A recent Pew Research poll has found a significant divide on the viewpoint of Republicans and Democrats toward the Coronavirus pandemic.
Perhaps this should not be surprising, but it does reveal the extent to which political posturing and messaging have interfered with our understanding and responses to the virus.
Perhaps the worst damage was done when President Trump discovered that foreign counties and many U.S. doctors had found a 60 year old Malaria drug, Hydroxichloraquin, to be effective against Covid 19. To oppose Trump, the media pounced on the drug, and suddenly a drug used safely by millions was reported to be not only ineffective, but deadly. Dueling studies appeared, pro and con, and the U.S. medical establishment panned the drug for lack of “Clinical Studies.” Meanwhile conservative news outlets like Fox News filled the air with doctors and patients who had been cured by the drug. A Democratic state representative who was cured of Covid 19 was expelled from the party for going public. Republicans and Democrats stand on opposite sides of the question, but it may very well turn out that thousands died because the drug was denied to them.
Then there are the lockdowns, first at the national level and then continued at the state and local level. So great was the suffering caused by the lockdown that Republicans and Democrats were able to come together to pass some relief measures. But the cooperation was short lived as the lockdowns dragged on and citizens began to demand that the economy be reopened. Their protests were supported by Republicans and condemned by Democrats as unsafe. Then positions reversed when the George Floyd protests and riots broke out on Memorial Day. Meanwhile millions lost their jobs for lockdowns that apparently no longer mattered.
Debates over when and how to open the economy after the lockdowns have raged over media and political outlets, blaming one party or the other for Covid-19 failures. Republicans, looking at good news from their politicians, generally favored restarting the economy while Democrats, hearing bad news from theirs, generally favored continued lockdowns. It is not surprising, then, that the Pew Research poll found that 61% of Republicans thought that the worst was behind us while 76% of Democrats thought the worst is yet to come. Only 45% of Republicans fear unknowingly spreading the virus versus 77% of Democrats. At a personal level 65% of Republicans are willing to dine in at restaurants while only 28% of Democrats are. Those attitudes may explain why Blue States have a slower recovery and higher unemployment than Red States.
More divisions are coming. The decisions about school reopening are devolving into a political confrontation between the Democratic teachers unions who fear the virus and Republicans responding to parents who are desperate to go back to work. Sports are entertainment reopenings are slowly happening, but the Pew Research results tell us that 40% of Republicans would attend but only 11% of Democrats would. And Church reopenings seem to be pushed back daily.
The worst thing about these divisions is that the Church is also split along political lines. Like Joshua when he met the Commander of the Army of the Lord, we want God to be on our side. (See Joshua 5:13-15) Instead, we should want to be on His side.
It is clearly the responsibility of the Church to bring healing to the land (2 Chronicles 7:14). The first step toward that healing is to disentangle ourselves from political infighting and unify to bring God’s power against this plague.
It is time to put God back in the fight.
Joshua went up to him and asked “Are you for us or for our enemies?” “Neither” he replied. “But as commander of the army of the Lord I have come” – Joshua 5:13-14