by Dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld
Spiritual leaders may have squandered an opportunity to reinforce their religions through their responses to the crisis.
Pope Francis, photo via Flickr photostream of
Catholic Church of England and Wales CC
BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 1,541, April 27, 2020
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The
coronavirus pandemic has had a profound impact on the world of religion.
This can be seen in three major areas: attitudes of religious leaders,
behavior and rituals of believers, and efforts to give a theological
meaning to the pandemic. Spiritual leaders may have squandered an
opportunity to reinforce their religions through their responses to the
crisis.
The largest number of coronavirus deaths in
Western Europe has been in Italy, Spain, France, the UK, Germany,
Belgium, and the Netherlands. These are all countries that have seen a
great increase in secularization in recent decades.
Is it too bold to suggest that the pandemic
created a unique opportunity for religious leaders to call upon their
believers to pioneer efforts to assist health workers, organize
charities, help those who are alone, and so on? While this may have
occurred on a local scale, it has not been an international movement
encouraged by religious leaders. Has an opportunity to reinforce the
place of religion in society been squandered?
Secularization has been greatly helped by the
widespread belief that individuals determine their own futures. Yet the
coronavirus has created huge uncertainties. How is the sickness passed
from one person to another? Even those who display no symptoms can
infect others. Why is there such a difference in the degree of sickness
that befalls victims? When will there be a vaccine, and when will the
pandemic end?
Secular people are often spiritually alone when
confronted with death. In monotheistic religions, to varying degrees,
community is important. In periods of uncertainty, religion has, at
least theoretically, a new chance to make inroads. The American theology
professor Marcellino D’Ambrosio compares the current plague to the one
that devastated Rome in the third century, and describes the inspiring
way the Christian community of that time was transformed into a
battalion of nurses.
Perhaps the reason modern-day Christian leaders
are not leaders of society is that it has been a very long time since
religious leaders were opinion leaders in Europe. Nowadays, they are the
opposite: they are opinion followers. Now that the opportunity for a
comeback has presented itself, they find themselves unable to make a
fast paradigm shift. They are stuck in the mire of general societal
debates like climate change and immigration.
Catholicism is the most hierarchical religion in
Europe. In his Easter message, delivered to an empty St. Peter’s
Basilica, Pope Francis called for global solidarity to fight the
coronavirus, warned that the EU risks collapse, urged debt relief for
poor nations, and called for the relaxing of international sanctions.
None of these topics touch on religious issues, and his authority in
these areas is weak at best.
UN Secretary General António Guterres called for a
global ceasefire at the end of March, and the Pope supported this
appeal in his weekly blessing. This was a typical example of being an
opinion follower rather than a leader. The Pope did take one action: he
established an emergency fund at the Pontifical Mission Societies. This
fund supports the presence of the Catholic Church in mission
territories, which are far from the countries hardest hit by the virus.
He also created a special prayer.
The Pope’s statement about the cause of the
pandemic was not theological but ecological. Speaking of catastrophes,
he said, “I don’t know if these are events of nature, but they are
certainly nature’s responses.” He could have stressed that nature is,
theologically speaking, a creation of God, but he made no such point.
The UK’s Queen Elizabeth is not a religious
leader, though she is the head of the Church of England. This year, she
gave her first-ever address to mark the Easter holiday, and it contained
a spiritual appeal: she said the “discovery of the risen Christ on the
first Easter Day gave his followers new hope and fresh purpose, and we
can all take heart from this.”
The tenor Andrea Bocelli sang at Milan’s empty
cathedral in an online concert watched by millions around the globe.
Jews worldwide were called upon to participate in the writing of a unity
Torah scroll.
The White House called on faith-based groups and
churches to instruct their worshippers to follow health guidelines. This
was an important step, as in some cases the guidelines interfere with
the execution of rituals. The world’s leading Sunni cleric, Yusuf
Qaradawi, called for mosques around the world to suspend all gatherings
of congregations for worship including Friday prayers.
Orthodox American Jewish sociologist Samuel
Heilman pointed out that the Jewish religion is deeply wrapped up in
communal life. Feeling a physical closeness to the community is critical
to feeling a spiritual connection to God. For Orthodox Jews, therefore,
quarantine poses a significant religious danger. This is particularly
true for the ultra-Orthodox, some of whom are resisting the health
guidelines. There is an above average percentage of ultra-Orthodox
victims of coronavirus both in Israel and abroad as a result of their
customs and beliefs.
A mega-church gathering of evangelicals in France
is believed to have been the source of the country’s major outbreak. In
Bourtzwiller, a community within the town of Mulhouse, a gathering took
place in February of more than 2,000 worshippers from all over France.
Germans also participated. These believers carried the virus throughout
France and into Germany.
The coronavirus outbreak and subsequent government
measures affect believers in very different ways. Muslims and Jews,
even if they cannot go to their mosques or synagogues, can say their
prayers at home. For a Christian, not being able to go to church on
Sunday may be more problematic. Churches that rely to any significant
extent on collecting money from those present on Sunday may face
financial difficulties.
There are many other problems farther from the
public eye. For example, many North African Muslims in France expect,
when they die, to be buried in their country of origin. In the absence
of flights this has become extremely difficult if not impossible.
It may be too early for theological explanations
of the coronavirus crisis to be given by mainstream figures. There has
been an upswing, however, in extremists who are eager to explain God’s
purpose in sending the pandemic. One Muslim preacher speaking on
Palestinian Authority TV said coronavirus is a soldier of Allah being
used to punish sinners, who include those who attack his believers.
Extremist pastors and rabbis blame the pandemic on homosexuals. The
Chief Rabbi of the Israeli town of Safed said coronavirus happened
because the world is approaching the days of the Messiah.
Over the course of time, believers will begin to
talk to the media about how the virus and the lockdown influenced their
spirituality and relationship to God.
Source: https://besacenter.org/perspectives-papers/coronavirus-monotheistic-religions/
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