According to Haley Sweetland Edwards, the Nation Editor at TIME, the United States of America does not have a national leadership in these unsettling moments: “For now, as the country braces itself for what lies ahead, the American people can find solace in the fact that even in the absence of national leadership, they are rising to an extraordinary challenge of confronting this disease together.”
While this statement is grammatically correct, it remains nonetheless logically and factually erroneous at its core. But this is not what this opinion piece will focus on.
For quite sometime now, the world has been facing a global pandemic. On March 11, during a press conference in Geneva, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the fast-spreading coronavirus outbreak a pandemic, warning that the virus would most likely spread to all countries around the globe. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, “We expect to see the number of cases, the number of deaths, and the number of affected countries climb even higher.”
Since then, the number of countries and populations affected by this rapidly spreading virus has grown by the hour. From north to south and from east to west, seemingly no nation has been spared. In these difficult moments, Faith is the only thing that believers and non-believers (hopefully) are now holding onto. For the first time since arriving in the United States of America as an international student, I have seen unity arise from among Republicans, Democrats, Independents, Liberals, Conservatives, and all other walks of life. President Donald Trump and his administration have consistently reaffirmed the growing level of solidarity that now exists across the aisle in the US Congress (for the time being). This is a very rare scene that most have to see to believe, especially with divisiveness gaining momentum since the resounding victory of President Trump in the 2016 Presidential election. These are hard times, and we should all link arms to navigate this storm as a united body.
For some, like myself, these are moments when everyone should put their countries first; moments when nationalism and patriotism should exceed tribalism; moments when love should triumph over hate; times when the Church, an institution that I have been losing faith in, should step up and remind people of Psalm 91:7: “A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you.” These are times when the Church should promote hope and faith in God; times when the church should ask people to not lose sight of Jesus Christ, as we all are walking on these uncharted waters. These are moments when faith should be tested and hearts reinvigorated.
Sadly, we have seen the total opposite. We have seen churches transition to online services and distance worship. What if the internet was cut off, would people still be able to nourish their faith in God? Who knows what would happen to those who believe that God is a Sunday God only.
The Church has failed to remind people of the fact that God resides in their hearts, not in the words of a pastor or minister; that God is and has always been close to us but that we, the human race, turned our backs on Him a long time ago, when we allowed the changes of time to interfere with our faith and lifestyles. And while I understand the need to protect the elderly and people with underlying conditions from contracting the virus, I still believe that the churches have failed to help people find the weak spots in their individual lives and use these moments to fix them. The strong dependency on the churches is a weakness that people ought to realize, for God does not reside in temples. As we read in Acts 7:48-53, one may conclude that we all need to look back on our most recent actions, which have failed God and our Faith, to recreate that personal link with God, which we replaced with our strong dependency on a WiFi connection to tune in on a Sunday worship and service. “However, the Most High does not live in houses made by human hands. As the prophet says: ‘Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me? says the Lord. Or where will my resting place be? Has not my hand made all these things?’ You stiff-necked people! Your hearts and ears are still uncircumcised. You are just like your ancestors: You always resist the Holy Spirit! Was there ever a prophet your ancestors did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him—you who have received the law that was given through angels but have not obeyed it.”
The churches are not the answer to our problems in moments of uncertainty: God is, and He can be found in our hearts only. If we put our faith in pastors and ministers who, just like all of us, are subject to temptations and sinful actions, we are not doing any service to our souls that desperately need to get closer to God, especially in times of apprehension. In the midst of questioning our faith and the role of the Church, I would urge people to go back to their Bibles and spend more time in prayer than on their phones. As we are getting closer to what may seem like the most consequential election in the history of America, we should focus on our relationships with God and our neighbors next door, instead of trying to gain political points during these unsettling moments.