It is Holy Week.  Yesterday was Palm Sunday.  In five days Good Friday, and then Easter Sunday.  Given the siege of the covid-19 virus all houses of worship should be on hiatus, observing the social-distancing regime in order to save lives.  That is not the case though as several mega church pastors have indicated that “upon divine guidance” they plan to conduct Easter services.   Thousands of people will be seated together, in the same space for an extended period of time, to worship Jesus, to foster their belief that one man was resurrected after being dead for three days.  Go figure!?

Is not the prospect of one’s own death, and the certainty of the death of others present within the vast assembly, enough to announce that everyone will be taking a “rain-check” this time around?  Celebrate your festival in the Fall and live.  How about waiting till it comes around again in the spring of 2020?  I realize that is too much to ask of Louisiana Pastor Tony Spell, the Baton Rouge area church pastor.  “We’re defying the rules because the commandment of God is to spread the Gospel,” Reverend Spell is quoted by the New York Times.  What is sure to spread will not be “the Gospel.”

I know that it is impossible to offer any counter argument to those in the business of speaking for God.  They are well aware of their franchise on eternal, unchanging Truth.  They will pray.  Then, they will tell you what they are going to do.  It always follows that pattern.  There is no dialogue, no exchange of views based upon reason.  Rev. Spell would say that he is reaching “souls for Christ.”  What he is certain to do is stack more bodies in the local morgue.

You can probably ascertain that this issue is close to home for me.  I grew up in the South and once thought as do these Evangelicals.  Their view point is dangerous and will cost lives, particularly as a proportion of their congregation are sure to be senior citizens.

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I heard an excerpt from the White House Press Conference on Friday.  I cringed to hear the President speak of the fight against the Coronavirus.

“There’s going to be a lot of death,” Trump said in a briefing with reporters….“We probably have never seen anything like these kind of numbers. Maybe during the war, during World War One or Two or something.”  (Reported by Reuters)

Why would you put someone who is a casual liar in charge of anything?  But here we are.

Jesus hangs from the cross everyday, dying in the form of the powerless, the poor, the dispossessed — at the mercy of the stupid and the powerful.

Happy Easter!