By Wanjop Warbah
“I am a resident of Nongkseh, Upper Shillong and I believe that our locality is one of the first Khasi dominated locality to be clamped as a containment zone area after a numerable residents tested positive on random testing done by the Shastri Memorial Dispensary in collaboration with the Shnong as a whole. To me one of the causes for the sudden spread of the pandemic is due to each one of us not paying heed and attention to protocols issued by the Health Department.’’
Many of us thought that 2020 was a difficult year because little did we know what 2021 had in store and it is really sad that our generation has to live through these unprecedented times. I am a resident of Nongkseh, Upper Shillong and I believe that our locality is one of the first Khasi dominated locality to be clamped as a containment zone area after a numerable residents tested positive on random testing done by the Shastri Memorial Dispensary in collaboration with the Shnong as a whole. To me one of the causes for the sudden spread of the pandemic is due to each one of us not paying heed and attention to protocols issued by the Health Department. We have the tendency of feeling safe with people we are familiar with, no matter how risky their contacts are, and forget to take all necessary precautions when we are with them. A view of history reminds us we are not the first community to experience and reflect on life during a time of plague or pandemic. Most of us are not old enough to remember of the Spanish flu of 1918 or the smallpox pandemic of the early 1900’s. Further the Egyptians as recorded in the Bible had to go through the very testing ten visible plagues while we have to go through difficult times as many call the virus the invisible enemy.
Given the ubiquity of life as a whole and religion in particular, it is not surprising that reflections on pandemics often begin with God. Plagues and disease on such a scale feel “biblical” in the sense they are beyond the norm and therefore supernatural in some way. While modern science has given us insights into Covid-19 yet we tend to look for some to blame for its presence and also look up to someone to eradicate the misery caused by the pandemic and from antiquity that someone was often God. Till date, especially the faithful look for divine intervention to end any sort of misery or hardship and this is reflected too in the government’s decision to hold a special program of prayer on May 30, 2021.The plagues of the Bible were not all diseases, but they all brought destruction and potential death. In that ancient narrative a plague served two functions: it is divine punishment for injustice, and an assertion of religious power in the battle between Egypt’s gods and the gods of the Hebrews. In the Hebrew Bible, the Pharoah’s refusal to release the slaves is to blame. Throughout history humans have sought explanations for things beyond our normal control or understanding. While God is often credited for the hardships usually to teach us some moral lesson, we also tend to focus our wrath on human scapegoats. US President Donald Trump’s constant reference to Covid-19 as the “China virus” reflects a similar desire for a scapegoat.
Another aspect in the past is the role of the Government in containing the disease. Governments have for centuries used quarantine as a way to safeguard public health, often with great success. Yet there is no doubt that resistance in this area has ever been so common. There are reports of those in isolation being unruly resisting the need for quarantine during the Great Plague of the 17th century in England, which I believe is still holds true of the present crisis we are going through. The governments then and now find it very difficult to balance between individual freedom and protection of the community as a whole. There are even records of the arrest of a Scottish preacher in 1603 for refusing to comply with the government’s health measures because he thought they were of no use as it was all up to God. The preacher was imprisoned because he was viewed as dangerous: his individual freedoms and beliefs were deemed less important than the safety of the community as a whole. So it is very important to not let history repeat itself i.e. to say that God is in control and there is no need to shut down churches, no need to follow protocols when in church, or to question why the Church a religious and spiritual institution has to follow instructions from the government which is a political institution. Such views are contradictory to teachings of the Bible as recorded in Romans 13:1 which reads “Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God”.
Being a person of faith however does not make one anti-science. Covid skeptics take a variety of forms in the contemporary culture be it anti-government or anti-religious conspiracy theorists. Yet these are often associated with people of faith or we may say opportunists trying to buy popularity from the prevailing situation by their sentimental and emotional speeches on social media. One example of a cleric who did not pit faith against reason was Martin Luther, the 16th century theologian and reformer. Martin Luther wrote about living through the plague in a pamphlet titled “Whether One May Flee from a Deadly Plague.” Oxford University professor Lyndal Roper writes that while many fled Wittenberg in 1527 when the plague struck, Luther stayed out of a sense of duty to help nurse and care for the dying. This is what he thought all leaders should do which I believe is very relevant in our present situation too, instead of spreading rumours and hearsay about the disease. Luther’s staying back was not a decision of a martyr, nor was it born of a naive idea that God would necessarily protect him it was rather a decision of human responsibility. He also advocated social distancing, the use of hospitals and all necessary precautions according to the science of his time. Luther harshly condemned those who went about knowing they were sick and spreading the disease. Can the same be said today? Are people who know they are positive still taking part in melas or shopping in crowded areas? If yes, should they be condemned or should we just say that it is unfair to blame or call an individual or any religious ceremony or festival a super spreader? The question then is – Are our decisions acts of human responsibility?
A historical perspective does not making living through a pandemic easy. But perhaps there is a small comfort in realising that we are not the first community to live through such times and neither will we be the last. And as our nation, our community and our churches continue to come to grips with the challenge of the Covid-19 pandemic, we hear a persistent drumbeat from all sides that we are in “uncharted waters”. But Luthers’s reflections on the plague are a good reminder for us Christians that we have a body of accumulated wisdom to draw upon as we navigate these troubled waters. So let’s keep taking our potions, fumigating our houses or at least keep washing our hands and using hand sanitizers, shunning places where we’re not needed and maintain social distancing with a sense of urgency, like people who want to help out a city on fire. This isn’t just medical advice, it’s a spiritual necessity. And like other centuries in the past, we too are capable of incredible acts of care and sacrifice for the sake of the sick and vulnerable.
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