Viral blues and the consequences

 I read on a growing basis the frustration in people as The Virus continues to apparently rule our lives. Yes, I think that we can call it The Virus, capitalised and all. The reality of our situation is grabbing at the frustrations of many and is being exposed to the light of day in peoples attitudes and complacency. There certainly have been political machinations that have created these conditions from poor response times from state governments to exacerbated roll out times of the vaccine. I am also sure that people have noticed that the states doing better are the states run by parties opposed to the Federal government and not the Federal government's followers. Being a faith follower, namely a Christ follower, what are our options in terms of The Virus? Should we render to Caesar or should we be outliers of rebellion against imperial authority, undermining the telos of favouritism and bolstering of our own pockets or perhaps treat all virus carriers as lepers?

In ages past of course we did not have such a dilemma as the news coverage and the medical knowledge was not available. We were only able to blame God and perhaps those pesky rats for the plague and not Chinese laboratories or any other quirky thing that comes up, perhaps even the vaccine for continuing the spread of the virus. In our ignorance as faith believers we relied on the grace of God and as much common sense that we had to try and look after our neighbours and ourselves. We survived or at least our ancestors did otherwise we would certainly not be present to struggle with something new and yet old at the same time. The Spanish flu was handled in much the same way, even if it wasn't Spanish because unlike a certain American we cannot really allocate race to a virus no matter its point of origin. Does that mean that those with the virus are automatically lepers in the community to be shunned because they have a racial virus? Humanity struggles in the face of mass death which we attempt to limit through our scientific progress forgetting that death to is part of life. we could of course drop into the apathetic condition and suggest that God gives life and God takes life away, so let nature and The Virus take its course (sounds like the British way).

Rebellion, compliance and compassion - a faith response?

I actually think that God gives us a good gift as we think about the effect of The Virus and our own response. The gift of resilience in the face of adversity. The resilience to persevere in the faith of death whilst at the same time holding out a beacon of light to others in the community. Yes, the appalling roll out of vaccination has hindered our own health resilience whilst at the same time increasing the frustrations of many such that they boil over and become a hindrance to the community. Faith tells us to rely on God. Scripture informs us of our possible responses. Rebellion / Compliance / Compassion whilst in reality we actually need to balance these three in order to form a continuing community that respects and loves rather than engendering hatred and abuse.

Rebellion, yes but responsible rebellion that looks to the needs of the community rather than endangering and lacking compassion for the other. Rebellion to overthrow the inequities in a society that no longer values the other. Rebellion to ensure politics and rulership considers the other who is relegated to the least and spat upon. In doing this society as a whole becomes more generous and less onerous. All are advantaged not a few but being human this is perhaps as idealistic as Christ and Paul's move against empire. Compliance appears to ensure that we are being loving towards our neighbours as we are being responsible in the face of viral spread. Even our ancestors during the Spanish flu wore masks knowing that it was helpful to others. Are we so irresponsible, selfish and lacking in care for others that we are willing to endanger those same others so long as we survive. Of course if we spread the virus or even get it we can complain about the lack of governmental services that care for our irresponsibility. Compassion and not ostracisation of those with the virus because a reaching out to the other is instilled in our faith. There are too many in the world that require compassion and not just because of The Virus but because we are too unwilling to rebel against injustice and we are sometimes too compliant with authority that we forget that God demands from us our gifts for compassion and generosity.