A friend of mine posted something I have been afraid I was going to see but have been hopeful that maybe I would be surprised. A church has been refusing to honor the stay home / shelter-in-place policy of its local government, because they are not going to allow the government to tell them they cannot meet. Amazingly enough, the governor made religious activities essential and therefore not subject to the order. I have read similar statements of various individuals over the past few weeks about government control and the ignorance and short-sightedness is mind-blowing to me.
Now, you who know me, know that I absolutely think that church attendance is essential. I attend church every Sunday under normal circumstances. (I will not get into all the “whys” here but suffice it to say that I consider church attendance essential.) My heart grieves over not being able to gather with my church family next Sunday for Easter.
Now, I also know that there are many possibilities of things that we do not want the government to tell us to do as “religious” organizations; however, taking each situation individually, this is a scenario in which we should be making the decision ourselves and the right choice is a no-brainer!
This concept that the government is trying to exert control over the people by these orders is ridiculous. I am curious if these same people consider a stoplight to also be the government trying to exert inappropriate or over-reaching control? Really? Imagine the chaos at a busy intersection if stoplights did not exist.
As for the churches or other “religious” gatherings, for non-“churchy” people (as my neighbor would say 😉 ), please know that there are many, many, many “churchy” people who do not carry this same viewpoint. I know hundreds, if not thousands, of church groups who are choosing to meet virtually in order to honor government orders and also individual safety needs. Many have taken on additional work and expense in order to do so.
For the “churchy” among my readers, what sort of a message do we send when we need to serve what we perceive as “our rights” versus having sensitivity to the needs of the people. Which would Jesus choose to do? We see in God’s Word that we are to honor those in authority over us (Rom 13:1-2). We also consistently see Jesus only reaching out with love and compassion for the people. His responses of judgement and disdain were only for the religious leaders who were leading the people according to their own agendas and not the principles of God’s kingdom.
Stay home people! Churchy or not. The longer you choose to violate these measures to manage this virus, the longer we all have to deal with this: the more people will lose their jobs / income and the greater number of people will die.
Denise Travanti 