Posted on 04/09/2020 5:52:51 PM PDT by ebb tide
April 9, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) — In times of disaster in America, public authority has always called upon God to come to the nation’s aid. The call is to a vague God. Our religious consensus recognizes only “Nature’s God” without going into specifics.
Unlike secular Europe, America has always favored religion as a means to ensure God’s material and spiritual blessings upon the land. Thus, religion is considered an essential part of American life. Our long Christian tradition allows this slight tribute of Caesar to God as long as there is no State Church that is formally established. Even the most liberal president must ask that God bless America.
The coronavirus crisis is the first major disaster in America in which God has been largely excluded from the narrative. This is very troubling. God is no longer considered essential. Public figures still mention God in speeches. However, secular officials, scientists, and media who have taken control of the crisis are acting as if He did not exist.
No one disputes Caesar’s right to issue restrictions to safeguard the common good. The most perplexing part of this drama is that many faithful are mistakenly convinced that the Church must move to the sidelines because Caesar has commanded it.
A stranger twist to the story is that in many parts of the country, Caesar has not commanded it. Nevertheless, the bishops there are all vying to see who can be more Caesar than Caesar, by restricting themselves from active participation in solving the crisis.
Indeed, many of the present state directives and emergency measures reflect the traditional American consensus that deems religion essential. According to this logic, those engaged in religious worship are at least on equal footing with those entering Walmart to buy groceries.
As long as worshipers observe the same health guidelines and distancing as supermarket shoppers, they are free to pray for the nation and ask for God’s blessing. Indeed, they are encouraged to do so. The spiritual welfare of citizens has always been considered just as important as their material well-being.
Thus, seventeen states have issued emergency coronavirus directives, including lockdown orders, that allow the Church to hold limited services. Seven others have more restrictive directives that would allow at least the administration of the sacraments if done creatively.
In the first group of 17 states, Caesar’s provisions are generous. They allow for worship services with reasonable restrictions. Surprisingly, many rules come from liberal states and Democratic governors.
Take, for example, the state of Connecticut. Section 1 of the governor's order establishes restrictions on non-essential activities, "except that religious, spiritual or worship gatherings shall not be subject to such increased restrictions, and shall instead remain subject to the prohibition on gatherings of 50 or more people, provided that they employ reasonable and appropriate distancing measures."
New Jersey governor Phil Murphy's Executive Order 107 at Section 2 allows “leaving the home for an educational, religious, or political reason.” He stipulates that “individuals must practice social distancing” and limits gatherings to fewer than 50.
The state of Kansas is also generous, listing church services as an “essential activity.” The faithful are allowed to “perform or attend religious or faith-based services or activities." The governor’s order supersedes any local stay-at-home order.
Similar allowances now exist in Arizona, Florida, Iowa, Louisiana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, West Virginia, and Wyoming. Other states have more rigid religious allowances, allowing fewer than ten persons present. Thus, these could not be classified as public services, even if some states, for purposes of these directives, count all the members of one household as just a single person.
In the face of such generous provisions, it is hard to understand the sacramental blackout now reigning ominously over the country.
It is generally the bureaucratic state that issues brutal one-size-fits-all guidelines to which citizens struggle to adapt. However, in this case, the different states have presented an organic patchwork of emergency provisions that allow much religious practice. And yet, the Catholic Church has responded with a one-size-fits-all policy of suppressing all public worship services and Masses in America. Some dioceses have even gone farther by placing severe limitations on the sacraments of baptism, confession, Holy Communion, and extreme unction. Even adoration chapels that involve little human contact are closed in many dioceses.
Many Catholics are dismayed by the inflexible, uniform Church policy. They have been accused of wanting to break the law and endanger public health. Media have done much to portray such Americans as intransigent malcontents.
However, these Catholics are only asking for the strict application of the law. They are willing to do everything possible to facilitate distancing and safety guidelines issued by state officials. Such members do not endanger public health, but are its enthusiastic supporters.
They cannot understand why Catholic bishops go beyond the law to be more Caesar than Caesar. The draconian sacramental lockdown is not required in many states. These state authorities resemble not Caesar, but Constantine. They facilitate sacramental sustenance in this time of trial and crisis. It makes no sense to deny the sacraments when they are most needed. Imaginative pastors who have found ways to minister to their flocks often fear their bishops much more than their governors.
The real issue is a denial of the Church’s role as essential. Our secular culture has replaced God with the government as the sole power. It has raised the enjoyment of life (hence, procured abortion) to the level of a sacrament. On the other hand, religion can be live-streamed on the sidelines.
The worst deniers are those inside the Church. Religion has become so watered down and secularized that many faithful no longer see the Church as essential. Many Church officials have lost the notion of the salvation of souls as the core element of their mission. They do not see that the best way to help the material welfare of the nation in times of crisis is to take care of the spiritual well-being of the faithful, especially through the sacraments. The tragic situation reflects a loss of faith in the power of God and His Blessed Mother to act and aid the faithful who act prudently and zealously to honor Him.
When Caesar has offered to give to God that which is God’s, this is not the time to out-Caesar Caesar.
Ping
A comparison between Walmart and a church is not valid because of the following reason - the shoppers are all strangers at Walmart, whereas at a church, most people know other people, and if they were to let into a church during this time, the concern is that they will temporarily forget the social distancing imperative and start greeting their acquaintances, and cause crowding.
There's none of the above nonsense at a traditional latin Mass.
This Sunday, we uill have multiple Easter Masses, with no more than three people to a pew.
Because they like living high on the hog on the backs of donations from the faithful. They clearly do not want to threaten their place in this world.
JoMa
If “the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof” (Psalm 19:1) there is very little left for Caesar.
April 20, 2019 by RadicalDiscipleship
The Resurrection is Against the Law
An excerpt from Bill Wylie-Kellermann’s classic Seasons of Faith and Conscience (1991).
The sealing of the tomb is, I believe, notoriously misunderstood. I grew up with a Sunday School notion that to seal the tomb was a matter of hefting the big stone and cementing it tight. The seal, in my mind’s eye, was something like first-century caulking–puttying up the cracks to keep the stink in. Not so. This is a legal seal. Cords would be strung across the rock and anchored at each end with clay. To move the stone would break the seal and indicate tampering.
The event conspicuously echoes the story of Daniel sealed in the den of lions. “And a stone was brought and laid upon the mouth of the den, and the king sealed it with his own signet and with the signet of his lords, that nothing might be changed concerning Daniel” (Daniel 6:18). As there, this is a legal lock on the tomb door–not air tight, but politically tight. To move the stone and break the seal is a civil crime. The resurrection is against the law.
The seal is also a recurring theme in the book of Revelation. Remember the scroll of history sealed with seven seals? Only One is worthy to break them and look upon or unveil the truth: that One is the Lamb who was slain. The seal is a claim of ownership and authority. Its meaning in Revelation is at least that God in Christ reigns sovereign over all history and in all events.
Caesar, in Pilate, on the other hand, violently disputes the claim. He has set his seal of approval on Jesus’ death, and now he guarantees it with troops. Secured by security forces. When the seal is broken in the resurrection, it stands among the signs that the power of the powers (death in all its forms) has been broken. The dominion of political authority–especially inflated, aggressive–and imperial authority has been cut to the heart.
Ezekiel 34 has harsh words for such pseudo-shepherds.
Stung by the sexual abuse lawsuits, fear of civil liability may be the driving force.
At least that is what appears to be the greatest concern of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA).
https://www.oca.org/news/headline-news/holy-synod-metropolitan-council-issue-coronavius-statements
JOINT COMMUNIQUÉ
OF THE HOLY SYNOD BISHOPS AND THE
METROPOLITAN COUNCIL OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCH IN AMERICA
To the Clergy, Monastics, and the Faithful of the Orthodox Church in America:
Over the past several weeks His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon and members of the Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church in America, as well as individual members of the Holy Synod of the Church, have been in almost constant communication with each other regarding a myriad of critical and pressing issues presented to our Church and stemming from the current pandemic unleashed on our society by the presence among us of the Novel SARS-CoV-2. While many of these issues present novel and unprecedented theological and liturgical challenges, many of these issues have also implicated constitutional, legal, administrative and financial questions which are virtually unprecedented in the history of the Orthodox Church in America.
Throughout this process your Bishops have unceasingly sought the advice and counsel of professional experts, especially those in the fields of theological and liturgical matters as well as public health administrators and legal advisors regarding questions within the parameters of their particular expertise. This process is, of course, of a continuing nature, with new issues and challenges arising on a daily – even hourly – basis.
To consider these matters even further, there was a special session of the Holy Synod of Bishops on Monday, March 30, 2020 to provide further and more defined guidance, particularly with respect to instructions regarding the liturgical commemoration of Holy Week and the celebration of the Pascha of our Lord on April 19, 2020. Likewise, the Metropolitan Council met on Tuesday, March 31, 2020 in order to discuss and coordinate further the response of the Church to this difficult crisis.
Certain aspects of the current crisis are, however, woefully apparent even at this point in time.
We are informed that litigation – none of which currently involves the Orthodox Church in America – has already erupted in a variety of civil jurisdictions which have at their core issues of compliance with those governmental directives which have already been issued by civil authorities at the national, state, and local levels. We can certainly anticipate that legal proceedings of this nature will only multiply in the coming weeks and months. Preliminary indications are that civil claims of this nature will not be covered by existing insurance contracts to which our Church and its affiliated entities are parties.
For many, many decades now, the insurance industry in the United States has been, and remains to this day, a stalwart friend and supporter of American churches, particularly with respect to both private and public assertions of church liability in a variety of contexts, including liability for statutory and common law claims, worker’s compensation claims, unemployment compensation issues and many others. However, claims relating to liability arising from COVID-19 related events are new, unexpected, uncontemplated and unanticipated within the insurance industry, and we can anticipate with some certainty that insurance carriers may contest insurance coverage for such claims in future Coronavirus-connected litigation. At this point in time we can only speculate as to the judicial resolution of such coverage issues in the future. All of this suggests that coverage is, at best, uncertain, and that it is in the best interest of the Church to proceed on the basis that there is no coverage in place under any of these circumstances. To further confuse and aggravate the situation we should take into account that insurance is not a single commodity, that carriers have different coverages, forms and endorsements and that individual parishes, with their insurance professional, may tailor coverage to their particular risk and desires. There is at the present time no way of knowing with any legal certainty the existence and extent how each individual parish is protected under their existing insurance policies.
Therefore, given these critical issues, ambiguities and uncertainties regarding the potential of insurance coverage, we all need to be thoroughly compliant with all civil authority directives by adopting practices that go above and beyond the norm in hygiene and the cleaning of our Churches, and doing what is reasonable and prudent to protect our Churches in the current circumstances.
In this respect the Holy Synod of Bishops and the Metropolitan Council can only reiterate and forcefully emphasize the absolute necessity that each and every one of our parishes, monasteries, seminaries, and all other ecclesiastical entities affiliated with the Orthodox Church in America comply with excruciating and painstaking detail all governmental requirements and directives, whether promulgated by the national, state, or local civil authorities, relating to measures issued in connection with the current pandemic. There can be no exceptions to this mandate.
It is with a heavy heart that your Bishops and the members of the Metropolitan Council issue this communique, knowing full well the heavy burden which it may impose on the Clergy, Monastics, and the Faithful of our Orthodox Church in America.
I think it’s because most never embraced the true role of a Bishop. Their job is fund raising and institutional organization management. Scott Hahn used to call them the “holy bureaucrats”.
Since those two things are falling away, I think we are seeing who the real Bishops are. I’m not surprised there are so few.
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