This link will get you the entire presentation,
https://www.dropbox.com/s/0tvk2u5wyi1zr51/mask%20presentation%20updated.docx?dl=0
but here are a couple of ideas that I've not heard anywhere else...
As I have tried
to lay out, one reason could be that the theory behind the call for universal
mask-wearing has been disproven time and time again. But, one could still
say, maybe they do help even a tiny bit ---surely we must wear them if they
help even in the slightest. But the other side of that argument works as well
---what if they do even a tiny bit of harm? There is more actual evidence
compiled over the past decades that support the latter, not the former.
If the weaker
brother is the person who feels very anxious about possibly contracting the virus,
then I do have compassion for those who struggle with inordinate fears. I have
known debilitating, prolonged fear. I know what it is to experience dark, intrusive
thoughts that persist despite all attempts at using logic and rational
thinking. I also know that it would not have been loving or beneficial for me
if everyone around me had indulged my fears; "played along" with them,
as it were. At some point, irrational thinking turns into delusional living. A
person made in the image of God is not meant to live in a state of irrational
thinking.
Furthermore,
who determines who qualifies as the weaker brother in this context? One person
struggles with fear and anxiety when surrounded by people who are not
covering their faces. The other person struggles
with fear and anxiety when surrounded by people who are
covering their faces. Maybe for everyone in this room, wearing a mask and
worshipping in a room with masked people is not a problem. I would implore
you, though, to consider the fact that you might not know the extent of the
mental, emotional, and psychological struggles that some in your congregation
might be experiencing when exposed to a room full of masked church members.
For
those who have experienced abuse, particularly sexual abuse, there is a real tendency
to be so overcome with a sense of shame that it becomes, to use an appropriate metaphor,
the very air that they breathe. (I submit this not simply as a theoretical
statement, but as a personal one, as I have experienced a type of sexual abuse
in my past.) There is a desperate desire to hide one's face, to not be seen,
because the thought of being seen and being known is far too painful. That
negative desire extends outward and makes the person also more prone to avoid
seeing others, to avoid looking into others' faces. This is a result of the
Fall. And yet there is also the desperate desire to lift one's face, to look
into the face of another without fear, without shame, and to be fully seen and
fully known. This is the result of the Imago Dei.
This
ambivalence can also be true for people who have experienced other forms of abuse,
including spiritual abuse in the context of a church. But I would argue that
all of us, including non-believers, are subject to this broken reality. We
experience shame, and so we cover our faces and we avoid the faces of others.
And yet we long to be seen. Masking our faces perpetuates a sense of
insecurity, as it is not clear what consists of acceptable human interaction anymore,
even on Sunday mornings. This confusion and awkwardness has its roots in shame
and can contribute to anxiety and depression. The argument that "it doesn't
do any harm, it's not a big deal, it's an easy thing to do," is not only
false from an actual scientific point of view, but it is harmful on a spiritual
level. In my opinion, it shows a lack of imagination and compassion, for it reduces
the person, including children, down to a biological entity, a potential
spreader of viruses, while ignoring the complex Biblical reality that tells us
that we are more than just our corporal forms; that health and wellness and
Shalom aren't confined to just the physical realm.
