Summary of “COVID-19 Upends American Religious Life” by Trevor Bach

Summary of “COVID-19 Upends American Religious Life” by Trevor Bach

Trevor Bach, in his article “COVID-19 Upends Amerian Religious Life,” published in U.S. News, explores the reaction of religious outfits around the U.S. amidst the growing concerns of coronavirus in the country. According to Trevor (2020), the Corona Virus epidemic has significantly impacted dozens of religious institutions like churches, mosques, and synagogues, which are now being shut down under the directives of relevant authorities. The few institutions that are still operational have implemented various new procedures, like the elbow greetings and elimination of food sharing, to reduce the possible risk of contracting the virus. Besides, the author also notes that some critical religious events like the upcoming Christian Easter Holiday, Jews Passover, Hindus Holi festival, and Ramadan prayers are in question whether they will be celebrated or not.

Additionally, the article addresses the cultural conflict of the need for religious institutions to continue providing worship services, which religious leaders argue that is an essential source of comfort during this time of crisis. To provide comfort while keeping believers safe, religious leaders have opted to offer worship services on a live stream on their websites or social media pages (Trevor, 2020). Also, the religious institutions have modified their usual rituals to provide services that do not put their congregations at risk of contracting the dangerous coronavirus. For instance, there have been modifications of rituals like the traditional catholic offering of peace embraces to prevent parishioners from having physical contact with one another (Trevor, 2020). According to Worldometer (2020), these actions are meant to contain the spread of coronavirus that has already proven to be highly contagious by infecting more than14, 000 and killing 217 Americans in less than a month.

References

Trevor Bach. (2020, March 13). How Coronavirus Is Upending Religious Life. U.S. News & World Report. https://www.usnews.com/news/national-news/articles/2020-03-13/americas-religious-communities-confront-coronavirus

Worldometer. (2020, March 20). United States Coronavirus: 14,366 Cases and 217 Deaths. Worldometer – real-time world statistics. https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/