The response to the posting on my page that mentioned the Evangelical
Churches that fell in line with the president on pushing the timeline for the
sheltering in place and quarantines around the country so that Easter services can be held was interesting. Most talked about
their own churches and how their churches did not meet on Sundays, they
dutifully sheltered in place and attended services online. One person talked
about the importance of the social aspect of their church community, another boasted
about how awesome their online services were. They spoke with pride about how
their churches were able to overcome the challenge and made them able to meet
online.
The thing that stood out to me is that there is a defensiveness
in their responses. They seem to disavow the practices of the churches mentioned
in the posting. The argument was along the line of: that's not us, we're not that kind of people,
we good people who would not do that. That's all fine and good except that, and
I am not going to argue whether you are a good Christian or a bad Christian.
The tone is distinctly different from the way people talked about Muslims after
9/11. when most of America blamed
Muslims, all Muslims. There was no differentiation at that time, there are no
good Muslims, it was said, time and again. There were no differentiations
between them, there are no shades of grey. Most sane people did not buy into
the hysteria, in fact President George W. Bush very clearly differentiated
between the extremist fundamentalist and the rest of Islam. Now that the shoe is
on the other foot, many of the people are taking the easy way out by talking
about the nuances and shades of grey between Christians. Believe it or not, when
there is no separation in people’s minds. People will think in terms of
monolithic block called Christians. That
is the Christians baggage, that's your burden to take with you, the good comes with
the bad period. Just like Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, etc. have to live with the burden
of shouldering the malfeasance of their black sheep. Realistically, I
understand the differences between the fundamentalist Evangelicals sects versus
other sects of Christians. Yes it is
insane, but that is the way it is. Deal with it.
The other thing I noticed is that people are personalizing the
church’s behavior, or more accurately, their personal church’s behavior. Narrowing
down the discussion down to their own churches, as a small segment of the overall
religion. “We don't do that, we are different, we are better”. As we are
talking about this particular situation, your first reaction is defending your
little personal church? I find it interesting that no one thought about what this
action was going to do to congregations. Most of congregation are older member,
the chances of the virus spreading amongst that group of people is great and
because there's so many older people, those folks may not survive any potential
outbreak in those gatherings. There wasn’t even a “thoughts and prayers” on the
comments. Christian charity and empathy were not mentioned.
I look upon one’s moral philosophy, or morality as something
that is up to the individual. Moral philosophy is something personal and
intangible which is created through my life, through my parents moral
teachings, through my own experiences in life, through my own readings, through
my exposures to others, and even through whatever religion I was exposed to. I
personally put those beliefs through a cycle of questioning, critical thinking,
and rigorous testing every time there is a situation that's will test my
beliefs. I weigh the facts compared to my experience and I make my decision. If
I decide that my personal moral philosophy is wrong after I've gone through my
process, then I will adjust my personal moral philosophy. I am not saying that
everyone should do as I do. That would make me a hypocrite.
As I look at those people who are in those congregations, I
wonder what they think about the church leadership's intent on insisting that
they gather on Easter because that decision may very well kill someone. I
wonder personal philosophy lines up with what their leaders are telling them. If
they are not aligned, I hope that they are courageous enough to walk away
because freedom of religion means you can walk away from what they had chosen
as their congregation. Many people have in recent days. The real problem is if
they are aligned with their leaders, then I wonder about these people’s grasp
on reality, on whether they understand that they could very well be killing
their friends, neighbors, and family. This is how the Branch Davidian this is how
the Jonestown massacre happened: people who have align the personal philosophy
to that of their leaders unthinkingly and without question, because they followed
that cult of personality.
