Yesterday was a big sports watching day on TV, with the Gonzaga win over UCLA the most exciting. The Pac-10 did well this year. For the first time in my memory, not one team East of the Mississippi River made the Final Four. To solidify the return of the West, the two women's team in the championship game are Stanford and Arizona. And, oh, in my ESPN Tournament Challenge I did predict Gonzaga against Baylor for the men's championship, which comes on tomorrow night:
I also watched a lot of Major League Baseball, and the star no doubt was Yermin Mercedes, a rookie for the Chicago White Sox, who started his career with eight straight hits. No one in the modern era, which means from 1900, has ever done that. So impressed me that I picked him up on all four of my fantasy teams. You can see him on ESPN after the women's NCAA basketball championship today. About Mercedes, he is already 28 and has done nothing much in minor league baseball for the past decade.
Finally, I can make a prediction for college men's volleyball. Hawaii will play Long Beach State for the Big West Championship on April 24 in Hawaii. Then, they will contend for the NCAA championship at Ohio State on May 8. Who will win? Not sure. The University Hawaii is currently #1 in the nation, and is the only undefeated team. But Long Beach State would only have one loss if it did not play Hawaii, which won both games this weekend in Honolulu. Also, BYU will be up there at the end. They have lost two games, to UCLA and Grand Canyon. In one of those sets, GC 45 to BYU 43. You've got to know volleyball to appreciate that score, which is in Yermin Mercedes' territory.
So on to the the spiritual topic of today. Has religion, on balance, helped or hurt the spread of COVID-19? Here are a few stories from around the world:
Let’s begin with South Korea. As of the end the first week of March 2020, almost two-thirds of coronavirus infections (nearly 5,000 cases) were traced back to “Patient 31,” an individual who worshipped at Shincheonji Church of Jesus in Daegu.1 The church had insisted on in-person meetings, banning health masks, praying while touching others, and refusing to turn over its membership list to health officials. Routinely accused by mainline Protestant Christian denominations of being a secretive sect, now it is being blamed for contributing to the local epidemic of COVID-19. It didn’t help that the church’s leader, 88-year old Mr. Lee Man-hee, explained the epidemic as the Evil.
Next, consider Trinidad in the West Indies. One of us was contacted for advice from a young man confronting a conflict between government health officials and some pastors of local churches. The health officials were pleading with stores and places of worship to cease gatherings until further notice. Meanwhile, these pastors were continuing to hold in-person services on the basis that a failure to attend worship in person is evidence of a lack of faith—arguably bullying church members to show up against their better judgment.
Here’s a third example. Rev. Tony Spell is pastor of Life Tabernacle Church, a Oneness Pentecostal congregation in Baton Rouge, USA. Explaining his defiance of the Louisiana Governor’s order banning meetings of more than fifty people, Rev. Spell was quoted as saying, “It’s not a concern. … The virus, we believe, is politically motivated. We hold our religious rights dear and we are going to assemble no matter what someone says.”2
Standard epidemiological models of viral spread don’t take account of human factors such as religious ideologies and values. Human beings are complex and the way religion weaves itself through the lattice of human life is incredibly intricate. Surfacing such human value factors is a public obligation. Just as health officials try to explain their recommendations, so experts in the scientific study of religion need to surface religion-abetted value judgments that impact behaviors relevant to viral spread. Experts need to explain where religion is causing problems and find creative ways to communicate alternative ways of thinking.
Interestingly enough:
Nearly two-thirds of religious Americans feel the coronavirus pandemic is “God telling humanity to change the way we are living,” according to the study.
From the Black Death and AIDS to COVID-19, whenever societies have suffered outbreaks of disease, there have always been those who are quick to seek both religious explanations and solutions. A recent poll of religious Americans found that around two-thirds believe that COVID-19 has been sent by God, as a warning to mankind.
55% of Americans with religious faith believe to some extent that God will protect them from being infected.
The Supreme Court of the United States now has Justice Amy Barrett as a member, and in October was instrumental in overturning a ban against the State of California about going to church. Singing was a particular concern. In February, SCotUS doubled down in favor of religious rights. California cannot ban in-person services, but can limit attendance.
In Hawaii, as elsewhere in the world, certain religious holidays tend to induce church attendance, even during a pandemic. Christmas was a problem. On 25December2020 the world had 12,252 new deaths. The new deaths jumped to 16,062 on 21January2021. Yesterday this number was 8,712. Check on April 18 and 25 to see the difference. Then again, maybe these vaccinations might make a positive impact.
Will Easter Sunday contribute to the danger of clusters? A Maui church, King's Cathedral, has been linked to at least 55 infections, but refuses to cancel in-person services. New Hope saw some spreading back in August, so turned to online services.
While Lent for Christians ends today, Ramadan for Muslims begins on April 12, and the true fasting (many Christians don't really fast) goes on for a month. How can two different religions be so similar? Christianity started earlier, and 600 years after Jesus, Mohammed the Prophet no doubt borrowed from The Bible. There is a Jesus and something like Easter in The Koran. Any time your associates record and rewrite, the context changes.
HAPPY EASTER!!! Legend has it that the Easter Bunny lays, decorates and hides eggs as a symbol of new life. Big problem here, as a rabbit has a live litter, and, did you know they are called kittens?
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