I wrote in the early days of this brouhaha that the powers that be, especially those who rhyme with “schmalities and trowers,” are committed to a utopia vision where the common Christian is viewed as an enemy of the people for wishing ordinary things to continue as usual.
Comforts and protocols aside, the end game is perhaps not so much an intentional move to destroy Christendom (though there is some clear examples of that), but to diminish its impact so much that it becomes trivial in commerce and culture. Christians who add nothing to societal values are perfect candidates for wokedom.
Adding to this proliferation of weakness, the problem is not simply that certain civil leaders are seeking the demise of church life (which only functions in the liturgy of its natural Sunday morning habitat), the problem is that church leaders are complicit in this act. Churches great and small, from Andy Stanley to the little Baptist church down the road won’t re-open until 2021. Barna estimates 5% of churches in America are closed, shut down until the blessed year of our Lord Twenty-Twenty-One. Church, R.I.P. 2020!
The alternative of virtual worship has proven a complete failure. Again, Barna estimated that after 4 weeks into “virtual life” a vast majority of Christians no longer sit with their pjs’ and ojs’ in front of a screen. But again, this shouldn’t surprise any of us who affirm the Incarnation of Messiah.
There are folks who will naturally need to stay home, and then there are some folks who probably need the community of worship more than they ever have in their whole lives. I do not opine to say that all the answers are easy. Good order and grace are needed ingredients in our day. However, the Christian willingly never gives up his fellowship. He fights and contends for such a faith until there is nothing left to give but his own body.
