Easter Sunday & Social Distancing

I was raised a Roman Catholic and managed to live through eight years of parochial school relatively unscathed. I know how important a holiday Easter is in the Church. Unlike what many people believe, Christmas is not the holiest and most sacred day in the Church calendar--Easter is.

With that said, I understand the difficulty all Christians have faced this past Holy Week and today when told they would not be able to celebrate Easter in their respective houses of worship.

It's perfectly natural to grouse and complain about church doors being shuttered right now, I get that. But some of the comments I've read and some of the news I've seen really baffles me.

There are churches who have declared in no uncertain terms they will hold services today. I've read haughty promises by many Christians who promised they could defy stay-at-home orders no matter what.

I figure there are two reasons for such foolhardiness:

• Americans hate being told what to do, even at the risk of harming themselves or others
• Innate stubbornness or a mistaken belief that as long as they are worshipping, the Lord will protect them

Now, I'm going to challenge someone's faith. However, if your faith can directly or indirectly threaten the health of others, you are not behaving in a Christian manner. Do you think Jesus Christ would condone such a wanton act of irresponsibility? 

It's not like you're only harming yourself if you violate the self-isolation directives. If you are infected by the virus, you could unknowingly be spreading COVID-19 everywhere you go, including places the rest of us try to avoid until absolutely necessary.

The arrogance of some, specifically those on the right, to practice their faith in a manner they see fit no matter who they put at risk is criminal, in my opinion. We liberals aren't trying to destroy religion or inject our beliefs (or lack) into your world. We're trying to save people from dying unnecessarily.

It's funny...on Nextdoor.com for our community, a woman proudly posted that she was feeling perfectly fine and she's not going to heed the stay-at-home order, further stating that if anyone had a problem, they could kiss her a** (paraphrased). Of course, she was roundly trounced in the responses, which I took as a good sign.

Another man said he's been self-isolating for a month now (he never got the virus), so he feels it's been long enough, the virus must be long gone and he's obviously immune to it. That engenders even more derisive replies and for good reason--the guy had no idea what he was talking about.

In my less than humble opinion, all this happens when you refuse to put your faith in science in the same measure you put in a being you worship. Religion should never trump (ugh!) either scientific reasoning or common sense when it comes to the real aspects of life and the universe.

Just don't tell a Trumper that or their brains will explode.

Yours on Easter,

Michael