#165
Religious Gatherings; Vaccines; Faith After COVID-19

A full year and a half after the issue first emerged, tensions around religious gatherings continue to dominate much discussion around religious roles and the COVID-19 emergencies.
 
Tensions on the topic persist in parts of the United States. A mask-wearing mandate and gathering restrictions were lifted in Nashville, Tennessee, about a month before the two-day annual meeting of the nation’s largest Protestant denomination in mid-June. The meeting had a tightly packed 18,000-seat convention hall that included only a small section designated for people who wanted to wear masks. Following the meeting, Metro Public Health Department epidemiologist Leslie Waller said 8 to 10 infections had been detected among the attendees, but the cluster is almost certainly larger. Health officials in the United States are now talking about a “pandemic of the unvaccinated,” and reports demonstrate how much higher-risk the delta variant is for those who have not been vaccinated. 
 
In Cape Town, South Africa, some pastors are still calling for restrictions on church gatherings to be lifted. A group known as Pastors Against Churches Closure (PACC) has spearheaded the protests. Siniko Nxesi, the Western Cape organizer of the group, said that they condemned the government's “criminalisation of religious practices” and were taking worship to public spaces as part of its call for the government to reopen churches. Subsequently, the group’s Western Cape followers embarked on a convoy on July 11, 2021, to occupy the Cape Town International Airport for prayer, meditation, and to voice their opposition. 
 
The deep crisis affecting South Africa, aggravated by the COVID-19 emergencies, drew a sharp comment from the Conference of Catholic Bishops: “Our society has normalized the use of violence and vandalism to get the government to listen and be serious in addressing economic concerns of the poor. We need a shift in mind-set, a collective conversion of heart and mind, which affirms that violent protests and destruction of property can never be a just response to the current economic hardships and economic injustice. We reiterate Pope Francis’ call in Fratelli Tutti, reminding all that: in face of political and economic problems there is always a possibility of choosing constructive engagement over violence."
 
Religious engagement with COVID-19 vaccination campaigns also continues to be a significant theme. An interfaith vigil was held in Washington, DC and virtually on July 20, 2021, to advocate for global vaccine access. Muslim leaders and activists are also tackling COVID-19 vaccine misinformation in their own communities, and outreach programs to dispel COVID-19 vaccine disinformation are having an impact on vaccination rates within some Muslim communities. One successful organization having an impact is the Somali Family Service of San Diego (SFS). It has a program called Ihsan Health Initiative, which includes a team of community health workers who provide direct outreach through events such as virtual town hall meetings. Balqiso Hussein, a community health worker from SFS, says, “The virtual townhall meetings have helped combat some of the skepticism by allowing us to invite respected leaders in the community, such as doctors, nurses and Masjid imams. When presented with scientific evidence in a culturally competent manner, we have seen changes in ideologies concerning the vaccine. Many community members even scheduled vaccine appointments that same day.”

What will be different, for better and worse, in religious life post-COVID-19 is a question being carefully considered by people of faith. In a conversation held at Z3 2020: Visions of a Shared Future (a virtual conference produced by The Z3 Project and the Oshman Family JCC of Palo Alto, California), Dr. Micah Goodman, a noted author and research fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem; Sarah Hurwitz, President Barack Obama’s former speechwriter; and journalist Abigail Pogrebin discussed the question in a Jewish context. Offering a Christian perspective, the South Asian Journal of Religion and Philosophy published a paper titled “How To Think Theologically After COVID-19: Some Reflections and Pointers on Jesus as Philosopher,” which was inspired by conversations with over 70 theologians in Asia and around the world in response to an A4 page by Sri Lankan theologian Dr. Shanthikumar Hettiarachchi titled “Some Socio-Political and Theological Areas to Think Through During the Self-Imposed Quarantine Period.”