Covid won't stop. . .

At this stage of the pandemic, when reason has prevailed over the extreme rules and requirements that were issued in the panic of disease, you might think that Covid would stop being the center of our attention.  Yes, I know it was bad and many, too many, died.  But the irrational laws and mandates imposed to bind our freedoms were a scandal and even more a shock how we swallowed the kool-aid in the face of fear.  It was a case of imbalance with the tilt definitely toward the panic.

In the aftermath of Covid, the state of New York required all public school teachers and staff to submit to vaccination or be terminated from their positions. The mandate incorporated religious exemptions for the typical suspects,, Christian Scientists, for example. Accommodation was even made for faiths whose leaders “publicly” opposed the shots. In this way the Seventh-day Adventists also got a quasi-institutional exemption.  However, for Lutherans or Roman Catholics, especially because of their conviction with regard to abortion and the used of fetal cells in the development or production of medicines and vaccines, there was no relief.  Why?  Because our leaders did not condemn the shots.  If you recall, our leaders along with most either tacitly approved or vocally and enthusiastically called for people to get the jab.  Pope Francis said it was a necessary “act of love.” Now the Supreme Court will now be asked to decide the constitutionality of New York's requirement. 

At our District Convention, a motion which called for the church (not even individuals) to repent of the mistakes and errors and sins committed during the pandemic failed.  It failed because no one wants to talk about that anymore and everyone believes it is better to leave sleeping dogs lie.  I am not sure whether the motion would have made any difference but I do know that we made many mistakes as a church body.  One of them was treating the decision to be vaccinated as a private matter without giving proper attention to the vaccine and its development and manufacture given our consistent protection of fetal life and the treatment of fetal remains.  The other was a confusion among our leaders on just about every level.  Most of them called us to live according to the laws and rules and regulations -- different in every state.  Rather than confront the muck and mire of federal panic and misinformation and the worse situation on the part of states, our leaders left us to handle it on our own as best we could while honoring the mandates the governments had put in place.  The result was everything from congregations shut down over months and months to communion through the mail or online to video worship that was considered an adequate replacement for being together in the Lord's House.  We were fools.  Everyone knows it.  

While I am happy to say that my parish never shut down and continued to hold services (even with police cars in the parking lot), some of those extreme voices are paying no political price for their excess.  Think here of Kentucky Governor Beshear who made an early tour to scout his presidential prospects for the next primary and national election cycle.  Are you kidding me?  This is the guy who screamed at people and threatened to have state troopers take down the car tag numbers in church parking lots if people dared to worship and ordered people to self-quarentine for two weeks if they drove over the state line.  Church leaders were also a messy confusion of responses with a few adamant against the mandates imposed but most telling us we just needed to go along to get along and pray.  

The religious groups given exemption are small and marginal and certainly not political —Jehovah’s Witnesses, Seventh-day Adventists, Christian Scientists, Amish.  Why were they granted more leeway than others with more numbers and political pull?  The difference is that there was no such legitimacy accorded other religious groups because their leaders and their churches did not have a uniform or any real support for those who challenged the vaccine and other protocols.  So the reality is that Lutherans and Roman Catholics who did not go along with the government mandates and vaccines with respect to Covid were considered not very good Lutherans or Roman Catholics -- not quite true but true enough in the eyes of the government.  This is exactly the problem which needs to be fixed before the next pandemic or similar situation comes along in which individual rights and government overreach clash and church leaders give formal or tacit support for the government's side of things.  My point here is not to point fingers at individuals but to suggest that we could have done better and should have done better to offer support for those of us who did not go with the flow of mandates, social policies, and vaccines.  Maybe the Supreme Court will get it right before the churches do in this case.