Francis Collins on Christians and COVID Conspiracies - Religion News Service

Collins particularly urged his fellow Christians, whose orthodoxy believes in God’s truth in all things, to be sure that they are vetting whatever they are seeing.

National Institute of Health chief Francis Collins expressed concern over the number of Christians who have fallen prey to conspiracy theories surrounding the spread of the coronavirus.

“It is troubling that in our nation that prides itself on being technologically advanced, the current circumstances — particularly on social media — make it so easy for things to spread that are simply not based on facts at all,” he said.

“I would particularly urge my fellow Christians, who believe in God’s truth in all things, to be sure that they are vetting whatever they are seeing.”

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National Institute Of Health Francis Collins on Churches Reopening - Religion News Service

Collins said that it will remain unsafe to gather in churches until there is “a lot more testing capability” to ensure the virus is no longer present in a congregation.

Francis Collins, world-renowned geneticist and director of the National Institutes of Health, is the 2020 recipient of the Templeton Prize.

Collins is perhaps best known for leading the Human Genome Project and for advocating for the holistic integration of Christian faith and science.

When asked about churches reopening, Collins responded that he deeply values in-person worship. “At the same time,” he said, “I think as Christians we have to have as our No. 1 priority that we are going to care for the sick and the vulnerable. I cannot see, therefore, that it’s justifiable to bring large numbers of people together even in the name of worship, because of the risk it carries.”

Collins said every church gathering should be concerned about transmitting the virus, and that it will remain unsafe to gather in churches until there is “a lot more testing capability” to ensure the virus is no longer present in a congregation.

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Just Because the Economy is Reopening Doesn't Mean Churches Should - The Banner

We must consider how to not fuel the spread of COVID-19 and not put our most vulnerable at greater risk.

While business is primarily transactional, the life of a church congregation is inherently social. We gather to worship God, but we also gather to connect with one another.

Unless we run into a close friend, we don't normally shake hands or hug someone in the grocery store or movie theater, but where a community of people is knit together spiritually and socially these interactions happen frequently.

In addition, formal rituals, such as sharing in communion or pausing during a service to shake hands or hug, obviously increase the risk of infection.

Even if churches decide to forego virus-sharing practices, the informal contacts are almost unavoidable, even if we consciously plan to avoid them. Worship services - as well as the social time before and after - have their own rhythms, with norms we are conditioned to participate in. It is asking a lot of those gathered, distracted in a variety of ways, not to fall back into pre-COVID-19 ways.

No matter how we plan, people in disaster situations are notably bad at assessing risk and predictably overconfident about the control they have over their environment. Nor can church leaders control the behavior of whoever might walk in the door.

We must consider how to not fuel the spread of COVID-19 and that not put our most vulnerable at greater risk.

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Biblical Prophecies Aren’t Predictions of the Future - C. A. Strine

Biblical prophecy does not seek to predict the future, but to change the present.

When most people read something called prophecy in the Bible, especially predictive prophecy, they assume that the statements about the future intend to describe accurately what the prophet understands, through divine inspiration, will actually happen in the future.

But that’s not what the Old Testament tells us.

Statements about the future are descriptions of how bad things might get if current selfish, greedy, violent, and oppressive behaviors continue.

Biblical prophecies are conditional statements. Biblical prophecy does not seek to predict the future, but to change the present. The potential of future disaster is meant to change current behavior and to motivate people to repent.

Prophets in the Scriptural Narrative want to activate certain behaviors in their audiences, not prognosticate future events. They are like parents warning children against foolish behavior and encouraging good behavior, not weather forecasters attempting to tell you whether or not you’ll need an umbrella at noontime tomorrow.

The full article is available here