Religion plays a strong role in American life, but the COVID-19 pandemic has transformed virtually every aspect of public life in America and the world. Also, COVID has stamped its footprints on one of the most intimate parts of our lives: religious faith and worship habits. Since March of 2020 to now, COVID-19 has proven to be a test of faith for believers, churches, and communities. For someone whose spiritual faith has grown over the past 25 years and is greatly involved in the church, that faith (and I\’m sure the faith of others) was challenged immensely since the COVID take over.
During times of crisis, people of faith are more likely to turn to our religious leaders and organizations for guidance. However, when in-person worship ceased and before an online option was available, I began to have an unraveling experience. My faith began to turn into fear. That fear caused me to waver between what medical science professionals knew and didn\’t know about the virus and what the Bible says about fear – For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7). Still, internally, I was scared. Scared about how to grow my faith to handle this crisis.
Many people like me shape our lives around what we believe and a shock to one\’s spiritual being can cause one\’s faith to be tested. Church closures affected over 90% of religious services, and not being able to physically attend church services, for me, led to a feeling of disconnect, lack of guidance, and loss.
On the other hand, a Pew Research Center survey reveals Americans in historically Black Protestant churches and those who describe themselves as very religious are particularly likely to say their faith has strengthened during the pandemic. To find out how U.S. adults’ religious faith may be changing and how houses of worship are adapting amid the coronavirus outbreak, 10,139 U.S. adults were surveyed from April 20 to 26, 2020, the most recent survey in the Center’s nearly yearlong Election News Pathways project.![\"\"](\"https://thedcvoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/PF_01.27.21_covid.religion-0-244x300.png\")
All respondents to the survey were part of Pew Research Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP), an online survey panel that is recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses. In the United States, 28% of those surveyed said that the pandemic increased their religious faith.
Some studies also exist that revealed an increase in religious observance after people experience a calamity. And a new Pew Research Center report published in October 2020 showed that roughly a third (35%) of Americans say the pandemic carries one or more lessons from God. As a side note, religion is just one of many aspects of life that have been touched by the pandemic. Family relationships, too, have been affected by lockdowns. I posted an article about my own marital experience and the impact of being on lockdown during COVID entitled Did I Marry for Breakfast and Dinner and Not Lunch? Then too, my faith was challenged.
As COVID trampled on and I was in a wrestling match with faith, I struggled with how I would be able to grow my faith to handle this crisis or any crisis. Then I began asking myself, how can I get from here to there in my faith walk? How can I have the faith that God will not only carry me but make me flourish during the Coronavirus pandemic that the world is facing?
I already knew that some of the things that I did or didn’t do had certain results – like praying. In my spiritual journey, I had grown my faith through a strong and diligent prayer life. I knew that the less I prayed, the more I feared, and my faith lessened. So, I had to pull in the reins and once again increase my prayer life and to grow absolute faith. Eventually the hurricane inside me turned into a mist at which time I was able to begin to embrace what I refer to, as my crisis of faith.
Although there is a crisis roaring, a crisis of faith can come with positive experiences where new things are learned. We may have aha moments or epiphanies that help us to understand life or our spirits in new ways that make the old seem senseless. So in this beautiful, tragic, and complicated world that we live in, that means throughout life, we’ll have crises of faith along the way and how we handle them can mean a matter of life and death. I choose life and I choose faith.
Thankfully, most churches, including mine have figured out how to deliver Sunday service in a virtual environment and people like me can maintain a connection where faith can continue to flourish even in times of crisis.