Dear members and friends of the First Presbyterian Church of Corona:
After watching the news and reading articles on the internet for the last two days, I fear that many religious leaders just don’t get it. Your Session gets it and has determined that we shall not gather at the church building until it is safe. This virus can move quickly to affect personal and communal health. Thus, I feel compelled to send you this letter.
Some Christian leaders are mounting aggressive campaigns and even filing lawsuits against state government officials claiming that a ban on religious gatherings is a violation of the free exercise clause in the First Amendment and trying to promote the idea that we are being persecuted and victimized as Christian people.
Our Constitutional rights are very important to me, and the Constitution is centrally important to all citizens. Peter Marty, editor of the Christian Century magazine reminded me that the Constitution doesn’t require me to give food to the hungry or shelter for the homeless. There is no amendment that forces me to listen to science, or consider the needs of the medically vulnerable, or attend to the aspirations of the elderly. I appreciate my rights. But fixating on those rights at the expense of the love, compassion, and mercy contained in the substance of faith is wrong. Faith is more essential than a lot of things right now, perhaps especially these lawsuits that claim moral high ground for religious freedom.
We have chosen to follow Jesus' commandment to care for our neighbor, especially our most vulnerable neighbors (Matthew 22: 37-40), during the coronavirus/COVID19 pandemic. While we are not gathering at the church building, we have chosen to see this as a time for us to try new ways to worship, learn, pray, and stay connected ...after all, God is always doing new things (Isaiah 43:1-19)!
Pastor Henry
