New Testament scholar N.T. Wright has weighed in on what the Christian response to the coronavirus should be and identified problematic “knee-jerk” reactions many believers have when tragedies occur.
In a conversation with BioLogos founder Francis Collins and host Jim Stump, Wright, professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at the University of St. Andrews, said it’s both “fascinating and worrying” the Christian church in the United States is wary of the scientific perspective on the coronavirus.
“The idea that science equals Darwin and Darwin equals unbelief — this is just trivial,” he said. “We need to be able to get way beyond that.”
Addressing the science-faith conflict, Wright argued that the United States is experiencing the effects of the 1925 Scopes “Monkey Trial,” which centered on a Tennessee science teacher who was accused of violating a state law banning the teaching of evolution.
“You’re still reaping the whirlwind from [the trial] in terms of people saying, ‘We of faith have to ignore [science] and go somewhere else,’ which is right now, crazy,” he said.
Collins, who heads the United States’ biomedical research, said he and other health officials have been insisting that people wear masks “with very little success.” Noting that “probably 40-50% new cases are caused” by asymptomatic persons, it’s everyone’s responsibility to wear a mask so as to not unknowingly spread the coronavirus, he stressed.
With many cities reopening, the U.S. is currently on a “steep upward slope” of coronavirus cases, he lamented. The U.S. now has over 3.5 million cases and more than 138,000 have died. While the death rate had gone down the last couple months, it recently began to increase.
Collins said he has heard “disturbing examples” of Christians not following safety guidelines with arguments such as “the devil can’t get into my church so I’m safe” or “Jesus is my vaccine so I don’t need to worry.”
Wright agreed that such attitudes are “irresponsible” and pointed out that caring for the sick is “deep in the Christian tradition,” as is the “responsibility to act wisely while a plague or pandemic is going on.”
He admitted that while attending worship services held over Zoom or other streaming platforms is “quite depressing,” he would “much rather have that than more sad funerals which people can’t attend in great numbers, of people who shouldn’t have died.”
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SOURCE: Christian Post, Leah MarieAnn Klett
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