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COVID-19 Ravages the Religious Sub-Continent; Evangelicals in the United States
Similar to previous weeks, reports on the actions of faith-inspired organizations in India continue. This time the
Sikh Hemkhunt Foundation’s Oxygen Center is highlighted for their work with “oxygen langar,” providing oxygen for free to those suffering the effects of COVID-19. In another example opened in May,
the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee manages its new Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur COVID-19 Care Centre, a hospital inside the Gurudwara Rakabganj Sahib in central Delhi. In
Kota, Rajasthan, a Muslim family-owned crematorium has performed last rites for 400 Hindus who have died of COVID-19.
Two masjids in Lucknow explained how they made the clear and definitive decision that their aid must under no circumstances be restricted to Muslims only, in a commitment to supporting the majority Hindu population in the city. In the other countries, religious diaspora communities have been organizing to help Indians.
Muslim, Sikh, and Hindu communities in the US have been active in fundraising and organizing donations.
As the devastating COVID-19 wave in India continued, attention has also turned to Nepal. Buddhist solidarity between Thailand and Nepal came in the form of
oxygen donations from Thai Buddhist foundations and the Thai government to Nepal at the end of May. It is reported that
as many as 2,000 pastors in India and Nepal have died from COVID-19 in recent months, imperiling the continuation of the communities they led.
In the United Kingdom,
data emerging from its Office of National Statistics indicates that Muslim men were particularly vulnerable to coronavirus ahead of men and women of other faiths. This is true even when controlling for factors such as age, class, location, and health conditions. The study does not clarify why this was the case.
In vaccination news, evangelicals in the United States are experiencing extreme pushes and pulls between those who advocate vaccination and those who are anti-vaccination.
Ed Stetzer, for example, is speaking out to promote vaccination among evangelicals and calls on evangelicals not to be influenced by anti-vaccination campaigns and false information. This comes in the week that
prominent evangelical anti-vaxxer Rick Wiles was hospitalized with COVID-19. In Thailand, monks have priority over some others to receive the vaccine.
500 monks received vaccinations in Bangkok on May 17 and 18, with the hope that they serve as examples to the general public and can also return to their public-facing spiritual duties as soon as possible. Back in India,
a Jain temple in Mumbai is the first religious site in the city to open as a vaccination site. Finally, restrictions on religious gatherings have been a theme from the beginning of the pandemic, but now debates about vaccination are also becoming part of that narrative. The
South African Council of Churches (SACC) general secretary, Bishop Malusi Mpumlwana, has said that churches need to be “functional” in order to spread messaging about the need for vaccinations.
