Sioux Falls needs an indoor mask mandate, say the Bishop of the South Dakota Synod of the ELCA and a whole bunch of Sioux Falls Lutheran pastors in an open letter to the Sioux Falls City Council. According to the Bishop and the pastors, the justification for a municipal mask requirement flows from the core tenets of Christianity:
As Pastors and Deacons in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, we take seriously Christ’s command to love and care for our neighbors. As Jesus tells us in (Matthew 22:35–40, Mark 12:28–34, and Luke 10:27a), the commandments to love God and neighbor are the two commandments on which all the other laws of God hang [SD Synod ELCA Bishop Constanze Hagmeier et al., “ELCA Rostered Ministers for Mask Mandate,” retrieved 2020.11.07].
Lutherans keenly understand freedom, and they recognize that they totally selfish model of Freedom™ Kristi Noem has been peddling on Twitter and cable TV is not real freedom:
We believe that our responsibility to fulfill this commandment impacts how we understand the freedom we have as children of God — and as citizens of the United States, the state of South Dakota, and the city of Sioux Falls. As Martin Luther reminds us in The Freedom of a Christian, “A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none. A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all.” Following Luther’s example, we believe we do not have to fulfill God’s law to earn God’s salvation. But we still strive to fulfill those laws out of love for God and for our neighbor. Accordingly, we believe our freedom does not entitle us to do whatever we feel like, or to disregard the welfare of our neighbor; to the contrary, our freedom demands of us that we are to do our best to care for our neighbors and take their needs and safety into account in our decisions and actions [Hagmeier et al., 2020.11.07].
Masks prevent the spread of coronavirus. They protect our neighbors from sickness and death. Masks do not infringe on freedom; amidst a pandemic, masks expand freedom:
Therefore, we ask you to vote to require face-coverings indoors. Doing so would not infringe upon any constitutional freedoms we have as American citizens, nor would it infringe upon the freedoms we have as God’s children. Rather, it would help us to more fully live out our freedom in Christ to care and love our neighbor, and in doing so, would help us live out the goal stated in the preamble of our Constitution — to “form a more perfect union…promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity…”
The issue in this debate is not freedom, but instead the best way that we can care for our neighbors and promote the general welfare of our great city. We believe that requiring face-coverings indoors is the best way to do that at the current time. We respectfully ask you to vote in favor of requiring face-coverings indoors [Hagmeier et al., 2020.11.07].
The interfaith board of South Dakota Faith in Public Life takes a similar position, saying the arguments against masks are rooted in misunderstanding and selfishness:
Knowing that masks will save lives of the most vulnerable in our population, and the lives of healthcare providers who risk all to save us, how can we not support mandated mask-wearing? Our right to choose whether to wear a mask does not outweigh our obligation not to harm others.
In fact, we believe that “masks are the path to freedom.” Reducing the virus will give everyone the freedom to enter public spaces again, knowing that we can do so safely because everyone is wearing a mask.
Misunderstanding and self-interest have caused the politicization of this issue. We pray that our loving God will calm fears and help us and our leaders focus on what we can do together to save lives [Rev. Cindy Derks Hoy et al., “A Moral Obligation to Wear Masks,” South Dakota Faith in Public Life, November 2020].
The Sioux Falls City Council’s emergency mask order comes up for second reading Tuesday, November 10.
Fight for freedom. Wear your mask, tell all of your neighbors to do the same, and tell your city leaders to set the right example, the Lutheran example, the neighborly example of tempering your cries for Freedom!!! with passionate care for others.
Amen, Bishop Hagmeier! It’s not always about me, me, me. In this case it’s about us and the greater good.
Wow! Church leaders . . . leading. So welcome. So unpolitical. So caring. So thoughtful.
Way, way back in October the flagship newspaper 6-months belatedly had a V-8 moment that, gosh, the biggest problem with addressing COVID was a lack of leadership.
That vacuum still exists.
Regressive leaders act like deer-in-the-headlights when faced with even minor leadership challenges requiring minor, albeit temporary changes from their comfortable status quo.
https://www.argusleader.com/story/opinion/editorials/2020/10/22/editorial-south-dakota-covid-19-leadership-governor-kristi-noem/3726556001/
If the Lutherans have love of their neighbor at heart, the evangelical Christians—-which Noem claims to be—-have much to learn in terms of theology. As far as claims that Noem “listens to science,” I’m skeptical when she has yet to master subject/verb agreement.
Mr. DaveFN, I have a neighbor who is a Lutheran, and he’s got some real un-neighborly ideas about how I have my property trimmed up. Not all Lutherans love their neighbors…I’m just sayin…
Finally the religious leadership is starting to speak up to protect human life. The religious community has been silent for too long.
grudz:
Reread and note the use of the hypothetical “if” in my comment.
As far as your neighbor, for all I know s/he may be making a point worth listening to.
Seven months to damn late. Some of the congregation must be dying off. But, at least they are trying, I guess.
For what it’s worth, cibvet, some churches have been more diligent about limiting capacity at Sunday services and keeping activities online than other congregations. I’m not going to worry about trying to quantify which denominations are doing the most social distancing and mask-wearing. I’m just happy to point out any Christians acting with integrity in applying their Christian principles.
Sadly, probably the only thing that would change our stubborn, recalcitrant, bull-headed governor’s mind on the Covid virus response/handling will be for someone inside her ‘bubble’ like hubby, child or someone else really close to barely escape death or perhaps die.. She could do well to study Cuomo’s response to Covid in New York. Yes, they lost a lot of people when the virus hit NY when the nation first got hit by it. Early treatment was a learning experience for the first responders. She, however, has been blessed with months of gained medical experience in treatment. Her state has less people total than a few square blocks of New York! She, in comparison to Gov. Cuomo, is like a Junior high=school wrestler going up against a Japanese sumo wrestler in a championship. She can’t come close to “2nd fiddle” to Cuomo–maybe 10th or 11th if lucky.
Kristi gives credence to the phrase “common sense is a flower that doesn’t grow in everybody’s garden.”
Her guest appearance on ABC Sunday, which was right after Gov. Como spoke showed her interest is merely repeating the talking points of DJT, and reconfirming that she continues to be an embarrassment to South Dakota. I wonder if she has changed her resume, “Campaigned for Trump?”