#phillippians

For the USA, the question of masks has been, at best, incredibly stupid. My hope is to illuminate how injurious it has been, too. Hopefully, by the end of this, you will understand the threefold injury of this mask debacle as well as a way to think about masks the way Jesus might.

Moral injury is a response to traumatic or stressful moments where “people may perpetrate, fail to prevent, or witness events that contradict deeply held moral beliefs and expectations” [1]. Some might call moral injury “soul injury,” but the gist of it is our deeper humanity is injured to the point of depression, possible suicide, and a profound sense of guilt and shame (among other symptoms, too) [2]. For me, it’s super easy to overthink this concept: your ability to be moral/understand morality/discern right and wrong is injured. That’s moral injury. It’s a spiritual and physical thing.

The mask debacle has morally injured the entire USA (a country that already carries a great deal of spiritual injury) in three ways: first, there’s the injury that’s caused by mass death. It’s inexplicable but also obvious—too many people have died, our authorities have failed to stop that from happening. We’re witnessing something that hurts. This first injury is pretty obvious, however the second and third injuries are pretty nuanced, so stay with me here.

There are roughly two different moralities when it comes to the question of masks. No matter what side of the mask question one is on, there is an injury to be had because of how stressful the whole thing is.

If you’re a pro-mask person, your moral code might include something like: my right to freedom should be suspended for the common good.

If you’re an anti-mask person, your moral code my include some ideas like: my right to freedom is the common good.

Again, these caricatures are admittedly grossly oversimplified. However, try to accept these two straw men with open arms to illustrate a point.

See, both of these moralities (and they’re not mutually exclusive) are valid (although wearing a mask is the better, smarter decision, and seriously wear the damn mask). However, if a pro-mask person sees someone not wearing a mask or actively denouncing it, they’re witnessing an attack on some pretty core beliefs.

For pro-maskers, they are witnessing people actively endanger our common good! Likewise, for anti-maskers, they are witnessing their neighbors actively endanger our rights!

There is no win-win solution here. No matter what, profound moral codes get crossed and broken. If you put on a mask, you’re giving up your freedom; if you don’t wear a mask, your freedom puts my life at risk. Therefore, there is a double injury here.

All of this stems, I believe, from the USA’s spiritual practice of punting our injuries downfield. We love to address things later. Of course, the problem is, later is no different from right now: we must address our woes, hurts, sorrows—be they personal or national.

Jesus, according to Luther, is a double blessing. He is the gift, and wherever Jesus is, there is absolute freedom. Jesus is also the example. And what did our Lord do?

Though [Jesus] was in the form of God, [he] did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave. . .

Philippians 2.6-7

Yes, we are free. Free not to wear masks. But we should. Jesus was free to do whatever he wanted. Yet he freely chose to die for us. Jesus says, “take my rights, friends, use them.” Jesus entered into suffering to give us something very good.

Perhaps, every time we wear a mask, we also enter into a whole lot of hurt:

1. The hurt that over 200,000 people lay dead.

2. The hurt we feel when our mask-less neighbor doesn’t believe in our welfare.

3. The hurt our neighbors feel when we mask ourselves, giving up our freedoms.

I’ve been keeping this on the down-low for a little while now, but I’m excited to tell you today that I have a guest post up at She Reads Truth today! (with a few more on the way) I’ve appreciated their mission and approach to daily Scripture reading for a while now, and I’m honored to offer a few devotionals to their current series on Phillippians. Today, I’m wondering out loud what the concept of Christian humility has to say to us in a very online, very polarized world...

“So, have I missed anything during my Twitter vacation?” I asked my husband, half joking, half serious. Every January, I take an annual social media break. Whatever I call this—a fast, a disappearance, a protest, a spiritual practice, an act of self-care—I’m always astonished how the break makes my world feel quieter. It’s sobering to notice how I’m being shaped by the constant noise of life online. And I wonder how Jesus might be calling all of us to a better, humbler way.

Read the rest here.