How the modern church’s response to pandemics breaks with 2,000 years of tradition

In 1983, Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority released a shocking cover of their monthly newsletter. Founded 4 years earlier, the Moral Majority sought build a coalition among a new voting segment—the “religious right”—in order to impose “traditional family values” on the politics of USAmerica.

While the Moral Majority focused on a number of different issues, including abortion, divorce, feminism, school prayer, and equal rights, it was their stand against LGBTQI rights in general and LGBTQI individuals in particular that generated the most support among evangelicals …and the highest level of donations.

It should come as no surprise, then, that the Moral Majority and other Christian political advocacy groups of the day would seize upon the AIDS epidemic to bolster their argument that traditional family values—and the American family itself—were under attack.

While it is questionable as to how many Christians in the early 80’s wore masks to protect themselves from those with HIV/AIDS, it is clear that a large number of Christians ostracized AIDS patients, saying that the disease was God’s judgment for homosexuality. It is also clear that the Christian community mostly abandoned those who contracted HIV/AIDS, leaving the care of both their body and soul to someone else.

Christians washed their hands of it all, choosing not to help during the global HIV/AIDS epidemic …perhaps for the first time in history.

As this picture and its article title shows, many Christians cared more about themselves than an LGBT person in dire need, fighting for their life. —

Since the 1980’s many Christians have continued to respond to the greater public needs in much the same way, thinking of self first and others second… if at all. Whether it be immigration, prison reform, the elderly, climate, refugees, humanitarian crises, poverty, healthcare, or most recently, the global COVID pandemic, far too many Christians have first asked:

“How does this effect me personally?”

Sadly, for many modern Christians, if their finances, freedoms, or ease-of-living is negatively impacted, then the topic is immediately judged to be “anti-Christian” and will be fought against.

The problem with this “me first” mentality—be it during the throes of the HIV/AIDS epidemic or the COVID pandemic—is that it is decidedly opposite of the way Christians have reacted to community and global needs for, well, for ever. 

Christians have always been on the front lines of epidemics, pandemics, and community crises… until now. 

Christians were always the first boots on the ground, selflessly risking their own safety and freedom in times of great need.

The early Christians took seriously the words of Jesus:

“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” — Matthew 7:12

“Love your neighbor as yourself” — Mark 12:31

“Greater love has no man than this, that he should lay down his life for his friends.” — John 15:13

The earliest Christians thought of themselves as being less important than their neighbor.

Because of “less than” theology, the earliest Christians practiced radical selflessness and self-sacrifice. And this way of thinking wasn’t simply a philosophical exercise divorced from reality.

It wasn’t merely a platitude. They lived it out at great personal cost.

The first Christians knew far too well about the devastation and loss of life that epidemics and pandemics could bring. Just after the close of the New Testament, the world was brought to its knees with several successive epidemics.

The Antonine Plague (161-180 CE)

At the height of the Roman Empire, returning soldiers brought back with them a devastating plague as they returned to their homeland. Known as the Antonine Plague, the epidemic ravaged the Roman Empire for two decades, killing roughly 2,000 people a day in Rome at its deadliest. Some historians suggest that this plague alone killed off roughly a quarter of the Roman Empire before its conclusion.

This should have killed off the new and fledging Christian sect, especially as most Romans viewed Christian’s unwillingness to venerate the Roman Gods as part of the reason for the plague’s existence in the first place. 

But instead, Christianity grew.

Why?

Simply put, Christians cared for the sick when many others would not.

Christians put their lives in danger in order to help others.

Those who survived began to convert to Christianity, having never seen an example of such radical selfless love before. 

The Plague of Cyprian (249-262 CE)

Two generations later, an even worse pandemic, The Plague of Cyprian erupted. It was an Ebola-type plague that lasted over a decade and killed up to 5,000 men daily in Rome and Greece’s largest cities. By some accounts, 50-60% of those living in the major metropolitan regions died from this pandemic.

Interestingly, we call this (one of the worst pandemics in known human history) the Plague of Cyprian, because of a Christian Bishop of Carthage, named Cyprian, who witnessed and wrote sermons about it that survived till modern times.

What we know from these sermons is that Cyprian and other bishops encouraged Christians to not spend their time grieving for victims—because they were in heaven—but instead, to double-down on their efforts to care for the living and sick among them.

And they did!

Christians radically cared for their neighbors, even to their own peril.

And the result? Absolutely explosive growth in Christianity.

Actions speak louder than words, I suppose.

In epidemics and pandemics, actions speak louder than words.

In fact, Christian’s reputation for selfless service during these world crises began to become so great that the very anti-Christian Emperor Julian is on record complaining bitterly about how Christians would care for even non-Christian sick people. 

The selfless behavior of Christians in a time of great need shocked the world.

Dr. Rodney Stark, a sociologist, suggested that death rates in cities with a strong Christian presence were cut in half.

And this mindset of radical selfless sacrifice by Christians for the sake of others continued for centuries. 

The Black Death (1346-1353 CE)

In the 1300’s, when the Black Death struck Afro-Eurasia, conservative estimates say that a third of the world died. Somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 million people. It was so lethal that many people went to bed well but were dead before morning. Many doctors contracted the illness from their patient’s bedside, dying before the patient.

When the graveyards filled, bodies were thrown in the rivers or in pits dug for mass graves. When the pits were overflowing, bodies were simply left in the streets and in front of doors of homes.

People abandoned each other.

It was every person for themselves… except for Christians.

Historical archives show that Nuns were noted for having no fear of the Black Death and attending to the sick as best they could with humility and kindness. And as many of those nuns died, new ones replaced them. 

The Bubonic Plague (1563, 1593, 1625, 1665)

When a recurrence of the Black Death struck the world again in the 1500’s, Martin Luther followed the example of those early Christians. He refused to flee the city and take refuge in the countryside. Instead, he decided to stay to help the sick physically and spiritually. Luther put himself and his family in danger by caring for others in such a radical way. He and his ice even opened their for the care of the sick. Historians note the Luther’s daughter, Elizabeth, contracted the plague and died because his decision to remain and care for others.

In a tract that Luther wrote later entitled, “Whether Christians Should Flee the Plague,” he famously argued that Christians must choose to ‘die at their posts’ rather than flee their professional and spiritual duties during epidemics and pandemics. Luther argued that while we should pray for God’s mercy, we should do so alongside good medicine, good sanitation, self-quarantining, and social distancing.

You see, for centuries Christians have been championing a “Love Your Neighbor” kind of religion that shows its love through social distancing, quarantining, and taking medicine, like vaccines.

If you want to know how Christianity went from a rather obscure and marginal movement of a few hundred thousand people to around 6 million followers of Christ in less than 200 years, Dr. Rodney Stark will tell you: The Christian response to plagues the greatest determining factor.

The Spanish Flu, 1918

During the Spanish Flu of 1918, when millions were killed around the world, churches in the U.S. closed for worship.

Churches closed for worship for the good of their community. Something far too many churches refused to do in the COVID pandemic because of “freedom.”

During the Spanish Flu, many churches quickly re-opened, but not as churches. They smeared out pews and replaced them with hospital beds because the hospitals were full. Sanctuaries, packed full of people in need.

Times like this are an opportunity for Christians to either show the world that we care more about them than anything else in life… or to show the world that we really don’t follow the Jesus of the Bible.

Remember that Plague of Cyprian back in the early days of the church? Another Bishop, Dionysius, who was the Bishop of Athens, Greece wrote:

“Most of our brother Christians showed unbounded love and loyalty, never sparing themselves and thinking only of one another. Heedless of danger, they took charge of the sick, attending to their every need and ministering to them in Christ, and with them departed this life serenely happy; for they were infected by others with the disease, drawing on themselves the sickness of their neighbors and cheerfully accepting their pains. Many, in nursing and curing others, transferred their death to themselves and died in their stead.”

You know what chokes me up about that quote?

It’s not the Christlike love that he speaks of, shown by Christians choosing to willingly die in the place of others. No, that’s just what it means to be a Christian.

What chokes me up about that quote is the first line: “Most of our brother Christians showed unbounded love and loyalty…”

Most.

Most?

It means that there were a number of people who did not practice love for others and who were loyal themselves rather than Christ.

Were Pastor Dionysius writing today, I fear that he would not be able to write that “most Christians showed unbounded love and loyalty,” I fear that he would have to write that “few Christians showed love and loyalty to others.”

If I may be transparent

I have been shocked by the Christian response to this pandemic.

I have been shocked by Christians refusing to Quarantine.

I have been shocked by Christians refusing to wear a mask.

I have been shocked by Christians refusing the vaccine.

I have been shocked by Christians encouraging others to avoid masks and vaccines.

I have been shocked by Christians who say its arrogant to suggest Jesus has an opinion on the matter.

I have been shocked by Christians perpetuating conspiracy theories.

I have been (and this one gets me) shocked by Christians crying “personal freedom” in the face of science, logic, and the greater public need.

If someone could point me to the biblical text that tells us that our personal freedom is more important than compassion, love of neighbor, and the way of Jesus, that would be great!

But you can’t, because its not there.

What IS there?

These verses…

“‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing? When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ “And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’” — Matthew 25:37-40

“Make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.” — Philippians 2:2-4

“So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.” — Matthew 7:12

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” — John 13:34-35

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” — Luke 10:27

You see, the greatest threat to American families, the greatest threat to America itself, isn’t homosexuality (sorry, Dr. Falwell, but you are wrong). 

The greatest threat to the American family is a person who professes to follow Christ but who puts self before others.

Ancient Christians would have literally not recognized much of what calls itself Christianity today.

As Pastor Josh Scott has rightly said:

“The American church is what it is because we’ve embraced a hermeneutic of selfishness, American exceptionalism, nationalism, greed, escapism, patriarchy, and supremacy. For starters.”

It’s time that we started loving our neighbor once again.

It’s time that we begin modeling the kind of radical love that doesn’t care how a mask or vaxx affects our freedom.

It’s time that we became willing to die—not in a holy war or crusade or an Armageddon—but to die for our sister or our brother.

It’s time that we became people worthy to wear the mantle of the early church, not so that we might grow in numbers by the millions, no…

…but because it’s the right thing to do.

It’s the Way of Jesus.

And there no other way.