Give Us Clean Hands: Christians Embrace Scientific Responses to COVID-19

Amid the pandemic, NAE president says “the scientific community and people of faith really should serve as collaborators.”

While church leaders adjust services to help contain the spread of coronavirus, the pandemic has also prompted them to tackle another task: communicate a message that elevates both faith and science.

For pastors across Christian denominations, rising public anxiety over coronavirus only reinforces the importance of believing in God while heeding the advice of public health experts.

“Science is a wonderful arena of truth and understanding truth. It is an amazing tool that can help human flourishing. We just believe it can’t address all truth that exists,” said D. J. Jenkins, pastor at Anthology Church in Studio City, California.

Jenkins, who got his undergraduate degree in biology, acknowledged that “for a lot of folks, it’s probably pretty strange to see” a Christian or other devout person “asking for divine help—and then also trusting in science and health professionals and doctors. But it’s not strange for me.”

While past natural disasters have found a few high-profile Christians asserting a link to specific divine punishment, the coronavirus outbreak has generated little if any of that religious rhetoric. Instead, churches are rising to the moment with a mixture of spiritual aid and practical counsel that presents its own challenges, beyond the political tensions kicked up by the virus.

Scott Sauls, senior pastor at Nashville’s Christ Presbyterian Church, said he’s discussing ways to “move toward the pain rather than away from it,” acting on his faith’s edict to love one’s neighbor amid rising anxiety.

But that goal is complicated by the social distancing that’s been recommended as a best practice to slow down the disease, …

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