Retreat, rebuke, recite: outliers in church responses to the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

The article considers atypical responses to the COVID-19 pandemic by Christian leaders. In a three-fold classification it first identifies a retreat from civic life in resistance to lock-down restrictions on places of worship, demanding reopening on extreme readings of rights of religious freedom, and refusal of mandatory mask-wearing. A second classification groups as ‘rebuke’ spiritual warfare approaches within the prosperity gospel tradition that take the virus to be demonic, from which there is a promise to be claimed of God’s protection and healing. A third classification gathers a range of conspiracy theories recited by Christian preachers. In evaluating the responses, a parallel classification of entombing conspiracies, endorsing public health measures, and engaging in civic life is proposed. Drawing upon the common good as a theological critique it is concluded that extremist Christian views present a danger to global public health.

Rights

Copyright © Contact Pastoral Trust 2021. This work has been made available online on the University of St Andrews' Repository in accordance with publisher policies or with permission. Permission for further reuse of this content should be sought from the publisher or the rights holder. This is the author created accepted manuscript following peer review and may differ slightly from the final published version. The final published version of this work is available at https://doi.org/10.1080/1756073X.2020.1860549

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Identifiers

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1080/1756073X.2020.1860549

Repository URI

http://hdl.handle.net/10023/25847