Thoughts on the christian response to COVID-19

Originally published on Medium Dec 25, 2021

Jesus had one motive and it was to turn people into children of God. As Christians we are called to be disciples of Christ. As disciples our sole motive in this life should be to glorify Jesus Christ. Simple enough right? Sure, but how should we bring glory to Jesus? Well we can start and end by following His commands. Thankfully He provided clear and undeniable instructions on what those commands are.

Mark 12:28–31

One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”

“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’

The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’

There is no commandment greater than these.”

So, in the light of the second command I am going to make my case for how disciples of Christ should respond to the pandemic.

To start I will recognize that all men to some degree or another love the darkness (John 3:19) and that it takes a miracle of the Holy Spirit to bring someone out of the darkness and turn her or him into a disciple. What is darkness? Put simply it is someone claiming their right to them self; to live life from their point of view. However, as disciples of Christ we are called to march to a different drum, to be different (Galatians 2:20). We give up our right to our self. Our entire life is devoted to following Christ’s command and to make disciples.

There is a lot going on in our world today. There is too much anger, strife, hate, malice, injustice, and very little peace. As disciples of Christ we are called to be peacemakers and this calling puts us in a unique position to speak love, peace, and restoration into the world. Right now that is what the world needs — love sweet love and a good helping of peace too.

Jesus says in Matthew 5 that the peacemakers are blessed because they will be called children of God (side note::interesting that peace leads to the fulfillment of Christ’s mission). You could make a very compelling case that there is no harder time in the history of our world than right now to be a peacemaker. I know of too many Christians whose primary motive is to claim their right to them self in the defense of their new god — patriotism. Now I know that that is a scalding statement but hear me out. We need a more balanced approach to the pandemic that is ravaging not only our country but the world. We need to get re-rooted in love for our neighbor and recognize that first and foremost we are to follow the commands given by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We need to view our neighbors through the lens of empathy instead of narcissism.

So, where do we start? Well how about with masks…

A Christians response to Masks

If we are called to “Love your neighbor as yourself” how does that look when asked to wear a mask? My pastor was talking the other Sunday about Pascal’s Wager (an all or nothing styled argument) and I think it is a good way to view not only the mask mandate but other facets of the COVID-19 mandates. First for those not familiar with Pascal’s Wager it goes like this:

Suppose there is no God.

Then when I die, as a believer, I have lost nothing.

I just die, as a man that devoted his life to love and morals.

But if you, as a non-believer, are wrong and I am right, you have to spend an eternity in hell.

I have nothing to lose, but you have everything to lose.

Taking the all or nothing argument into the realm of masks first we must establish that there are one of three possible truths about mask:

1. Masks do help prevent the spread of COVID-19.

2. Masks do not help prevent the spread of COVID-19.

3. This option does not exist, only one of the above two claims can be true.

Before I begin I am assuming that you, the reader, are a believer that understands that at the end of your life G-d will hold you accountable for your actions. This article is geared towards Christians. If you are agnostic/atheist then do whatever you want — there are no eternal consequences. Unless you are wrong then there are…

So, let us assume that contrary to scientific consensus that number two is correct (To be absolutely clear I believe number two to be emphatically and undeniably false. I believe that masks do help slow and/or prevent the spread of COVID-19. For the sake of this argument though I am playing the devil’s advocate.).

A revised pascal wager:

Masks do not help prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Therefore when you die, G-d will not hold you accountable for not wearing a mask that did nothing to stop the spread of a contagious deadly disease.

But if masks do help prevent the spread of COVID-19 and you chose not to wear one you will be judged for the reckless lack of caring for your neighbors welfare.

How do you think G-d will respond to that blatant disregard for the welfare of your fellow man when you face Him?

Let me put it another way. If the second greatest commandment is to love our neighbors am I breaking that commandment if I kill my neighbor?

What if I choose to drive recklessly on the highway and because of that choice I kill another person? Am I loving that person?

What if I decide to climb to the top of tall building and throw cinder blocks off the top and one hits a person and kills them? Am I loving that person?

What if I refuse to wear a mask inside of a grocery story and a fellow shopper inhales my exhaled saliva particles, contracts COVID-19, and dies a few weeks later? Am I loving that person?

The only significant difference between those three scenarios is that the first two have an immediate confirmation of consequential behavior; while the last one the perpetrator may never know that their choices resulted in someones death. However, just because they do not have immediate undeniable confirmation of their choices leading to someones death does that mean they are not guilty of killing that person? Of course not (especially when experts are telling them that their behavior is dangerous).

A Christians response to Fear

I do not know anyone who enjoys social distancing, stay at home orders, and hand sanitizer EVERYWHERE most of just wish things could go back to the way they used to be. Like pre-9/11 when you could walk to the gate with a loved one at the airport to say goodbye. I have lost count of how many times my far-right friends and family have told me that mandate followers are succumbing to fear (and a whole host of other things such as socialist mind control methods, an accusation that I will avoid discussing in this article).

Wearing a mask is not succumbing to fear and here is why. I have been driving cars for 22 years. I have been traveling in cars for 38 years. In all that time and at least the million miles I have driven I have only been involved in two car accidents. If you follow the logic of the anti-mandators that posits that those who wear masks are succumbing to fear then I beg the question: Are you succumbing to fear when you wear a seatbelt while driving?

At the time of publishing my odds of getting in a car accident are around two in at least a million (probably more), while my chances of getting COVID-19 are 1 in 40 (two hundred million infections against a world population of almost eight billion). Yet I still chose to wear my seat-belt… Engaging in risk minimizing behavior is not giving into fear, it is being wise. I wear a helmet when I ride my bike. I use a rope when I am rock climbing. To not do so is resolving to engage in a suddenly much more risky activity.

Going back to the aforementioned revised Pascal’s Argument if there is nothing to fear yet my neighbor chooses to engage in fearing something that does not really exist is it then loving my neighbor to mock them, shame them, ostracize them, penalize them, or laugh at them? Now on the other hand how will my bully like behavior be judged, in the end by G-d, if my neighbor is indeed correct to be concerned, to be fearful, and I am incorrect about COVID-19 being a deadly disease and therefore not following basic guidelines to help slow or prevent its spread? I get it COVID-19 is at the least a huge inconvenience and at its worst it can kill you. No one likes having to stand in huge lines at the grocery store, wear masks outside in 90 heat, or being told to stay at home if infected. However, today counts for forever — so love your neighbor and do what you are told (Mark 12:13–17)

To drive this point home let me ask, what was the last instructions Jesus gave before departing for Heaven after His resurrection?

Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.

How in the world are you going to successfully preach the gospel to all of creation if you do not meet people where they are at? How do your actions of anger, resentment, frustration, and disobedience as a professing disciple of Christ appear to those who are lost and in need of hearing the gospel preached to them? I have chosen to believe the experts that are telling me that COVID-19 is a real disease that can kill and has killed millions of people, which leads me to my third and final point.

A Christians response to The Vaccine

I used to be an anti-vaxxer. It was one of the many assumptions of “gospel” truth I used to believe, plus let’s be honest it kind of goes hand in hand with the far-right movement these days. Having just recently ran for my life (literally) from that band wagon I have fresh memories of the distrust and incredulity I had towards the whole pharmaceutical industry. I have seen this similar attitude of distrust and incredulity in the recent stance taken by those against getting the COVID-19 vaccine. A common anti-vaxxer justification for not getting vaccinated goes something like this:

“It is a logical leap wider than the Grand Canyon to conclude that a person choosing not to be vaccinated is “killing” other people. Particularly in an era of free, effective vaccines for those who want them, such a statement is jaw dropping hyperbole to say the least.” (a quote from an actual article taken from a prominent far-right “news” source that I will not grace with a hyperlink ).

In our day to day life we trust experts with all sorts of things. Can I prove that the moon is indeed on average 238,855 miles away from earth? No, I am not an expert. I do not posses the equipment or knowledge to prove or disprove this information. The experts have told me that this number is accurate — so, would I then be wrong to say that they are incorrect and that the moon is actually 485,654 miles from earth? Of course I would. Scientists, doctors, and epidemiologist (experts in their prospective fields) are telling me that COVID-19 can and will mutate if left on its own and that the best chance of stopping it is to get vaccinated. If I chose to ignore that qualified advice and a variant does mutate and begin spreading then I am partially responsible for helping that mutated variant spread. Therefore, by choosing not to be vaccinated I am contributing to a situation that is killing people.

Of course this supposes that the scientists, doctors, and epidemiologists are correct. They could also all be incorrect. So, what do I lose if I get vaccinated and they are wrong? On the flip side though — what do I lose if they are right and I do not get vaccinated? Well by making one choice I am guilty of killing other people (which I have already established earlier as not loving them). On the other side of the argument if I get vaccinated and it does help stop the spread of variants then I am guilty of loving my neighbor (by increasing their odds of not contracting a mutated variation of the COVID-19 virus and dying).

As a vegan I believe that there is ample proof of immoral behavior in the animal food product industry, undeniable negative health consequences from eating food filled with preservatives, synthetic hormones, chemicals, and dyes, and a negative effect of those food choices on our planet. All of these things are wrong (Revelations 11:18b) and I have chosen to take a stance against them. Before going vegan my family spent around $1,500 a year per person on animal products (milk, cheese, meat, etc…). Removing that $1,500 from the food industry is an infinitesimal drop in the bucket. What kind of change can that really make? Well not much on its own but when you combine those choices with other like minded people the amplification becomes impossible to ignore. I recently read that 10% of Americans are plant based or vegans. Doing the math that is roughly 33 million people or $49,500,000,000.00 yearly (assuming each of those people spent an average of $1,500 a year on animal based products) not going into the animal food product industry. That is a huge voice for change and from only 10% of the population. Imagine if 100% of all Christians got vaccinated today? Your small actions can have global consequences.

The vaccine should not be a political statement (https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/08/opinion/anti-vaccine-america.html). Masks should not be a political statement. Social distancing should not be a political statement. And they should absolutely 100% undeniably not be political statement from professing Christians who claim to espouse Christian values. This should be obvious but to many it is not, hence the reason for my decision to publish this article.

I would be remiss if I did not acknowledging that there are many people who have valid and reasonable reasons for not having gotten the vaccine yet (work conflicts, and pre-existing medical conditions for example). I am hesitant to add fear of adverse effects to the qualified list because the propensity for adverse effects is very very low. However, there is a lot of false information out there — so I understand that there are some who are fearful. Almost my entire family is anti-vaxxers, so by getting the vaccine I was pushing back against all the “advice” from my family. I would be lying if I said that I was not a little fearful that maybe they were right… Either way I am in no way speaking against those people and the situations that they find themselves in that have precluded them from getting the vaccine.

If you do not have a valid reason for not getting the vaccine then I ask the question can you really call yourself a Christian? Harsh I know, and we all fall short… However, if you are willing to compromise on the health, well being, and livelihood of countless people than what else are you compromising on?

I know that there will be those who are firmly opposed to my viewpoints and believe my arguments to be fraught with holes. To those who fall into that camp, that is fine. You do not have to agree with me. Just answer the question: How do your actions in regards to COVID-19 prove that you are adhering to the command to love your neighbors as yourself? Furthermore in the light of John 14:15 if you are not following the command to love your neighbor are you truly capable of loving G-d and if you are not loving G-d how can you bring His son glory, which should be your primary motive in this life?

As Christians we are called to love our neighbor (for a refresher on who your neighbor is read Luke 10:25–37) and during this global pandemic we are being offered an incredible opportunity to showcase Christ’s love to our neighbors. Our actions of loving our neighbors will pour forth speech and dark night after dark night they will reveal knowledge but no sound will be heard from them. What a wonderful way to go and preach the gospel to all of creation!

2 Corinthians 4:16–18

… Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day.

For our present troubles are small and will not last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!

So we do not look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.

As a Christian on this earth are you making the most of your time here or are you more concerned with your rights to yourself such as constitutional freedoms, breathing “free air”, your personal comfort; and being dragged down by anger, malice, discontentment, frustration, hatred, and resentment towards your neighbors?