Psalm 91 starts with these two lines: -
“He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.”
This is Joseph Prince’s victory chant against the current outbreak of the coronavirus.
In today’s papers, his church is reported as business as usual, that is, the Father’s business.
It reports: “At New Creation Church in Buona Vista, large numbers of congregants were seen coming and going at The Star Performing Arts Center in between morning services.”
One churchgoer, Hui Yi, 35, said: “It doesn’t really seem different from the usual apart from (temperature-screening and cleaning) measures. It seems like it’s just as crowded as it usually is.”
At this juncture, you must know that the Catholic Church at Novena is going online,
mass is therefore suspended for the time being. As such, the Church of St Alphonsus had “fewer than 30 people”, which has a seating capacity of 1,500.
On Friday, Archbishop of Singapore William Goh said “that public mass for Catholics here would be suspended indefinitely from noon on Saturday to minimise the risk of spreading the coronavirus.”
Not only that, mega-church FCBC, with two locations, Marine Parade and Bukit Merah, has told church members on Saturday that services will be moved online - this is to reduce large public gathering at one place, at one time.
It reports: “A worship session was streamed live - The Straits Times understands that only about 20 staff members were in the audience - and church members were directed to give their weekly offering through PayNow or card payments. A sermon was part of the service as usual.”
So, looking at the religious landscape as reported thus far, can it be said that, what we have is different manifestations of faith or different attitudes adopted towards the spread of coronavirus?
While the Catholic Church and some other Churches are going virtual space, others services like NCC are “just as crowded as it usually is”. And for Paya Lebar Methodist Church, she is doing both, that is, having weekend services and online streaming.
Now, let me explain that I revisited this topic (from last Friday on Prince’s confident pronouncement of Psalm 91) because one friend/netizen wrote to me and said that, if I want to see whether Psalm 91 really works for NCC, then maybe I should wait for the outbreak to be officially declared over, and then count whether NCC has a significantly lower rate of infection (even zero) as compared to other churches.
Anyway, I am sure my friend does not mean that as a scientific way of evaluating/comparing the evidence because at the highest, we are just talking about correlation, rather than causation for there are more factors at play here than just the recitation of Psalm 91
(Notwithstanding that psalm 91 is a prayer which is often times held closely and endearingly in a soldier’s heart when he goes to war, not knowing for sure whether he will be spared a bullet or not).
So, the question is, have we misunderstood Prince, when he preached Psalm 91 and then used it to say with such certainty that if you believe it, no virus, corona- or otherwise, can come near you as a believer?
Should we then take his word quoting God’s word as the medical ”refuge and fortress” against pestilence, terror of night and arrows that fly by day?
Well, that is the issue right? And it boils down to how effective it is in keeping one completely untouched by the coronavirus.
In any event, putting aside the atheist’s smirk of bewilderment, wondering what kind of supersitition we are mired in, in this scientific day and age, as a believer, I perennially struggle with the gap between the emotional side of faith and the scientific side of it.
And if faith is the evidence of things hoped for, then isn’t it as good as saying that it is very much a no-enter-or-fly-zone when I attempt to trek the path of faith on the scientific side. Because, if you think about it, “evidential hope” is rather oxymoronic? (I know the debate here will go on like the Titanic song. So I leave it at that here for the time being).
Now, let me also add that this is not a case of being “unreasonable”, or seen as one, when it comes to the perplexing questions of faith, but being reasonably ignorant/humble about it, because there is still many things we don’t know, save for gravity and textbook arithmetic, among other things.
This brings me to the emotional side of faith, and I am afraid Prince may have given it too much air-time, or stretched it to breaking “unrealistic” point. For who is then to say that a believer in his church would not interpret psalm 91 as a sure thing, a form of medical amulet, to be worn over the trembling neck to ward off the “secular” virus?
Is this what charismatic preaching demands then - front-load the good stuff and hide in the shadows the qualifiers and caveats to it, and risks arousing populist sentiments that usually boils over? Discerning listeners in his church excepted of course.
And if it is meant to be a mental balm to soothe the jangled nerves at this time of uncertainty, then will Prince make it clear, that is, by way of illustration, psalm 91 has been cited by even soldiers, but not all of them return to their families alive?
That is my burning issue with the emotional side of faith and how some preachers - having critical masses beholden to him or her - apply the scripture as an opportunistic means to a self-favouring or self-confirming end.
Mind you, the risk is this - the emotional side of faith can be a bottomless pit of credulous elasticity, and not all believers can be considered as mature, prudent and people who apply critical thinking to what is preached.
Some take it all in, lock, stock and barrel. Others examine the lock, sift through the stock, and empty the barrel of weed and rot.
And that is my point about Prince rah-rah-ing the crowd like a spiritual cheerleader with his scriptural pom-pom instead of taking the stand of a shepherd with a more discerning and balanced take on this specific issue.
And let me therefore end with what I had said before, that is, as leaders, with greater influence comes greater prudence, especially when the emotional side of faith is so pliable, and risks misinterpretations, that one cannot be deemed too careful about it during such sensitive time
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