Sunday, April 11, 2021
Sunday Reflection: Selflessness and individualism
A year later, the pandemic endures. This past Friday, April 9, there were over 80,000 new cases reported, more than twice as many as we saw a year ago, when everything was shut down because the danger was so extreme.
Part of the problem now is that there are large swaths of people unwilling to be vaccinated, wear masks, or social distance. Because they tend to live near and socialize with others who hold similar views, this is creating islands of COVID vulnerability, where the virus will flourish and mutate-- thus threatening those outside of those islands. Many of those islands are comprised of Christians.
This brings to the surface one of the enduring paradoxes of American life. The US, which prizes individualism, is full of people who practice a faith that encourages selflessness in the service of others. The Gospel teachings of Jesus aren't about rights; they are about humility, sacrifice, and service. It's strange to have not wearing a mask or refusing a vaccine characterized as somehow a virtuous assertion of "rights"-- and stranger still to have these choices that endanger other people asserted by Christians.
And yeah, in the picture I am getting the Fisher-Price vaccine.
