In which our regular
writers toss around subjects a little more volatile than usual.
Ah, the coronavirus! I was so determined not to go there in
this space. Then it threatened to go on and on and on, and then it became such
a feature of our current media experience as to be utterly inescapable. After
that, it changed the way we do most everything, at least for the foreseeable
future. And still we left the subject alone; after all, if you want the latest
on COVID‑19, you can get that absolutely anywhere, right?
Tom: But then The New York Times started blaming
evangelicals for “crippling
our coronavirus response”, and there you are: turns out it was time to
start talking about it here. Not being an expert of any sort, I don’t want
to discuss the virus itself, where it came from, how it is spreading, and what
might be done about it; nor do I want to speculate about what the total
bill for fighting this thing will be. I simply want to talk about the
church and its response to the crisis.