What God Wants

Listened to a pastor talk about how God wants people in church, without masks, unafraid of getting sick, singing His praises.

“God will protect me,” a woman from that church said.

Really?

So the 165,000 or so who’ve died because of Covid-19 had it coming to them because God didn’t like them?

Their faith wasn’t strong enough???

And faith is a wonderful thing. 

It truly is. 

I always enjoyed the community of mass until the sins of the Catholic Church drove me away from organized religion.

But in all the years of going to church or praying...

...I was never once arrogant enough to think that I knew what God wants.

“God doesn’t want us to stay home and hide from this virus and He doesn’t want us to hide our faces behind masks. He wants us to hold hands and sing his praises at the very tops of our voices!”

That’s what the lady went on to say.

And maybe I’m wrong and she’s absolutely right, but as far as science goes it would stand to reason that if her church scenario plays out...

...the virus will certainly spread.

That’s what a belief in science tells me.

Yet, that woman’s belief tells her that if the virus gets close she will sing it away?

The pastor was asked if he worried about the health of the  6,000 or 7,000 people who attend his services.

“If people don’t feed the spiritual side they may as well be dead,” he said.

And the thing is...

...that church can remain open.

They can offer the service on-line.

“It’s not the same thing,” the pastor said. “There’s no substitute for standing shoulder-to-shoulder with your neighbor, singing out for all the world to hear.”

That’s when I shut it off.

The collection plate was what he was concerned with.

Roger Waters said it best:

“What God wants, God gets, God help us all.”