THREAD: In the midst of this week of Passover and Holy Week, I wanted to share some of the stories I heard this week for my @WIRED oral history on faith in the shadow of the virus: wired.com/story/here-in-…
1) Rev. Stevenson (Missouri): "There are people who are really hurting because they don’t have the physical relationships—the hugs and the handshakes." wired.com/story/here-in-…
2) Rabbi Blazer (CA): "Whereas 9/11 was emotional—a devastating punch—this just keeps going. We just keep getting punched. I’m physically exhausted from the amount of work. We’re trying to respond to this because it doesn’t let up. It doesn’t end." wired.com/story/here-in-…
3) Brian Combs (NC) : "We’re trying to make a pivot to online worship. Online worship in a sense is oxymoronic to everything we believe in ... it’s awkward at best." wired.com/story/here-in-…
4) Rev. Debbie Sperry (ID): "Normally we make [Easter] special with flowers, tulips, decoration, the bell choir, the organ, the regular choir, and the special music. We can’t do that. So how do we make it special?" wired.com/story/here-in-…
5) Rev. Debbie Sperry (ID): "The original Easter didn’t start with celebrations and rainbows and tulips. Their Easter started with grief and darkness and sadness about everything that they had lost." wired.com/story/here-in-…
6) Rabbi Mark Blazer (CA): "The first Passover meal, the Jewish people—the Israelites—were quarantined in Egypt as the 10th plague was passing over Egypt. I mean literally the holiday began with isolation and with people knowing that outside was death." wired.com/story/here-in-…
7) Rabbi Aaron Miller (DC): "Passover is the story of the world turning upside down.... More than any Passover in recent memory, people feel that this did not just happen to our ancestors thousands of years ago." wired.com/story/here-in-…
8) Kati Whiting (VA): "That’s what people need right now—they need church, they need God. The church is going to come out of this stronger." wired.com/story/here-in-…
9) @caspertk (NY): "One of the biggest things a religious life offers people is a rhythm. It’s not just me alone in the world wandering—it’s my life inside a larger story.... Religion helps us feel stable and grounded." wired.com/story/here-in-…
10) Brian Combs (NC): "I remain skeptical of any attempts to frame this theologically—to overlay a sense of orderly divine intent.... My assumption is God is lamenting this as well. God set a world in motion that also includes an element of randomness." wired.com/story/here-in-…
11) Greg Bullard (TN): "The scripture always tells us that all things work together for the good of those who love the Lord and are called according to his purpose. ... Romans 8:28. Something good is going to come out of this." wired.com/story/here-in-…
12) Aaron Miller (DC): "Zoom is not what anyone wants, but religion is about taking the unplanned and making it sacred. Adam and Eve leaving the garden wasn’t the plan; Noah getting on the ark and leaving humanity behind wasn’t the plan.... wired.com/story/here-in-…
... "the destructions of the first or second temples wasn’t the plan. But faith is not just when things work out as planned. Religion keeps the ideal of what the world should be, and at times like this, faith is when we take the next best option and make it sacred too."
13) Mark Blazer (CA): "If your faith means something, it means something now. It’s very easy to talk about faith and talk about sacrifice when you’re living a comfortable suburban life. This is where the rubber meets the road." wired.com/story/here-in-… / END
