Overzealous pastor not the only one who needs to repent for COVID-19 errors | Opinion

Last week a pastor in Texas decided to relax the rules of social distancing in his church services. Choirs sang and people sat next to each other and hugged their fellow worshipers.

It probably felt so good for everyone in the church.

Then, according to news reports, over 50 people in his church contracted the COVID-19 virus.

How does a clergy person deal with that decision and the ramifications on his church, let alone on his credibility as a trusted spiritual leader?

The pastor publicly apologized and accepted full responsibility for his actions and realized that his zeal for the spirit led to terrible consequences for the flock that he shepherds. Surely the people themselves are, to a degree, also culpable, for they should have known better. They probably allowed their enthusiasm for the religious experience to overtake their better sense of dealing with the virus.

The news report at the end had a quote from the pastor that deserves our attention. He was reported to have said: “We will return together as a church body to focus on the marvelous mission God has blessed us with.”

I think we know what he meant, but I question what should be the mission right now. I am not questioning his faith or theology.

Does he realize that his mission is not going back to the way things were?

The mission is applying to our lives the principles and beliefs we all hold in our respective faith traditions, but in a different way than before. I am not sure that the pastor learned that lesson.

Religious communities have had to think outside the box these days. Many are doing so right now with their livestream and Zoom services, as well as adult education classes and children’s religious school programs too.

Isn’t the mission of any faith community to show how God’s teachings through the sacred texts we all cherish enable us to survive and preserve the moral health and the physical health of our parishioners?

The pastor got it half right with his acknowledgment of how his actions endangered his community. At the same time, his zeal should not be tempered but channeled into the options available to him.

Technology is not perfect and it is not an equal substitute for that wonderful feeling of everyone coming together to sit in the sanctuary and worship, sing or listen to the clergy sermon. Yet, right now it is what we must do for the foreseeable future.

We have to finally come to grips with that reality and we have to do the best we can to combine Zoom, livestream, even outdoor drive-in services to preserve the live feeling of the worship service — even if we cannot feel or touch the people in our community like we used to before the virus struck us.

I appreciate the pastor’s willingness to repent for his actions and admit his error of judgment. That too is part of what a lot of community leaders should be thinking about, and not only in the religious community.

Many of our civic leaders fell prey to the excuse of preserving the economy at all costs by choosing what they called the Pathway Forward. It all sounded so positive and enthusiastic. The businesses that joined that bandwagon also contributed to what we are experiencing now in South Carolina and Beaufort County by being in the middle of this out-of-control forest fire called COVID-19.

Isn’t it time for those leaders to own up, like the pastor, that in their zeal for business profits that they might have put the economic interests over the health of the community they represent? Aren’t we experiencing the consequences of those decisions now?

And isn’t it time that our elected leaders, business leaders and clergy show real leadership by uniting together and setting a new tone that what we need to do now by wearing masks and social distancing is the right thing to do? Isn’t that God’s mission for us? Isn’t this the sacred mission that we need community leaders to demonstrate now?

The mission is not only about sustaining businesses but about preserving life and creating a positive climate that we will prevail. Where is the integrity of the pathway forward idea?

The mission and the pathway forward is first to come to grips with the error of judgment and admit how it has hurt our community. The second step is not just to enact mask requirements and social distancing ordinances but to send a clear message that Hilton Head has its priorities straight now and in the future. Isn’t that the religious and the secular mission for us all at this hour?

Rabbi Brad Bloom of Hilton Head Island writes on matters of faith.

This story was originally published July 13, 2020 at 9:08 PM.