CHRIST IN WINTER: Reflections on Faith & Life for the Years of Winter
PANDEMIC ACTS OF DISCIPLESHIP
The Rev. Rebecca Ninke is a Lutheran pastor in WI who is livestreaming her worship services with a skeleton crew [her husband and daughter] because covid is so rampant there. She has told her congregation not to come to church. She says: “It is a funny turn to consider it an act of discipleship to not go to church, that not going to church is an act of discipleship.”
But she’s right. I go to church, but via livestream. I’m pretty sure I don’t have covid. I take every precaution not to get it. But as an old person who doesn’t have to go out in public, if I did so, even to church, and I got the virus, I might pass it to others, and I would put even more strain on the medical folks. By staying home, I’m protecting a lot of people. That is part of following Jesus.
[Rebecca is also the co-author, with daughter Kate Watson, who was ten at time of writing, of There’s No Wrong Way to Pray, and a columnist for wearesparkhouse.org]
OF COURSE IT’S A PERSONAL
CHOICE. SO WHAT?
I don’t understand people who excuse themselves from vaccinations or wearing masks by saying, “It’s a personal choice.” Everything is a personal choice.
Eating Cheerios for breakfast is a personal choice. Shooting your neighbor is a personal choice. That does not explain or excuse either one of them. Saying “It’s a personal choice,” is like saying “Air exists.” The point is, “WHY are you making THIS choice?”
My sister-in-law, Millie, was one of those strange people who really likes junior high kids. It made her a great classroom teacher for them. She was so good because they knew she cared about them, and they knew that because she always held them accountable for their choices.
She would say, “Because you chose to do… whatever… your punishment will be…” And they would immediately say, “It just sort of happened. I didn’t choose to do…” And she would say, “Oh, yes, you did. It may have been a stupid and mindless choice, but it was a choice. There were other things you could have done, but this is the one you chose.”
That may have been the best thing she taught them. Everything is a choice. Not all choices are equal. All choices have consequences.
“It’s a personal choice” is just a way to weasel out without taking responsibility. It is used mostly by people who insist that OTHER people should be held accountable for their choices. They are usually the ones who claim that being homosexual is a personal choice, but they certainly don’t accept it because “it’s a personal choice.”
FRIENDS WHO TELL THE TRUTH
Speaking of that…
When I was in graduate school, everybody was laughing about some Woody Allen movie in which the typically sad sack Woody has “a gay scare.” He is suddenly frightened that maybe he is secretly gay. This was the early ‘70s, and being gay meant even more societal problems than it does today, so it was legitimately scary.
I wasn’t aware that you could be gay and not know it, so it got me to thinking…the other grad students with whom I hung out were mostly women. We didn’t even have that many women in the Iowa School of Religion. It would have been easier to hang out with the guys.
So I said to the late and lovely Joan Mau one day, as we were hanging out in the graduate student lounge, “I’m afraid I might be secretly gay.” “Why?” she asked. “Well, because I like to hang out with you and the other girls.” “You moron,” she said. “It’s the other way around!” It’s nice to have friends who will call you a moron.
That’s why I say to people who claim that getting vaccinated is just a personal choice: You moron!
John Robert McFarland
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