Midwest Bishops Resist Trump’s Call to Re-open Churches

Coronavirus Update May 22, 2020

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A United Methodist Insight Column

President Donald Trump’s desire to have churches resume in-person worship has met with resistance from three United Methodist bishops in the North Central Jurisdiction who sent notices to their regions late Friday afternoon after the president’s speech.

Bishop Sally Dyck of the Northern Illinois Conference and Bishop Frank Beard of the Illinois Great Rivers Conference sent a notice May 22 requesting churches in their areas to remain closed despite the president’s demand that houses of worship be considered “essential.” Bishop Dyck wrote:

“As many of you may have heard, President Trump this morning called for the reopening of all houses of worship throughout the country. He rightly recognizes that we need ‘more prayer, not less,’ but doesn’t realize that people, including the people called United Methodist, have been praying and worshipping all along through these months of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Bishop Frank Beard of the Illinois Great Rivers Conference and I are united in stating that we are calling on all United Methodist churches in Illinois to honor the regional and phased-in plan of “Restore Illinois,” which Governor J.B. Pritzker has outlined for us. 

“Therefore, none of our churches are to open at this time.”

Bishop Dyck continued that Northern Illinois will put out its “return” plan shortly after Memorial Day. In the meantime, she asked: “Please ‘love your neighbor’ and do not open for worship at this time!”

Michigan Conference Bishop David A. Bard sent out similar cautions:

“It is out of love for the people of the Michigan United Methodist Church that I continue to encourage you to pay attention to public health guidelines as you consider how and when to re-open your church buildings for learning, praying and worship.  It is vitally important to remember that re-opening does not and cannot mean opening again as if there is no virus.  We cannot go back to a time before COVID.  As we re-open our buildings for gathering attend thoughtfully and carefully to public health, the common good, and the well-being of others.  Our conference issued a document of principles and guidelines for re-opening that contains our best thinking to date, and I encourage you to read this carefully.

“Finally, I implore you not to let your decisions about opening your facilities be influenced by politics.  In words written by Paul, “do not be conformed to this world” (Romans 12:2).  Don’t be conformed to this world by letting decisions about how to re-open church buildings be decisions about the President or the Governor or about any political affiliation.  Public health, the common good, the well-being of others, let these guide you as we move forward in ministry together.”

Financial agony from a broken medical system

Like many blessed Christian women across the United States, I had the great privilege of meeting Rachel Held Evans, the woman of valor who died just a year ago at the age of 37. I’ve shared in the collective grief of so many who stayed in touch with her through her books and her blog, sharing in her faith journey of profound wisdom. This week I learned that in the year since her death, her husband Dan Evans has had shocking firsthand experience of what many Americans know all too well: our broken health care system.

For all that Rachel bared her soul to us, she and Dan were very private about their family life, mainly to protect their children. Dan was content to let Rachel be the public voice, a role she grew into from the slight, somewhat shy young woman I met back in 2013 at a conference in Phoenix. But now Dan has spoken out about his horrendous experiences with our broken medical system in the year since Rachel died, in an essay for TIME magazine.

Even as my heart aches for Dan, now a young widower with two children under age five to raise alone, I fear what lies ahead for the thousands of people who have recovered and the suvivors of those who died from COVID-19. Think of it: long days spent in intensive care units, intubated on ventilators, receiving what drugs and medical support ease the symptoms, separated from loved ones and pastoral care. When those COVID-19 sufferers leave our hospitals, either to recovery or to the morgue, their medical bills will run collectively into millions of dollars because of the way our current system works. Millions. Of. Dollars. And this on top of months of unemployment and the loss of health insurance.

Ten years ago my family had to resort to personal bankruptcy to get out from under catastrophic medical debt. Some of the biggest scandals of the past year in The United Methodist Church have involved church-related hospitals mercilessly hounding patients – even some of their own employees – to pay staggering medical bills for procedures that cost a mere fraction in other countries. I can’t count the number of notices I received from hospital and ambulance services in Houston demanding payment for deathbed care for my late aunt, who died from cervical cancer because she couldn’t afford to have it treated before it became terminal.

This is the agony that a for-profit “health care” system has inflicted upon our society. This is the agony that is to come from the coronavirus pandemic. That’s what Dan Evans has endured in the wake of his wife’s death last year. That’s what awaits the thousands affected by COVID-19, both sufferers and their families. Dan says it well: “No one should risk bankruptcy for a trip to the E.R. We shouldn’t need crowdfunding to stay afloat in seas of hospital bills while trying to keep our families’ lives stable.”

Once again, the coronavirus pandemic has uncovered how life-destroying our social systems have become. Even before COVID-19 struck, some generous churches stepped in to pay off medical debt for people in their communities. That’s one way we can stand up for the vulnerable and declare, “No more.” We must be alert in the coming months for dire situations where our churches – historically purveyors of health care themselves – can come to the rescue.

Media Mentions as of May 22, 2020

Mississippi church that defied coronavirus restrictions is burned to the ground – The New York Times*

White House to issue guidance on church reopenings after dispute with CDC caused delay – NBC News

Silicon Valley has digitized everything but religion. Will that change? – The Washington Post*

Can you gather with God over Zoom? – The New York Times*

* Paid subscription may be required.

Cynthia B. Astle serves as Editor of United Methodist Insight, which she founded in 2011.