When Bilahari Kausikan posted this question on Facebook, “Was it an accident or coincidence that two clusters of coronavirus were found in churches?”, I thought about how Christian leaders are bridging the gap between faith and protection from Covid-19.
For Rev Wilson Teo of Grace Assembly, who was tested positive and has recovered, he encouraged his congregation, saying, “we are overcomers in Christ, and this virus will not defeat us. Please rest assured that I am recovering well! I am looking forward to my full recovery, when I will share with all of you on Grace Assembly’s journey in overcoming this virus.”
For Pastor Kow Shih Ming of Paya Lebar Methodist Church, where one person was later identified as having the coronavirus after visiting the church, he told church members ”the news filled him with a “gamut of emotions” such as fear, anxiety, confusion, anger and uncertainty.””
Pastor Kow added: “I apologise that our best efforts may not have been able to dispel or soothe these emotions completely.” However, Paya Lebar Methodist Church is not considered a cluster.
Another Christian leader, Dr Paul Tambyah, the president of the Asia-Pacific Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infection, said this: -
“There seems to be an epidemic of fear that is far greater than the actual epidemic of disease. As Christians, I don’t think we are immune from fear by any means, but we can face these fears confident in the reassurance that we have a resurrected Saviour by our side.”
Next comes Joseph Prince, the senior pastor of the megachurch New Creation Church. He has the largest congregation in Singapore, 33,000 in weekly attendance.
His message to the masses is to “urge them to find strength from the fact that during the Sars epidemic, none of the then 8,000 regular attendees died, which he said was “a testament to God’s glory””.
To be fair, Prince preached many things, chariot-led by Psalm 91, and all of them, I believe, were meant to build up faith, encourage unity and keep hope afloat. I don’t doubt his intention.
But I find it curious for him to make mention of the fact that “none of the then 8000 regular attendees died,” which he attributed to “a testament to God’s glory.”
While all the pastors mentioned above talked about overcoming, having strength and humility amidst the fear, and claiming reassurance in our resurrected saviour, Prince chose a different angle.
The reality is, a pastor, who visited the first patient who contracted sars at that time, subsequently passed away. A nurse also passed away.
And a surgeon, Dr Alex Chao, who rushed back to Singapore from a much deserved holiday, to fight the virus at the frontline (at SGH) also gave his life up in courage and dedication.
His wife, Prof Koh, then 33, said: "When Alex died, I told Beatrice her papa had gone to heaven and would not be back. Many people didn't agree with that approach, but I felt then that she was old enough to know the truth."
Admittedly, when it comes to prayer, the mystery of God belongs to the mystery of God, and with regards to that question posed by Bilahari Kausikan, “was it an accident or coincidence that two clusters of coronavirus were found in churches?”, I trust the earnest believer would be hard pressed to answer it.
Well, nevertheless, I can expect some of us to adopt the biblical approach and remind the questioner that Jesus’ disciples once asked him this, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind.”
He replied, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.” He then proceeded to heal the blind man.
That approach just about sums up His mindset, that is, at times like this, stop looking for causes in a fallen world and start focusing on overcoming in a risen Christ.
Of course, given that the mind of Christ is not unscientific, Jesus is not saying that (in today’s context) we should stop looking for the vaccine to inoculate against covid-19, or accept the notion that when it storms or an earthquake strikes, we should just attribute it to the tempest of an angry god.
This brings me back to Prince and his peculiar manner of rallying hope. Sure, none of his then 8000 members died and that should be a source of comfort and hope.
However, when you put it that way, you cannot escape the inference (that some may have) that there is something about his ministry or his personality, or both, that distinguishes his megachurch from the other churches whose members - either by accident or coincidence - fell prey to the virus.
Although I don’t suspect that that was his intention, yet when you make a statement that risks the perception of merging/conflating correlation with causation, or at least hint to that merger/conflation, even if you were to caveat it thereafter, the minds of the congregation would be biased towards a certain view of faith that is exclusive to or leans in favour of one church over the other.
Of course, all this would be moot if it can be shown - empirically speaking - that NCC is truly protected by a supernatural makeshift hedge or refuge under Psalm 91 because it is about what you believe, and that is what they believe, which was duly honoured.
And if so, I would then expect Prince to answer that Bilahari’s question with this rejoinder: “Neither by accident nor coincidence, but by design that there is no death during the Sars outbreak so that the works of God might be displayed for then and now.”
And inevitably, considering that many believers from other churches were infected, even with a pastoral death during the Sars outbreak, the only logical inference is that it is a design that appears rather selective and exclusive.
Food for thought?
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