Unmasking Mask Wearing and Loving Your Neighbor Well
Yesterday Governor Abbott issued an Executive Order mandating that all Texans must wear face coverings when in public where groups of 10 or more people are gathered together.
The order reads,
“Every person in Texas shall wear a face covering over the nose and mouth when inside a commercial entity or other building or space open to the public, or when in an outdoor public space, wherever it is not feasible to maintain six feet of social distancing from another person not in the same household…”
The entire order may be found here.
The order does carve out certain exceptions for wearing face coverings in some cases. And one of those cases does include an exemption for places of worship. However, until further notice, we will require that if you gather with us for worship that you must have your face covered, with these two exceptions in mind —as per the guidelines found within the order, we will not require any person younger than 10 years of age or any person with a medical condition or disability that prevents wearing a face covering to wear a mask.
I understand that for many of you that this request will be sufficient. I need say no more. But there are some of you that may have some questions or may have some objections raised in your minds about the process that went into this decision. That is what the remaining body of this article is about.
Proceed with Caution
Before you read ahead let me express my love and care for you. Why share that? Not only because it is true but because it is in that spirit that I write. Why share that? Because while the risk level is actually probably quite low, there is a chance that you may read this and infer from my writing the tone of a lecturer who is wagging his finger at you. I am not. So do your best to read what I have written, not with a critical ear, but with an open heart understanding that this was written in love and for our common good.
Next, while I am doing my best —like the rest of you— to navigate my life with biblical wisdom in this season, I am not just responsible for my own life but I am responsible for your lives too. At least so far as your lives intersect with my responsibility as your pastor. Some of what you will read will be straight-up Bible (pay most of your attention to those things). Some of it will be my application of biblical principles (pay some attention to that). And some of what you will read will be based on my own opinions that have been formed by biblical wisdom (hear me out on those things too). But all of that stuff taken together —whether you agree with them or not— were all the things that were taken together and processed to make that decision.
One last thing, Christianity is a thinking person’s religion. Be prepared to think well.
The Big Question
If we are not legally obligated by the Governor’s executive order to wear face coverings for worship why would you decide for us that we are required to wear them?
First, the “Bible Nerd” answer.
We should comply with the orders and requests of our government’s leaders and honor their office. As much as I do not want to do that sometimes, I am constrained by God and conscience to listen and submit to what Peter says when he writes,
1 Peter 2:13 Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, 14 or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. 15 For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. 16 Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. 17 Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor.
That emperor was Nero, the guy who put Christians on poles and lit them on fire to illuminate the palace grounds for his dinner parties. If Peter can tell the Christians in his day to honor that beast of a man, I can easily and happily submit to Governor Abbott’s recommendations in his order.
Second, the “Legal but Immoral” answer.
After reading the order you might be thinking, “The order does not apply to worship gatherings so we would not be dishonoring the governor if we did not wear masks inside the building for worship.” That’s right, sort of. While we would not be guilty of breaking the law we would be deliberately ignoring his recommendations, which would be dishonorable. But let’s not just think about the legal question but the moral question as well.
Not everything that is legal is moral. We get that. Abortion is legal but it is not moral. Chattel slavery was once legal in the United States but it was always immoral in the eyes of God. So we have to consider that in certain situations we may have moral obligations as Christians that would prevent us from expressing ourselves within the legal limits afforded to us by a given law. Said another way, while it may be legal for us to take our masks off as soon as we enter the church building, we must ask ourselves whether expressing our freedom within the building violates a higher moral obligation to our neighbor.
Third, the “Political” answer.
If we must wear a mask while shopping at Walmart out of concern for the safety of those shopping around us but we do not have to wear a mask when we are worshipping together in our church building, does that mean that the risk of infection goes to ‘zero’ because we are gathered for worship? Obviously, no. In fact, the risk is actually higher because we are in closer proximity to one another and spending a longer amount of time together. So we have to ask why the Governor would carve out an exception for worship gatherings.
I am not a constitutional lawyer and I cannot see into the mind of our governor, so take this with a grain of salt. But I believe that Governor Abbott respects the Constitution and the freedom of Americans to worship in the manner that we each see fit. Therefore, he is not willing to sign any law or write an order that restricts or impedes the religious expression of any Texan — even when that law or executive action lacks internal consistency or logic.
This order is not consistent. If there exists a potential hazard to our neighbors to shop at Walmart without a mask then that same (or greater) risk also exists when we gather for worship in our building.
The governor obviously sees the inconsistency but because he respects the Bill of Rights and trusts the wisdom of local pastors to love and lead their congregations well, he is making face coverings a recommendation and not a law.
Fourth, the “I am not an Epidemiologist” answer.
Setting my own personal opinions aside about whether or not wearing a mask is really necessary and actually a preventative measure to stop the spread of the virus, I am happy to wear one for the same reason that I am happy that there are laws today that prevent smoking in public spaces. While I do not really understand the science behind second-hand smoke and whether it actually harms me, I trust the people who are studied enough in that area of science to believe that it is actually something that can harm me and my family. So I am glad those laws exist.
We are all smokers now. And we are all blowing out second hand…breath. Sort of. We just do not have the convenience of seeing or smelling the COVID-19 like we can see and smell cigarette smoke. In other words, apart from a test, we cannot know who has the virus and who does not. So we have to assume that we are all potentially carrying and shedding the virus.
And while I recognize that we are getting conflicting messages from one expert to the next —one says that masks prevent the spread of the virus while another says they do not do anything at all— I believe that we must err on the side of caution.
Fifth, the “Libertarian Objection” answer.
“Resistance against tyrants is obedience to God” was the rallying cry of Benjamin Franklin to Christians living in the American Colonies to take up arms against the tyranny of King George in 1776. And it is unsurprising to me, with the ever-increasing rise of oppressive government and America’s newly found affinity with Socialism, that I would see people speaking of the governor’s mandate to wear masks as a slide toward tyranny; or worse, a tactic to condition the minds of American’s to slowly accept ever-increasing oppressive forms of government. While I understand how people arrive there I believe that it is an over-reactionary and unreasonable position to take.
The problem here for us today in our current cultural moment is that we can allow a good and proper response to the ever-increasing and over-reaching behemoth of government to cause us to overreact to common-sense measures like wearing masks. If we were experiencing this situation in 1984 when our civil liberties felt far less threatened and Americans were far more unified in our resistance against Socialism, then I would dare say that we would happily submit to wearing masks and consider it our patriotic duty to wear them for the wellbeing of our fellow Americans.
Sixth, the “Missionary Optics” answer.
Going back to 1 Peter 2 for a moment, notice that Peter writes in verse 15, “For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people.” In other words, we must deprive the world of every possible reason for making a just accusation against the Church. And what are the possible accusations that will be made if we refuse to wear masks? That we do not love people. That we care more about attending a church service than we care about our non-church-going neighbors who we will infect. That we are science deniers. That we have “Christian Privilege” and that we think we are above the law. And those are not simply accusations that will be made against our church, they are accusations against us that will bring dishonor to the gospel.
That means we have a gospel obligation to honor the recommendations of the governor.
Seventh, the “Love thy neighbor as you love thyself” answer.
This is the most important answer, I think. We have some people who would love to gather with us for worship but who will not gather with us if we are not wearing masks because of their concern that they might become sick or may become an unwitting carrier of the virus and spread it to others.
So we must weigh which is the more important priority for our church family, choosing not to wear masks and choosing only to gather with people who are also willing to gather in a room wear masks are not worn or being inconvenienced by having to wear masks and allowing as many people to gather with us as are willing to worship under the circumstances. Obviously, it is the latter. We must love our neighbors and respect their desire to gather with us more than our personal desire to worship without a mask and gather without those who will not come if masks are not worn. This is what it looks like for us to be obedient to Jesus when he speaks about bearing the burdens of one another.
Final Thoughts
Finally, while I may not be speaking to anyone at all, let me make sure that I cover my bases here and gently submit to you, that if you are unwilling to gather with us out of protest if we insist that you wear masks, that you are placing a greater restriction upon yourself, your family, and your church than we are placing on you.
I love you, Church. I want good for you. And I want for the good news that Jesus is king and that his kingdom has come to saturate our city like the waters cover the sea. And we are not going to be able to do that if you are sick, getting other people sick, or excluding yourself from worship. We are the Good News people not bad news. We are the people who heal diseases, not those who spread them. That’s what we must be known for.
Enjoy grace, Soma.
-Josh