White Evangelical Pastors Hesitant to Preach Vaccines
“Advocates say more subtle approaches and one-on-one engagement may actually do more to inform the unvaccinated without further dividing the faithful.” - C. Today
- 1 view
[Mark_Smith]For a year everywhere I have gone, school (which is work for me), grocery store, mall, etc., everyone has a mask on. You go to my church and almost no one was wearing a mask… does that sound odd to you?
No! Church is one of the most counter-cultural things there is, and for the church member, it is a respite and relief from the world outside. Here are just a few things I hear/see everyday in all my work, shopping, life outside the home etc. that I don’t see at church (thankfully!):
- Women dressed immodestly enough that I have to avert my gaze
- Loud pop and hip-hop music with immoral lyrics that I can’t avoid hearing
- Use of profanity that is part of nearly every conversation
- People in general treating each other poorly
In other words there are a lot of things that are a huge part of everyday life that I don’t experience in church — and I don’t consider it odd or weird. Sure, masks are not like those other things exactly, especially since they are not sinful. But the fact that church is different from most of the rest of life is a feature, not a bug. When we joyfully meet together, for the Christian, at least, it’s more of a sense of normality than the rest of life. As a result, I don’t tend to think too long or hard about the differences, since I already know it will be way different from life “under the sun.”
Just as a point of reference, I do live in the south. If you go to more rural parts of my state, you feel like an outlaw when you do wear a mask, and visiting some of the surrounding states feels the same way. While you may consider most of the people in southern states backwards because they aren’t like where you live, I personally love seeing people ignoring the dictates of elite culture and just living normal lives. YMMV, of course.
Dave Barnhart
[dcbii] Just as a point of reference, I do live in the south. If you go to more rural parts of my state, you feel like an outlaw when you do wear a mask, and visiting some of the surrounding states feels the same way. While you may consider most of the people in southern states backwards because they aren’t like where you live, I personally love seeing people ignoring the dictates of elite culture and just living normal lives. YMMV, of course.While most major/national stores still require masks here in Atlanta, I’ve noticed smaller establishments starting to do away with the mandate. I went to a mechanic the other day, walked in with my mask, and the guy at the counter was maskless. He said, “I’m fully vaccinated, no need to wear a mask here if you don’t want.” I responded, me too, and happily ripped of my mask.
[AndyE]Mark — what size is your church? It does seem odd that no one would respond to you.
I teach an adult SS class at my church. When Covid and associated restrictions started, I began using Zoom to teach. After a few months, we were able to meet in person again, but I had several people who could not join in person due to health concerns. Consequently, I have tried to keep up the Zoom portion of the class, while teaching live. It has been a challenge due to sometimes spotty church internet, but it has been really helpful for those who still have legit medical issues that make in-person meeting still too risky. It’s not the easiest but we can interact with the online folks, hear prayer requests, and such. I just have to mute them during the lesson.
Andy, Thanks for asking. My daughter has not been “lost” in a sea of youth. Our former church (we no longer attend there as a result of all this) was around 750 active attenders. But we were well known. I taught a SS class and for the year before COVID taught Sunday PM in the main sanctuary. My wife was very active with kids church and AWANA. I was never an elder or deacon, but we were known. My daughter was a faithful attender of youth activities pre-COVID. During the school year, when youth group was “real Bible studies” attendance was small, around 5-6 kids. When school was out youth morphed into cool group activities (volleyball, basketball, fishing, bbqs, etc.). My daughter (being in 7-8 grade at this time) attended all Bible studies but I was not a fan of 7th grade girls hanging out with questionable 11-12 grade guys at Sonic’s volleyball court for hours… When COVID hit youth went virtual for a month, but my daughter was the only one who attended. So, they went back live. She decided to not attend and they didn’t CARE LESS (I capitalized that for Larry. It is a hard charge but it is 100% fact). Youth group has been live all through COVID save April 2020. Other than when my daughter was the only person meeting the youth pastor on-line in April 2020 no youth pastor, leader, or worker reached out to her personally once they went back to live services for youths.
[dcbii]No! Church is one of the most counter-cultural things there is, and for the church member, it is a respite and relief from the world outside. Here are just a few things I hear/see everyday in all my work, shopping, life outside the home etc. that I don’t see at church (thankfully!):
- Women dressed immodestly enough that I have to avert my gaze
- Loud pop and hip-hop music with immoral lyrics that I can’t avoid hearing
- Use of profanity that is part of nearly every conversation
- People in general treating each other poorly
In other words there are a lot of things that are a huge part of everyday life that I don’t experience in church — and I don’t consider it odd or weird. Sure, masks are not like those other things exactly, especially since they are not sinful. But the fact that church is different from most of the rest of life is a feature, not a bug. When we joyfully meet together, for the Christian, at least, it’s more of a sense of normality than the rest of life. As a result, I don’t tend to think too long or hard about the differences, since I already know it will be way different from life “under the sun.”
Just as a point of reference, I do live in the south. If you go to more rural parts of my state, you feel like an outlaw when you do wear a mask, and visiting some of the surrounding states feels the same way. While you may consider most of the people in southern states backwards because they aren’t like where you live, I personally love seeing people ignoring the dictates of elite culture and just living normal lives. YMMV, of course.
OK… well, you connected immoral music with mask wearing… and implied mask wearing is “the world” telling people what to do… I call that conspiracy theory stuff.
[Mark_Smith]OK… well, you connected immoral music with mask wearing… and implied mask wearing is “the world” telling people what to do… I call that conspiracy theory stuff.
Feel free to call it what you like. It does demonstrate exactly how some will always accuse others of being conspiracy theorists, simply because they do something other that what the accuser thinks is right. You want to argue the substance of what I’m saying, go right ahead. Start pulling out the “conspiracy theory” card, and you’re almost in ad hominem territory. It might, however, accomplish the goal you apparently really want — reducing interaction with people who refuse to think like the majority (or like you do). It won’t, however, be because we no longer have anything to say or believe your accusations to be unanswerable, just that it is no longer worth our time trying to convince you.
But, as should have been obvious to one of your education level, I wasn’t trying to imply that mask wearing is equivalent to being worldly at all, but rather that it is something endemic to our current culture, like some of the other things I mentioned (which I did state were not the same), and much of it these days is nothing more than virtue-signaling (Harris and her husband kissing publicly with masks on, or Biden wearing one in a zoom call with world leaders being particularly egregious examples).
I was saying that what you see inside of a church is often way different from what is seen outside. Given that, why would I think it’s at all odd that even in the area of masks, we might be doing something different from what our culture is doing? As I posted before, we don’t turn away people with masks or treat them as 2nd-class citizens. But if the mask wearers think it odd that some in the church don’t, when they are worn nearly everywhere else, well…then let them think that. Many of us (and clearly, most in my church) don’t think it odd at all.
Dave Barnhart
[dcbii]I was saying that what you see inside of a church is often way different from what is seen outside. Given that, why would I think it’s at all odd that even in the area of masks, we might be doing something different from what our culture is doing? As I posted before, we don’t turn away people with masks or treat them as 2nd-class citizens. But if the mask wearers think it odd that some in the church don’t, when they are worn nearly everywhere else, well…then let them think that. Many of us (and clearly, most in my church) don’t think it odd at all.
It is odd to me that some/many in the church wouldn’t wear masks when they are worn nearly everywhere else. Masks are one of the easiest things we can do to actually show care for others and also to potentially reduce the spread. Even if it does absolutely nothing to reduce the spread, I’d happily wear a mask if it makes my neighbor feel more at ease. There are some in my church who would refuse to come if masks were mandated in the church, and I truly don’t understand it. It would make more sense to me if it was the culture around us refusing to wear masks and Christians going against the trend and wore masks. This isn’t meant as a put down on dcbii. It’s just something that I’m not able to wrap my head around, though clearly there are other Christians who think differently and it makes sense to them.
A pastor friend suggested, only half-jokingly, that I should preach in his church on “To mask, or not to mask. That is the question.” It had become a significant problem in his congregation. In ours, I would classify it as a minor irritation, but it is real. The “everybody ought to wear masks all the time” crowd resents (and probably even fears) the “I ain’t going to wear a mask no matter what” crowd. It will be a blessed day when all of this is over. Until then, persevere in faith and joy!
G. N. Barkman
We have two new families at church that left theirs (among other serious issues as I understand it) because they were being mocked for wearing masks. It is still the law in Washington so it’s crazy to me that any believer would feel comfortable even “teasing” someone about obeying the law.
[josh p]It is still the law in Washington so it’s crazy to me that any believer would feel comfortable even “teasing” someone about obeying the law.
It is especially hard to understand mocking of mask-wearers in your circumstances. And as I said, even in my church, where few wear them, no one mocks people who do.
As much as I dislike masks, and refuse to wear them everywhere it’s legal to do so, I still do wear them everywhere it is required. Obedience to the law is a Christian’s duty. That doesn’t mean I have to like or promote that particular law, of course. Unlike Washington, my state doesn’t require them in churches, which I’m very thankful for. If they were required, then I’d still come to worship in person and wear one. I might not sing much, since that is really hard to do well with a mask, not to mention fogging my glasses enough to not be able to see the hymnbook or overhead anyway.
Dave Barnhart
Discussion