COVID19: Easter Ironies

Easter is upon us. Italy, which knows a little something about hard-core Christianity, has banned church gatherings. Muslim countries, including hard-hit Iran, have closed mosques to prayer services. The United States, now number one in confirmed cases and deaths, has decided to be different. Half of these decidedly un-United States are allowing church services as long as the churches follow "CDC guidelines." And that may be an undercount, as some states who are officially against church gatherings are either not penalizing offenders or simply looking the other way. It is Easter and all that.

The irony of celebrating a resurrection by killing people seems to be lost on some U.S. Christians. Many of the worst transmission events during this pandemic have been religious services. So why would any rational society allow them? Why not mandate that all church services be online? Are there reasons behind the madness?

Let's examine some contributing factors:

1) Need for routine. As described in previous entries, humans under duress retreat to routinized behaviors. Southern evangelicals consider church-going a core routine. Instead of initiating novel behaviors for a novel threat, they hold onto core routines, thereby putting themselves at physical risk. They risk their lives for a faux sense of control.

2) Consequences from "somewhere else" are disregarded as evidence. A prayer meeting in Iran gets ignored as an ominous trace event because, well, it's in Iran and they're Muslims. A funeral in New York is ignored because, well, they're Jewish and it's in New York. A major transmission church service in Kentucky is ignored by border state Tennessee because? Evidently because it occurred beyond Tennessee's border. Kentucky, having suffered that church event, has been much more strident in recommending cessation of in-person services than Tennessee.

3) Christians are conveniently ignoring asymptomatic transmission issues because either they don't care or they are woefully uninformed, which would put them in company with Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, who said he had just learned about asymptomatic transmission before his April 1st press conference.

4) Christians are also ignoring churches as really bad transmission zones. Enclosed spaces with people shouting or singing are particularly virulent environments in terms of both difficulty maintaining spacing and potential virus load exposure. Six feet is a long distance between people, effectively reducing the number who should be in a church by at least half. Does anyone expect churches to turn people away so that CDC instructions can maintained?

5) Americans aren't used to following communal guidelines. Millions of Christians may attend church services Sunday. They have every right to risk their own lives celebrating a resurrection. They should not, however, have the right to become infected during the services, then leave church and infect people beyond their congregations. That isn't religion; it's reckless selfishness.


Probabilistic Certainties

Hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, will physically attend church services Sunday. It's probabilistic but certain that, barring a miracle, many will fall ill because they attended. It's probabilistic but certain that some will die.

Those who become infected because they attended Easter services will infect others. Some of those others will become sick. Some will die.

So Americans know these facts, beyond a doubt, as they walk in the church doors Sunday. But because there will be no smoking gun pointing directly at individuals saying, "You made this person sick," the church-going Christians don't care. At least not enough to skip Easter at church. With no chain of direct responsibility for illness and death, people can walk away arguing that they did nothing wrong.

Americans tend to think that outcomes framed probabilistically don't apply to the self. Nothing that happens communally is necessarily shouldered by individuals. Communal behavior, however, has consequences. In this case, the communal behavior of physically attending Easter services will get people killed. Individuals, however, will refuse to perceive themselves as part of the whole that caused the deaths.


Questions

How are spring breakers ignoring social distancing protocols any more stupid or irresponsible than Christians physically attending Easter services?

We know people will get the virus because of the Easter services. We know some will die. We know that congregants who get the virus at the services will transmit the disease to people outside of the churches. Health care workers must then deal with these victims. And American culture will have to pay the bills.

Yelling "Fire!" in a crowded movie theater is against the law because people can be hurt. Preaching to a congregation on Easter Sunday is going to get people sick, and it's going to get people killed. Why is it legal? Intent shouldn't matter when consequences are crystal clear. Ignorance is no excuse.


Pontius Pilate Among us

This is the first time in my American life where I can point to Christians and say, "They're going to kill people, and they know it." It is a sobering jolt. I've always thought that Christianity was about helping others.

The federal government has managed a neat trick here. By not instituting any legal oversight of the churches on Easter, the feds have essentially pulled a Pontius Pilate, washing their hands of the consequences.

Too frightened to upset the two-thirds of Americans who are Christians, they washed their hands and placed them cleanly behind their backs. But let's not kid ourselves. The federal government, the priests, the ministers, and everyone who catches the virus at a church Sunday and transmits it -- they will all have blood on their hands.


April 9, 2020
Bob Dietz