It’s like the movies we’ve seen: an outbreak of a deadly disease that risks the life of millions around the globe. Hollywood and scientists have warned us for decades. Historians have tried to jog our thick skulled minds of past plagues that have wiped out large swaths of the human population. Yet, our governments and communities were totally unprepared…again.
In truth, is it possible to fully prepare? In a crisis, so much of our response truly needs to be in the moment and only after the ever shifting factors finally come to light. It’s like trying to prepare for a car accident—we do what we can, the car manufacturers have had to adjust their safety measures for decades (and continue to do so), and then we have to simply respond to what happens when it happens, but understand that it is likely to happen no matter our preparation or defensive driving techniques because at some point someone is going to lose focus, even for a split second—it could be me, it could you, it could be someone else. With as many people on the road (and in our communities), accidents are inevitable, not just possible. The same is true with the ever increasing regularity of viruses and mutated viruses.
Influenza is a good example of a virus that is actually multitudes of variations and mutations the make doctors urge us to get the latest and greatest vaccine every year in order to respond to “that year’s” variation. At this point, it is inevitable, not just probably, that a good majority of us would be infected with influenza if not for the vaccines—which are, as I understand, really just dead versions of the virus to give our immune systems the blueprints to develop the antibodies (in essence, we are getting the flu, just not all the symptoms of an active virus. (breathe)
In December and January, the news outlets were telling us the Coronavirus that causes the COVID-19 infection was “over there,” way over in China and a Chinese problem. By the mid-February, cases started popping up all over the world, most notably in Italy, but also the U.S. Still, we were being told it is isolated. The Monday morning quarterbacking after the face by secular and religious leaders was astounding, each prognosticating in March and April about what we should have been doing all along. That’s kind of our M.O., right? We prepare after a crisis for the next crisis. As time goes on, our efforts become lax. Then: BAM! We’re slammed with another crisis when we least expect it.
BUT, little did many of us know until a couple of months ago that in 2017, the joint Obama-Trump transition teams run a pandemic preparedness exercise, it seems mostly in response to the Ebola pandemic that we narrowly escaped from actually becoming a pandemic. The point of the exercise, according to POLITICO, was to outline the kind of response that would be necessary in the event a pandemic even gave a hint of becoming a pandemic: that science needed to lead the response; that decisions in the early days and hours of a potential pandemic were absolutely vital to any containment success; that all departments and organizations needed to come together for a unified and multifaceted response; and that “medical countermeasures” were absolutely key, which included, oddly enough, social distancing and responding to shortages of…wait for it…ventilators and protective gear like masks, gloves, and gowns. Now here’s the kicker: all the people from the Trump administration that were part of that early exercise and response development team were fired or forced to resign within the first year or two of Mr. Trump’s administration. Yup, every single one of them, with several having already been convicted of crimes.
While I am not afraid to get political (echoes of a “Weird Al” Yankovic-esque version of Olivia Newton-John’s 2000 hit, “Let’s Get Physical” ring in my ear: “Let’s get political, political, yeah let me hear your party talk, party talk!”), I generally avoid partisanship here on Faith & Coffee. For one, I don’t really care who is in charge so long as they have the best interests of the people in mind, especially the most vulnerable (stop laughing!). Both major parties in the U.S. have made great strides and have made grave errors in judgment over the years that have resulted in horrible conditions that continue to keep the poor poor and the rich rich. And all of it has, in the long run, made America (I mean…the United States, as opposed to Canada, Mexico, Brazil, etc.) not so great…again.
Lately, though, it seems the Republican party has thrown out their old “small government” and “physical conservative” values for big government but only when meets certain homophobic and xenophobic needs or lines certain pockets. Fiscal conservancy seems to only apply to anything that might actually improve the average person’s quality of life. Their economic platforms since the great Reagan era border on fiscal lunacy when it comes to their insatiable appetite to continue to build the already insane and famously Truman labeled “military industrial complex.”
But, ultimately, in the words of Jim Wallis and others, God is not a Republican or a Democrat, and Jesus would probably be turning over tables at both their revival rallies…or…I mean, party conventions.
While the parties in Washington and in our state governments play political ping pong with the lives and wellbeing of the poor, hungry, and sick, they release the blackest of plagues (plagues of lies and willful ignorance) upon the most vulnerable in our country—the same people who are also the backbone of most of our major industries. Talk about biting the hand that feeds you! Except here, the rich nip at the hands of their workers who help those same wealthy and powerful build their mini-empires. And there are those who did work hard to build this country but are now retired or physically unable to work, and we throw them away into crappy nursing homes like last week’s inkjet cartridge. This is not making the U.S. great. It just isn’t. It’s making us more selfish, more insular, more self-focused, and less generous, less welcoming, and less like a real community.
So what does a person of faith do in our present circumstances? How does a person of faith respond to the hellish policies that give even the most progressively minded of us visions of John’s anti-Christ in his oft-misunderstood “revelation”? Many of us are so afraid of making things worse for our neighbors, especially those who might be of a darker skin, that we tacitly allow such grotesque behavior by our silence, our unwillingness to get singed in the heat of the debates that we should be having as a society, deciding what kind of nation and society we really want to be or have. What does true civility look like? Is it trampling on the poor underfoot (reference to the prophet Amos), or is it healing them of their social scarlet letters and redeeming them back into full membership in our communities (reference so many of Jesus’ healings and teachings)?
I am not advocating for a purely Christian nation. The U.S. has never been and should never be a Christian nation because that will embroil us in the kinds of holy wars that continue to be scars on just about every religion around the world, directly contradiction most holy texts which call for peace, not indoctrination or manipulation. But that doesn’t mean that we can’t advocate for the same kinds of values that Jesus and so many other religions and sacred texts espouse.
As we all hunker down, clear out the grocery store shelves (leaving little to nothing for others, knowing we’ll probably end up throwing out a good portion of what we bought), and prepare for the long haul, let’s be mindful of those who do not have the resources to hunker down. Let’s be mindful of those who are being laid off from small and medium sized businesses because there is little to business to be had.
Have you reached out to your neighbors? Do you know your neighbors? Now might be a good time to finally find a way to connect and offer support. Do you have a spare roll of toilet paper? Can you help a neighbor with a compromised immune system get some groceries, even if it is slim pickings right now? Maybe you can do a little search on the internet to find their phone number or leave a note on their door letting them know you’re there if they need anything. I imagine Jesus doing that (I actually imagine Jesus already knowing the neighbors of whoever’s house he happened to be staying at).
Faith in crisis is a faith that reaches out rather than huddling in. Faith in crisis is a faith that reaches out because we need help, and is willing to offer help. Faith in crisis is a faith that finds ways to continue to find ways to help feed and care for the homeless.
Well, I just finished my coffee, so I best get on with my day now.