A Shield of Faith

All materials have non-material meaning, some more than others. A chalice is certainly more than a receptacle for a beverage. Some meanings are born from familiarity. When I was a young boy, football players and astronauts wore helmets, bike riders and skateboarders did not. And some meanings evolve with a fair amount of kicking and screaming. A belt was something my mom made me wear on Sunday mornings, not something I was legally required to wear in a car.

Growing up, a mask was either worn by a caped crusader like Batman protecting Gotham; or it was a scary evil disguise to be worn on Halloween. A mask was not something you wore when you were sick (though your grandparents probably wore one during the 1918 influenza pandemic). And a mask would certainly not be worn in public unless you were a clown or just a social oddity.

Today, we need a new meaning for the mask. During the COVID-19 pandemic, “a mask” has become a volatile emotional symbol of your politics, your faith, your American rights, or just your own personal opinion. Much better perhaps, if a mask was just what it is—a mask. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could cultivate the rather blasé feeling we have when we put on a bike helmet or a seat belt? Maybe we just go ahead and change the name of a mask to a “mouth helmet” or a “lip belt”? But to make a material object mean less is much more difficult than transforming it into meaning something more and different—like pink shirts for males in the 90’s. Like the ICTHYUS fish symbol on the back bumper, a marketing campaign is needed for the “re-symboling” of the mask—or even better, a face shield which is more comfortable, allows facial recognition, can be quickly re-used without a washing machine, and is likely safer than a cloth face mask. Christians should be on the forefront of this new icon of healing—a mask for mercy and a shield of faith!

Perhaps, someone’s head is starting to wag, saying “Why on God’s green earth should wearing a mask (or shield) be connected with our Christian faith?” Here are several reasons:

1) Compassion and empathy did not come quickly to the pagan culture of Rome. Christians “evangelized” the Roman people and her government, not by preaching a new religion, but by being model citizens of Rome. Christians bore witness to their faith in Jesus Christ by “shielding” and helping the disadvantaged pagans during times of plague. 

2) Because your civic leaders have asked you (and sometimes mandated you). The Church has a long history of obeying the government leaders, even when they are a pagan government or we disagree with them (Heb. 13:17; Rom. 13:1). We specifically pray to God in our worship services to help our government leaders. If our prayers are real; we should live them. It may be American to be defiantly autonomous, but it is certainly not Christian.

3) Wearing a mask is an act of Christian humility. In the early Church community, the “stronger” members observed the rules of the “weaker” members as an act of humility and love (cf. Rom. 14). As the saying goes, “This is not about you. It is about us.”

4) God has given us science as a gift to save people’s lives. History is the album of the Holy Spirit in His Church. Masks, washing hands, physical distance, and limiting crowd sizes are the ways God has given us through history to save lives during plagues. And they are the only means we currently have with COVID-19.

5) Masks are pro-life. If one is pro-life, it is completely consistent to be pro-mask or pro-shield. To fight for the unborn, but not take every available measure to protect the poor, sick, and elderly is inconsistent. The book of James says if you neglect to protect these people, your religion is not true (James 1:27).

Every action has a reaction. And every argument has a counter. To highlight some reasons against a mask would be only fair and important:

1) It cuts off human connection, visually and psychologically. This by far is the most compelling argument. Not seeing someone’s smile is no small thing. And have you noticed how siloed and more quiet people are with a mask on? Will a mask promote isolation, sadness, and depression? There is no question that anxiety and depression are significantly up during this pandemic—and it would be impossible to know how to weight the influence of physical distancing vs. wearing a mask vs. the fear of getting infected, but I do think the mask plays a significant role here.

First, no one likes a mask. Among Americans the mask may in fact be universally hated. No one is selling this “new norm” as a better thing like snapchat or stretch pants. A mask is a necessary and temporary means to save lives, like limiting the number of family members who can go into the ICU at one time (which was a rule long before COVID-19). You are under the precautionary and time-limited rules of an “Intensive Care” situation. 

It is true that more than half of infectious disease experts and public health professionals think we will be in daily masks for at least another year! This I why I find shields so attractive, in which you can see the person’s entire face. You can’t pull it down under your nose like a mask which makes it ineffective. The shield would solve much of the facial communication problem including iPhone recognition. We would just need to find a way for them to be produced cheaply, cleaned easily, and recycled. We need a “green” shield that would solve several problems of a mask without creating more plastic trash.

2) “I heard that masks don’t help. There is a guy from OSHA on the internet who says it can actually increase the spread of disease.” There is so much wrong with this guy’s post and information that it is hardly worth spending the energy referencing all the scientific information that refutes his claims. But because his post has gathered so much attention, it might be worth addressing the integrity of these kinds of posts:

• It is from the internet without his full name or any credentials. OSHA says ,“He is not OSHA certified.” The “10 and 30 certification” that the person claims are 10-hour and 30-hour courses that are not certification courses. This is like doing a 10-hour course and a 30-hour course in flying a plane and but still not being certified to fly. 

• The “10 & 30” courses have no information on COVID-19 according to OSHA. These are generic courses on materials in the workplace.

• A “red flag” of any misinformation is overreach and hyperbole, in contrast to precise, careful language. The medical profession and patients have been wearing surgical masks for over the past 100 years. Surgeons and every person in the operating suite across the world wear them all day, every day, in every operation and procedure; and this “guy” without studies or publications has announced in 2020 that masks reduce oxygen which can cause “headache, high blood pressure, and brain damage.” Outside of some rare anecdotal story or situations, this information would be the first of its kind in the scientific literature in over a century—except that he offers no scientific study.

• The worst kind of proclamations of truth are half-truths. There are portions of what he presents that are valid. However, like most truth, the more you know, the magnitude of complexity grows exponentially. The true geniuses and wise voices of this world seem to show more humility, and even more uncertainty. It is a “rookie” mistake to learn about something and then speak as if you understand it with a broad brush of certitude. Truth is complex. To make it simple makes it wrong. I could offer another full scientifically supported paper on all of the scientific misapplications he has made concerning cloth masks, surgical masks, and N95 respirators for COVID-19 (I won’t here). But he has already disproven himself by his lack of transparency, his lack of integrity, his lack of careful language, his lack of sufficient scientific references, and his lack of humility. He is like a “guy” who took a 40-hour introductory course in aviation, and is now announcing to the world why flying is dangerous.

3) “God will protect me.” “It is against my rights.” “I just don’t want to.” We invoke a divine supervision, a legal protection, or a philosophy of self-law—but really, they are all the same because they all reference the self as the arbitrator of truth. This self-generated truth runs the gamut from magical thinking to defending an emotional threat to just narcissism. History is a great teacher of humility and the life of the Holy Spirit in the Church. Here is Saint Cyprian (A.D. 250) during a plague:

During the Black Plague, in January A.D. 1349, the Bishop of the West Country Diocese in Britain writes,

In the preceding winter in 1348, one of the larger parishes had to replace their vicar four times between December and May. While in the general population 33% of the people died, among parish priests it was 45%, and it was 51% among the 17,500 pious persons secluded in monasteries and nunneries. The parishioners were distraught that men of God were perishing just like miserable sinners.

“Words from the LORD” can be harmful. Pope Clement VI believed the plague was carried by Satan in the form of black cats. He ordered the destruction of all black cats. Zealous, spirit-filled Christians set about killing all the cats they could find. The tragic irony was that the cats ate the rodents which were the chief vectors of the Black Plague. Following the idea that “I have prayed about it and God has revealed to me…” greatly increased the number of people dying.

Others preached that the plague was God’s punishment on a wicked generation. They sought to appease the wrath of God by devoutly proceeding through the streets whipping themselves bloody as an atonement. They were called Flagellants—and were viewed as heretical to the teachings of the Church.

In A.D. 1520, there were many European colonists who, upon entering the New World, encountered the indigenous people of America who began to die in apocalyptic numbers. Ninety per cent of Native Americans were killed primarily by small pox brought over from Europe for which the Native peoples had no immunity. Without an understanding of the germ theory, one can read countless sermons on how God has spared the colonists because of their Christian faith. The other side of that coin, which was actually spoken on more than a few occasions, was that God had His way by letting those savages die. This is only a few measures away from, “I just wish we would let everyone get infected and get this thing over with, because I am not afraid of dying.”

In A.D. 2020, during COVID-19 in Italy, priests and physicians died at similarly high rates. The Christian faithful throughout history have not been physically spared pandemic infection and death. 

To base a public health strategy on one’s personal religious belief is foolishness. To use a law or recommendation to avoid what all public health experts and physicians are requesting is an emotional response made by adolescents and young children: “I am following the guidance of the CDC who says that it is a recommendation not a requirement” (so I will not wear a mask). To view the world primarily through your own thoughts, feelings, and desires is horrible public health, and even worse Christianity.

While masks may be replaced by shields, thus alleviating some of the physical concerns masks raise, I doubt that the current vitriolic meanings of a “mask” will change much with a shield. 

One of the recurrent themes of God’s presence through Jesus Christ and His Body, the Church, is that wherever there is darkness, God brings light. Wherever there is disease, suffering, and chaos, God can bring healing, comfort, and peace. These things do not happen simply by a magical request. We must put our faith into action. We must put on battle armor, including a shield to fight those evils of this world that destroy us. We must insert ourselves into the world with wise and peaceful battle strategies. 

These are not only spiritual shields and battles. We must be the flesh of Love by being citizens of healing. God came in the flesh so that in that flesh, people may see God. God has given us the science of masks and shields, washing hands for twenty seconds with soap, physical distance of at least 6 feet, and diminishing crowd sizes during outbreaks. We must physically shield and battle against undue suffering and the death of others. We should embrace the mask as a Christian symbol of mercy, and the shield as an icon of our faith. A mask does not make you a victim of fear or of government control; it makes you a witness of virtue.

What if we began a Christian cultural movement to show people our love for them, not by telling them how it offends me, but by praying, communicating, and living in a way that says, “I wear this mask, this shield of faith, because I want to protect us. I want you to have life, and to have it abundantly. I show you the love of Jesus by protecting you, your family, and your loved ones.” Amen.