{"id":67784,"date":"2020-04-16T15:57:20","date_gmt":"2020-04-16T15:57:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/?p=67784"},"modified":"2020-04-16T15:57:20","modified_gmt":"2020-04-16T15:57:20","slug":"coronavirus-meets-religion-9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/?p=67784","title":{"rendered":"Coronavirus meets religion #9"},"content":{"rendered":"

[ by Charles Cameron<\/strong> — religion can tear us apart by bringing us together – it can also bring us into balance – the three movements here are Din\u00e9 (Navajo) – Dreher – Din\u00e9 ]
\n.<\/p>\n

Din\u00e9:<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was at a smaller meeting at a church commonly associated with tent revivals that COVID-19 seems to have struck the Navajo nation:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Navajo Times<\/strong>, Virus strikes at rally: Chilchinbeto church gathering may be source of outbreak<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The nation — the Din\u00e9 <\/em><\/strong>— is highly susceptible to the coronavirus, susceptible by virtue of widespread diabetes, obesity, and other underlying conditions. In the words of the New York Times<\/a>:<\/p>\n

As of Wednesday night, the virus had killed 20 people on the reservation, compared with 16 in the entire state of New Mexico, which has a population 13 times larger. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It is not the fault of the religion —<\/p>\n

The participants in the large gathering that congregated March 7 at the Chilchinbeto Church of the Nazarene Zone Rally \u2014 a meeting in which pastors deliver messages to their members \u2014 may have all been exposed to coronavirus by at least one person who later tested positive for the disease.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

— but perhaps of a failure of government to inform the Din\u00e9 with sufficient clarity in enough time, or of this particular congregation to refrain from congregating when that puts the congregants, and the Din\u00e9 as a whole, at risk of death.<\/p>\n

**<\/p>\n

Catholic:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Rod Dreher<\/strong> is a pretty interesting writer`, a conservative Catholic who draws a lot of his ideas from St Benedict<\/strong><\/a>, the founder of Western monasticism> A paragraph of his caught my attention recently:<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll end by repeating what I think is a useful simile: going to church during the pandemic is like participating in an Appalachian snake-handler worship service, because it puts the participant in mortal danger. The virus is the poisonous snake, which may or may not bite you. But the virus differs, in that a person who is exposed to it at church could carry it out into the world, and share it unwittingly with every person he meets thereafter. It\u2019s like leaving snake-handler church with pockets full of copperheads, which slide out in the grocery store, and everywhere else the worshiper goes. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Very insightful, IMO.<\/p>\n

** <\/p>\n

Still relevant, IMO, are the prayers of the Navajo Night Chant:<\/p>\n

In beauty may I walk.
\nAll day long may I walk.
\nThrough the returning seasons may I walk.
\nOn the trail marked with pollen may I walk.
\nWith grasshoppers about my feet may I walk.
\nWith dew about my feet may I walk.
\nWith beauty may I walk.
\nWith beauty before me, may I walk.
\nWith beauty behind me, may I walk.
\nWith beauty above me, may I walk.
\nWith beauty below me, may I walk.
\nWith beauty all around me, may I walk.
\nIn old age wandering on a trail of beauty, lively, may I walk.
\nIn old age wandering on a trail of beauty, living again, may I walk.
\nIt is finished in beauty.
\nIt is finished in beauty.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

How could the Navajo ideal of balance, Sa’a Naghai Bik’e h\u00f3zh\u00f3<\/em><\/strong> — untranslatable, at least by myself — balance, beauty, blessing<\/strong><\/em>, or more literally In old age walking the trail of beauty<\/strong><\/em> — how can this most basic of Navajo concepts ever be less than relevant? In the words of Mountain Way:<\/p>\n

Thereby blessing extends from mountain ranges roundabout, thereby I shall live in blessing.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[ by Charles Cameron — religion can tear us apart by bringing us together – it can also bring us into balance – the three movements here are Din\u00e9 (Navajo) – Dreher – Din\u00e9 ] . Din\u00e9: It was at a smaller meeting at a church commonly associated with tent revivals that COVID-19 seems to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1494,788,526,497,2065,1409,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-balance","category-beauty","category-charles-cameron","category-christianity","category-coronavirus","category-navaho","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=67784"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67784\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67815,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67784\/revisions\/67815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=67784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=67784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zenpundit.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=67784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}