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+--- Thread: Chinese Christians arrested for virtual worship services + Virus that hits all faiths (/thread-8440.html)
Chinese Christians arrested for virtual worship services + Virus that hits all faiths - C C - Apr 15, 2020
Chinese Christians arrested in their homes for attending virtual church service
https://premierchristian.news/en/news/article/chinese-christians-arrested-in-their-homes-for-attending-virtual-church-service
INTRO: A number of Christians from a heavily persecuted protestant megachurch in China have been detained after being caught engaging in a worship service on Zoom. A number of key members from Early Rain Covenant Church were arrested in their homes as they attended a virtual service during which they listened to a sermon by their imprisoned leader, Pastor Wang Yi. Early Rain has not met in person since December 2018, when its building was raided and the congregation subjected to mass arrests. Though many elders and members have since been released from custody, Wang Yi has remained behind bars - at the end of last year, he was sentenced to nine years in prison... (MORE)
A virus that hits all faiths tests religion's tie to science
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/ap/article-8222235/A-virus-hits-faiths-tests-religions-tie-science.html
INTRO: Tanzania´s president claimed the coronavirus "cannot sit in the body of Christ." Israel´s health minister dismissed a potential curfew by saying that "the Messiah will come and save us." A global Muslim missionary movement held mass gatherings - and took blame for spreading the disease.
While most leaders of major religions have supported governments´ efforts to fight the pandemic by limiting gatherings, a minority of the faithful - in both religious and secular institutions - have not. Some have insisted that in-person worship should continue because of the relief it can provide. Others have suggested that faith is an authority higher than science, and belief can turn back contagion.
The struggle to adapt religious behaviors to a pandemic that doesn´t distinguish between denominations or national boundaries was especially urgent in its earliest weeks, before many countries fully locked down. But as more officials trace virus hot spots back to faith gatherings, calls have grown louder for the devout to protect each other´s physical well-being first.
"One of the things that most religious faiths stress in the first instance is to care for the most vulnerable in a community, to save others´ lives as a primary focus," said L. Gregory Jones, dean of Duke University´s divinity school. But for some people of faith -- particularly those whose churches, synagogues and mosques are important community centers - that focus appears to conflict with the very fabric of their lives... (MORE)