Transcript:

Hello, this is Pastor Don Willeman of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to a special-edition series of the Kingdom Perspective.

How should we as a church respond to the coronavirus?

We should be loving our neighbor by understanding and following the best science available.

Science comes from an old Latin term for knowledge. Biblically speaking, science is a good thing because we live in an orderly universe, created by an unchanging God who governs his world in an orderly way. Thus, we can gain understanding by applying ourselves to the basic task of data collection and interpretation. Through our collective application of this scientific method, generation after generations, we grow in knowledge.

Now, there are certainly limits to the scientific knowledge. But most critically for us at the moment, we need to see that science is not only a social phenomenon (something that happens in community), but also a social good (something that benefits community). We can love our neighbor by not only doing good science (as many in our medical/college community do), but also by following good science. We can know how best to keep from spreading disease to our neighbor, and we can also know how best to care for our neighbor by applying ourselves to such knowledge. A desire to help your neighbor is a good thing, but zeal without knowledge (without science) is at best incomplete, and at worst dangerous.

Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective.