McKendree Prayer
Clergy members wearing masks gather in prayer during a vigil at McKendree United Methodist Church in Nashville, Tenn., to grieve and remember people lost to acts of racism. (Photo by Mike DuBose, UM News)
A United Methodist Insight Column
As United Methodist churches weigh re-opening for in-person events, the United States passed another disturbing landmark June 10, surpassing 2 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 around the country, according to National Public Radio’s daily newsletter.”New cases are rising in at least 20 states, even as restrictions on daily life continue to ease across the country. The U.S. total represents more than 25% of the confirmed cases worldwide,” stated the newsletter.
Worldwide, statistics from Johns Hopkins Medical Center show a continued rise in the number of COVID-19 cases. As of June 10, there were 7,185,573 confirmed cases with 408,954 fatalities and 3,352,665 recoveries.
Crises converge in Texas
The COVID-19 crisis and national outage over the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis have converged in Dallas, Texas. Pop-up coronavirus testing sites for protesters are being set up periodically now that Dallas County has declared demonstrators a “high-risk” population. The designation makes them eligible for government subsidized coronavirus tests. Any United Methodists attending a racism protest in Dallas County now can get tested for COVID-19 without having symptoms. Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins, a member of Highland Park UMC, has encouraged protesters to get COVID-19 tests.
More COVID-19 myth debunking
Ignore the conspiracy theories, writes a global health leader in The Guardian’s U.S. edition. Peter Daszak, president of EcoHealth Alliance, writes that scientists know that COVID-19 wasn't created in a lab. “His group of experts says it’s most probable that the novel coronavirus emerged from a population of horseshoe bats that flourishes in southern China, not in a Chinese lab,” reports The Guardian. Arguing COVID-19 conspiracy theories wastes time and resources that the church needs to put toward ministries related to the coronavirus pandemic.
Pandemic rules to live by
Churches and annual conferences have developed extensive precautions they’re taking before re-opening for in-person events, but how do individual United Methodists assess their vulnerability to COVID-19 infection? New York Times writer Tara Parker-Pope, founding editor of Well, the Times's award-winning consumer health site, recently listed “Five Rules to Live by During a Pandemic.” Here’s her list, paraphrased by Insight:
- Check your state and community health status. Pay attention to two important local COVID-19 indicators: the percentage of positive tests, and the rates of overall cases.
- Limit your close contacts. Restrict your contacts to a trusted group of family and friends – as few people as possible.
- Manage your exposure. Risk accumulates with multiple events. If you want to attend Sunday worship (with social distancing, of course), then skip a neighborhood gathering.
- Limit time spent in higher-risk activities. COVID-19 exposure increases with time, especially in poorly ventilated buildings such as some churches.
- The basic rules are still the same. Wash your hands. Wear a mask. Keep six feet away from others. If you or someone in your family has a higher risk, use stricter quarantine and sanitation practices.
We all want to get back together, because we’re meant to practice our faith in community. Nonetheless, we don’t want to harm anyone by spreading the deadly coronavirus. In this case, religion and science aren’t adversaries (if they ever are); practicing good public health hygiene definitely shows God’s love for creation and our love for one another.
Cynthia B. Astle serves as Editor of United Methodist Insight, which she founded in 2011.