Corona, God, and Human Freedom: Doing Theology in Times of a Pandemic

As is always the case with major globe-encompassing events that loom as dark menacing clouds at the horizon of humanity’s future, would-be prophets and self-proclaimed men of God fill us in on the latest concoctions from the religious department.

I just witnessed Kenneth (Copious) Copeland heal donors of his ministry from Corona from the safe confines of his TV studio while Jim Bakker is using his ministry to sell a fake medicine against the dreaded virus. (He is now being sued by the State of Missouri, btw.) And I kid you not, one meme on social media asserted that “Corona is simply another name that needs to bow down to Jesus’s Name.” Either Corona has not figured out what it is to bow down or Jesus is having a hard time asserting his lordship over this world (and let’s face it, he hasn’t exactly got a stellar track record). There is of course a more sinister explanation, one that is not absent from popular religious interpretation either, Corona is God’s punishment on humanity and is a sign of the coming end times.

In order to do justice the whole issue of Corona in the light of the Christian faith, we need to address all this religious…