Are We in Denial over Coronavirus' Impact on Church's Future?

May 26, 2020

3:48 PM

Resilient People of God

The latest series of invitational materials from United Methodist Communications focuses on the quality of resilience in the face of the global coronavirus pandemic. (UMCom Image)

A United Methodist Insight Column

While remembering those who died in war on Memorial Day, like many others I was confronted with another reality: the crowds of people who thronged beaches and parks in states – without masks or social distancing – determined to “open up” after two months of coronavirus lockdown. Judging from the countless social media posts, I wasn’t alone.

Frustration with the slow pace of re-opening churches represents a kind of second virus, an affliction described by author Jamais Cascio in “Apocalypse never: what coronavirus teaches us about doomsday denial” in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists as "apocalyptic denial." Broadly stated, the coronavirus crisis has uncovered a deadly reality: some people refuse to accept that a catastrophic event with irreversible consequences is occurring.

Even Mr. Cascio’s article will evoke denial in some, especially those with enough wit to recognize that his first name means “never” in French. Nonetheless, the writer has the credentials to make his point: He’s a professional futurist who has been exploring the intersection of environmental, technological, and cultural change for 25 years. According to his Bulletin bio: “Selected by Foreign Policy magazine as one of their Top 100 Global Thinkers in 2009, Cascio specializes in plausible scenarios of the future.”

So what does Mr. Cascio’s idea mean for churches? Consider this nugget from his May 22 article:

“There’s no reason to expect that this kind of thinking would be solely limited to a pandemic crisis. It’s very likely that this form of denial would also emerge amidst other global cataclysms, even a nuclear war or an incoming asteroid strike. It’s a morbidly comical image.”

I submit that The United Methodist Church is suffering from a similar kind of apocalypse denial regarding the future of the worldwide denomination. Those who are still invested in the ongoing quarrel about whether to split the church over accepting LGBTQ people based on divergent scripture interpretation have missed the point entirely. That conflict has been superseded by the question of whether the church can continue to exist at all, either in its current institutional form or adapted to meet a new post-coronavirus environment.

The questions now facing the church over its value to society have little to do with our "inside baseball" kind of thinking. Instead, people are asking:

Where is the church when I’ve lost my job?
Where is the church when I can’t feed my family?
Where is the church when I’m alone in isolation from a threat I can’t see?
Where is the church when I’m in prison, one of the worst hot spots for COVID-19 spread?
Where is the church when I’m in the hospital with COVID-19?
Where is the church when my loved ones die from COVID-19 and I can’t have a funeral for them?
Where is the church when my government is using the coronavirus pandemic as a smokescreen for covering up increased human rights abuses, as in the Philippines?
Where is the church when I’m terrified about the future?

Lest these questions seem like nothing more than a litany of social action, there’s one more question that overlays all these human needs: Where do I find hope and courage to keep going amid the disasters now facing my family, my community, our world?

Individually and collectively, United Methodists are meeting many of the human needs in the list of questions, but we fail too often to give the reason for the hope we have despite the coronavirus crisis and all that accompanies it: our faith in Jesus Christ. American Christians may find giving witness to Jesus fraught with landmines because of the way Christian faith has been politicized and polarized in the past 40 years. The path around any such landmines requires gentleness, humility, and self-sacrifice, focusing on those in need and on embodying Jesus’ teachings in ways that deny our egos. The latest series of invitational media (see above image) from United Methodist Communications attempts to put Jesus' teachings into contemporary concepts that speak to the coronavirus crisis. Unfortunately, past evidence has shown that a limited number of United Methodist congregations take advantage of this free resource.

Apocalyptic denial isn’t a virus that can be fought head-on in the way that a physical virus can be fought. Instead, the church must shift itself away from institutional preservation to a mindset that applies gifts of clergy and laity in new ways for a new time. It’s time to quit trying to preserve our institutional life as currently configured because we've already lost it to the pandemic's effects. Instead it’s time to "lose our lives" in self-sacrificing service to others, as Jesus taught, however we must set up a system to accomplish it. In so doing, we’ll go from death to resurrection to Pentecost, the birth of a new, vibrant church.

Media Mentions as of May 26, 2020

Trump tells states to let houses of worship open, sparking cultural and political fight over pandemic restrictions – The Washington Post *

As Trump pushes for reopenings, congregations choose safety over haste – The New York Times *

Slowly, surely, U.S. houses of worship emerge from lockdown – The Associated Press

Trump ordered states to open churches. Can he do that? – Politico

California lays out pandemic rules for church reopenings – The Associated Press

Court upholds Newsom’s coronavirus ban on in-person church services in California – Los Angeles Times *

‘An international example of bad judgment’: Local officials stunned by raucous Memorial Day festivities – The Washington Post

Some Helena churches are still opting to stay closed, but minister in other ways – Helena Independent Record

The Church Is Not a Building, But What Happens in the Building Builds the Church – Patheos (blog)

United Methodist ministry aids Navajo Nation – United Methodist News Service

Trump declares places of worship 'essential,' setting up standoff with governors – Religion News Service