Unmute! Listening for Religion in the Age of COVID-19

The pandemic raised immediate and serious questions about the relationship between the physical health of individuals and the public. From the start, public health officials focused on the pressing issue of maintaining individual health and promoting responsibilities of communal health and safety. Religious leaders and groups joined in and often focused on the relationship between physical and spiritual health. They sought to find meaning for illness and health from within their own religious traditions and from others. In worship services and gatherings, religious leaders often included references to healings and communal responsibilities for the sick found in sacred texts and traditions. Online services included prayers for the sick, Zoom meetings organized faith-based charitable responses to the crisis, and creative spiritual people found innovative approaches to safely care for the needs of the sick and the despairing. In all types of virtual and physically-distanced contexts, messages were given and received about caring for the physical and spiritual needs of people living with pain, fear, and isolation during the pandemic.

The clips in this playlist highlight some of the efforts from religious leaders and groups to address the physical and spiritual crises. In messages to listeners and viewers, we hear calls for caring for the stranger, attending to fears and anxieties, and understanding that religious traditions have something pertinent to say about the pandemic. In some clips we hear high-profile religious leaders take the opportunity of the pandemic to reach out to address the spiritual needs of ailing and fearful people. Some clips feature people speaking directly about religious teachings on health, illness, death, and the afterlife. We hear a prayer of gratitude for breath, that provides a vivid reminder of the bodily struggle with the virus. There are messages given that relate health precautions to positive and negative outcomes in the same faith tradition. In all of the messaging, the relationship between the individual and the communal as well as the physical and the spiritual, is a primary concern for religious communities during the pandemic.

– Amy DeRogatis