equipped.\u00a0 Thus we are having to reimagine what \u201cgoing to church\u201d looks like.\u00a0 First, like so many others, we are experimenting with Zoom, Facebook live, and YouTube.\u00a0 Our test runs may not be pretty, but we do learn from them.\u00a0 Second, we have been told by many of the assisted living facilities in the area that we are unable to visit certain members and they are unable to leave the facility.\u00a0 Most of them do not have computers, but they do have phones.\u00a0 We have already put in place the old fashion phone tree \u2013 allowing the deacons and pastoral staff the opportunity to audibly touch most of that population within our church.\u00a0 Third, we are holding fast to what McLaughlin states on page 25, which is that \u201cWe Really Can be Happy in All Circumstances.\u201d[8]<\/a>\u00a0 Honestly, the church I currently serve should have been webcasting our services already, and this crisis is poignantly reinforcing that argument.\u00a0 It is good that we have the ability to call quarantined folks and share our experiences, for even over the phone \u201cwhere two or more are gathered in my name\u201d still resonates.\u00a0 And to top it all off, I was scheduled to be researching for my dissertation with a group of folks on Friday, and when I called to confirm learned that the location we were meeting in, had been closed due to COVID 19.\u00a0 I would have been walking into a \u201cHot Zone\u201d and am overjoyed to have learned to postpone beforehand.<\/p>\n

Needless to say, so many congregations across the world are learning and discerning how best to handle COVID 19 given their own unique context and communities.\u00a0 We here have a long way to go, but hopefully the fervency of our Religion, can act like a miracle drug, calling us to more creative community, service, and hope.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Rebecca McLaughlin, Confronting Christianity: 12 Hard questions for the World’s Largest Religion<\/em>, (Wheaton, Illinoi: Crossway, 2019), 21.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> McLaughlin, Confronting Christianity<\/em>, 21.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> McLaughlin, Confronting Christianity<\/em>, 21.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Presbyterian Church USA, \u201c2018 Comparative Summaries Statistics,\u201d accessed March 12, 2020, https:\/\/www.pcusa.org\/resource\/2018-comparative-summaries-statistics\/<\/a><\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Center for Disease Control, \u201cHigh Risk Coronavirus Populations,\u201d accessed, March 12, 2020, DC, https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/coronavirus\/2019-ncov\/specific-groups\/high-risk-complications.html#who-is-higher-risk<\/a><\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Bill Chappel, \u201cCoronavirus: New York Creates ‘Containment Area’ Around Cluster In New Rochelle,\u201d National Public Radio, accessed March 12, 2020, https:\/\/www.npr.org\/sections\/health-shots\/2020\/03\/10\/814099444\/new-york-creates-containment-area-around-cluster-in-new-rochelle<\/a><\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> BBC, \u201cCoronavirus: Troops sent to New York ‘containment zone,’\u201d accessed March, 12, 2020, https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/world-us-canada-51826317<\/a><\/p>\n

[8]<\/a> McLaughlin, Confronting Christianity<\/em>, 25.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr. Rebecca McLaughlin gives us a fascinating read this week in Confronting Christianity: 12 Hard questions for the World’s Largest Religion.\u00a0 I actually read this over Christmas break and had outlined my blog post, making a marked, yet lively reference to Ryan Dunn of MTV fame.\u00a0 However, the recent COVID 19 news, and how the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":108,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1824,1321,1825],"class_list":["post-26343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-confronting-christianity","tag-dminlgp9","tag-mclaughlin","cohort-lgp9"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/108"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26343"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26343\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26345,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26343\/revisions\/26345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}