Commentary
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We must listen to women, pay attention to on-the-ground solutions they are already creating, and earnestly follow that leadership at all levels of environmental decision-making.
The growing uncertainty of the COVID-19 pandemic has left many feeling frustrated, losing hope and faith in God, life, family, love, finances, or something else. Even some of the most ardent believers in Christ will have moments when faith falters, when you’re lonely and exhausted, where grief grabs ahold of you, when all that you’ve believed feels empty, and when you can’t see beyond the pain to grasp hope. How do we keep moving forward when the resources on which we depended vanish? This Good Friday and Easter will be like no other. And even though the coronavirus has made planning our lives and Holy Week a bit more challenging, we must not lose sight that the Easter season is truly about hope.
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Easter was never meant to go back to normal; but was, and still is, intended to make all things new.
For Christians, it means the proclamation of release over suffering, hope over despair, and life over death. Still, there is no special immunity from COVID-19 granted by physically gathering to worship God.
I have thinking a lot about the after lately. What happens when this is all over? Will we be changed? Will we heed the lessons of a global pandemic, realize we are all connected to each other, fight for systems that keep our own selves safe by protecting the most vulnerable among us? Will we fight for a world where we could actually touch the miracle of a savior who died for the world and then rose again? Or will we only ever be able to glimpse it, but not hold on?
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We need to walk together, day by day, through the days of this holy weekend — in the midst of this modern plague. Here I offer my map for that journey.
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Easter Sunday is coming. But Saturday is here and it's dark.
A view of Bourbon Street amid the outbreak of COVID-19 in New Orleans. March 25, 2020. REUTERS/Jonathan Bachman
Jubilee is appearing all around us amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Herbert is an award-winning professor, physician, and editor who serves as the attending physician and professor of emergency medicine at the UCLA School of Medicine.
Instacart employee Eric Cohn,searches for an item for a delivery order in a Safeway grocery store. Image via REUTERS/Cheney Orr
How strange that to love our neighbor we must abstain from interacting with them in the flesh. Maintain social distance, and for the love of God, don’t go to Grandma’s house. These are all wise admonitions, but is that it? Is that the extent of what it means to love our neighbors in the age of COVID-19? Might the call to a Maundy Thursday depth of love ask a bit more of us?
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Our bodies, entombed and separated from each other by our social distancing efforts, will be stuck in Saturday.
Marni Bailey, a worker at a nearby group home for the elderly, uses her mobile phone as she stands in line outside Riverside University High School to cast a ballot in Milwaukee,Wis., April 7, 2020. REUTERS/Daniel Acker
The consequences of this election — voter disenfranchisement and health risks — will fall disproportionally on Wisconsinites of color. Take Milwaukee County: Typically, the county has 180 polling locations, but on April 7, there were only five polling locations available.
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Christ’s life among us has always included both his and our bodies.
Even amid a pandemic, I have heard a number of people continue their commitment to giving up foods that we societally understand as “bad.” In times of crisis and heightened levels of anxiety, the desire to better oneself — to feel control over certain aspects of one’s life — can increase. I witness people panic about the possibility of gaining weight while in quarantine or brag about their excessive exercise via social media. To be clear, there is nothing inherently wrong with wanting to include more fruits and vegetables into one’s diet or wanting to devote time to exercise, but many restrictive choices around food are influenced by diet culture intersecting with one’s values. My eating disorder started in that exact fashion.
Dr. Larry Brilliant, an American epidemiologist who helped eradicate smallpox in the 1970s, and Rev. Jim Wallis discuss the current administration's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Brilliant outlines the moral, ethical, and scientific responses needed to respond effectively to the coronavirus.
Image via Reuters/Yves Herman
This moment when you’re pausing to re-imagine Easter worship is ripe with possibility. How can you invite folks in the congregation to share and to lead? Yes, you can invite specific individuals to prerecord Scripture readings or prayers, but why not let them share their hearts? Ask a few folks to share, in 60 seconds or less, how they’ve see the body of Christ love and serve during this season.
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As the plague continued to spread with every cough, they blamed a lunar eclipse and the malignant forces of Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars for deadly vapors arriving on currents of air, passing into the blood stream. They hypothesized that this “corrupted air … penetrates to the heart” and “destroys the life force.” From where else could this curse have come? A product of “divine will” they decreed, and urged the people “to return humbly to God.”
As the nation tries to slow the advance of the coronavirus pandemic, most of the nation is engaged in responsible social distancing. In this episode of our Sunday Sermon in a Pandemic series, Sojourners Executive Director Adam Taylor and Rev. Jim Wallis share their thoughts on biblical teachings that can guide us through these times when the staggering devastation of the COVID-19 pandemic ravages our nation — and the world — after months of unconscionable inaction by President Trump.
President Donald Trump listens to a question during the daily coronavirus response briefing at the White House in Washington, April 2, 2020. REUTERS/Tom Brenner
COVID-19 ignores the social constructs we've made to disregard one another.
FILE PHOTO: A doctor wears a protective mask as he walks outside Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan in New York City. April 1, 2020. REUTERS/Brendan Mcdermid
The likely death toll numbers confirmed this week by medical authorities as a result of the coronavirus pandemic are staggering.
Faith leaders are working creatively to spread the word about the census by posting information on social media, preaching on the census during remote worship services, and placing op-eds in local outlets. We will not let a global pandemic stop us from making sure every person in this country receives the representation and resources they deserve.