Coronavirus and Faith

Some houses of worship are staging drive-in meetings where folk sit in cars and listen over radios or to loud-speakers as pastors preach. Some members honk their horns instead of saying amen.
  
The coronavirus outbreak has changed America and the world.
  
“Crises breed change,” said Allan Lichtman, a historian at American University.
  
History proves that statement. 
  
Mark Z. Barabak, writing for The Los Angeles Times, says, “An ‘old age’ pension was part of the 1912 Progressive Party platform . . . Yet it wasn’t until August 1935, after the economic ravages of the country’s near-collapse [the Great Depression] left millions of Americans destitute, that President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act into law.”
  
Now, many retirees depend on Social Security.
  
Barabak says World War II showed America that we needed a better foreign policy. He says that the 9/11 attacks showed weaknesses in America’s security programs and that the Great Recession (2008) showed, the dangers of “unbridled financial speculation.”
  
How will the coronavirus pandemic change us? Will we get back our lifestyles?
  
Politico magazine states, “For many Americans right now, the scale of the coronavirus crisis calls to mind 9/11 or the 2008 financial crisis — events that reshaped society in lasting ways, from how we travel and buy homes, to the level of security and surveillance we’re accustomed to, and even to the language we use.
  
“A global, novel virus that keeps us contained in our homes — maybe for months — is already reorienting our relationship to government, to the outside world, even to each other.”
  
“We know now that touching things, being with other people and breathing the air in an enclosed space can be risky,” says Deborah Tannen, professor of linguistics at Georgetown Univ. “The comfort of being in the presence of others might be replaced by a greater comfort with absence, especially with those we don’t know intimately.”
  
How will Christian fellowship be affected? 
  
“Religion in the time of quarantine will challenge conceptions of what it means to minister and to fellowship,” says Amy Sullivan. “But it will also expand the opportunities for those who have no local congregation to sample sermons from afar.”
  
In other words, people will have opportunity to listen to sermons by speakers on the internet.
  
What is happening to the rich and the poor during the coronavirus plague? 
  
“The inequality gap will widen,” says Theda Skocpol, a professor of government and sociology at Harvard. “Discussions of inequality in America often focus on the growing gap between the bottom 99 percent and the top 1 percent. But the other gap that has grown is between the top fifth and all the rest — and that gap will be exacerbated by this crisis.”
  
Sadly, the old saying about the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer may apply during this coronavirus time.
  
How will folk be affected mentally during this time of “social distancing” — staying six feet away from each other?  
  

Ed Yong, writing for The Atlantic, says, “After infections begin ebbing, a secondary pandemic of mental-health problems will follow. At a moment of profound dread and uncertainty, people are being cut off from soothing human contact. Hugs, handshakes, and other social rituals are now tinged with danger. People with anxiety or obsessive-compulsive disorder are struggling. Elderly people, who are already excluded from much of public life, are being asked to distance themselves even further, deepening their loneliness.”
  
As our society changes, Jesus Christ is still our answer — always.
  
“Jesus Christ [is] the same yesterday, and today, and for ever,” (Hebrews 13:8 KJV).
  
Whether truth is communicated in person or “streamed” by Facebook, it’s still the truth. Our hope is in our Lord Jesus Christ.
  
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6-7 ESV).