Masks, Pubs, Church, and Singing.

I have just received a Facebook message from someone who feels disappointed about a monthly church social meeting returning online after meeting physically for the past couple of months. Whether this was the preferred decision made by the host or whether the host was met with requests by his members to return online, unless I'm otherwise told, I can only speculate. But I would not be surprised if the host's final decision to return online was to meet their wishes.

The Apple Computer draws a social group.

And so, a new norm has arisen from the pandemic that had dominated the globe for the last couple of years - the culture of fear, that sense of over-caution over a virus that requires laboratory testing to see whether one has it or not. As such, this probably would explain the feeling of unease I experienced when, on the previous day, someone started to cough raucously whilst I was trying to relax in the sauna. Unlike the Bubonic Plague of 14th Century Europe, where symptoms such as rings of boils would appear across the patient's face shortly before snuffing out his life - and hence the origins of the children's rhyme, Ring a Ring of Roses - Covid managed to kill around 0.1% of the population with practically no visible blemishes. This contrasts with the Black Death affecting 25% of the known population, or one in every four persons having died from it.

And so, back in the Middle Ages, patrolmen wheeling their carts would call out in the city streets to "Throw out your dead!" as one diseased body after another would pile up as they were then taken to the mass-burial site. At such sites, piles of corpses shared a common grave as each individual was buried without a name, no gravestone, and no memories. I guess I feel hardly any surprise when I read stories of supposed spookiness arising when tunnelling took place beneath the streets of London, as the new underground rapid transit system began to take shape during the late 19th Century and into the 20th.

And so, the atheist would protest over the nonsensical stories associated with subterranean ghosts while at the same time insisting that the Earth is spherical and not flat - whilst under the same breath, also insisting we all wear facemasks whenever we step out of our homes. At least those "14th Century superstitious fantasisers who knew virtually nothing on the scientific front" - according to the modern atheist's thinking - attended church every Sunday as the population prayed, pleading with God for the longed-for relief from that dreadful pandemic.

As the physicians of the day had no knowledge of pathogens, let alone any solution to the problem, it can be said that God answered the prayers of the people when the pandemic was placed into the hands of church leaders. By studying whether the Bible had anything to say on the matter, they came across Leviticus 13:46, where God instructs Moses that anyone who has a contagious disease must "dwell alone, outside the camp must his habitation be" - that is, the one who has the illness must isolate.

Therefore, the need for anyone infected with the plague to isolate. Without any medicine but instead, by this Biblical method, the Bubonic Plague was brought under control. Just by obeying an instruction recorded in the Bible. It was a wonderful endeavour. Had the Plague kept on running out of control, any remaining population might have been too small or too sparse for the Renaissance to have occurred, as knowledge of the Bible, especially from the 14th Century onwards, had given the rise of great scientists such as Samuel Morse, Isaac Newton, the Wright brothers, Galileo, Nicolaus Copernicus, Louis Pasteur, Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, and others, with many of them had believed in the historicity of the Bible.

Edward Jenner was another outstanding scientist. He was the one who, in 1796, used cowpox to create immunity against smallpox, apparently with enough success to launch the invention of the vaccine. Jenner is another example of a great man who had arisen from obedience by 14th Century church leaders to the advice given in the Bible to bring the Bubonic plague under control. And as I can see around us, it's thanks to this guy that we now have vaccines to deal with the present Covid pandemic.

And now, the rise of the new variant, after being given the name Omicron, seems to be back to Square One. With new restrictions already imposed by our Government once again compromising our freedoms. For example, only this morning, as I walked into our local Sainsbury's superstore to buy the paper, there stood the marshall, after a couple of months without his presence. He was fully masked, and his job was to ensure that we were all wearing facemasks as we walked in, unless I wore a lanyard around my neck instead. This is an item I felt tempted to get for myself so that no one would question me for not wearing a mask. But I would be living a lie, as I'm not really medically exempt. Neither would I feel at peace with my soul had I rebelled and refused to wear one. 

I must now wear a mask in the shop, whilst sitting on the train or bus, at a cinema or at a theatre, and in church. But in a pub, coffee house or restaurant, I needn't wear a mask. Nor would I need to wear one on the train if I happen to have a mug of coffee in my hand. I think those are the rules, at least for now.

Then, recently, an article from the website, The Christian Institute, appeared on my Facebook page. It read that masks are not required for singing in church, but is needed for other purposes, such as sitting quietly whilst listening to the sermon. Quoting word-for-word the opening paragraph of the article, it reads:-

While congregational singing was never explicitly prohibited under previous Covid regulations, the latest rules confirm that while mask-wearing will be mandatory in churches, they may be removed for congregational singing.

Please now. I actually believe that breath from the lungs is actually expelled with greater force when singing than breathing normally or even engaging in normal conversation. At Ascot Life Church, we sing a song of praise that contain the lyrics, It's the breath in our lungs so I pour out our praise. Indeed, I certainly don't want a piece of cloth over my mouth to muffle my praise to God, do I?

It was the Church that brought the Plague under control...

This is why I believe that, throughout this pandemic, national and even worldwide, logic seems to have descended into absurdity. Last week, my friend Dave, one of our church elders, and I sat across the table at Starbucks Coffee. Young enough to be my son, this married man with a growing family has always been happy and humble enough to accept advice from me, according to my own greater life experiences. I demonstrated that we were less than a metre from each other and talking face-to-face without masks (Starbucks have small tables, after all, we don't eat proper meals at a coffee house.) It was perfectly legal, and neither of us felt uncomfortable, and neither of us believed that we were going to go down with an infection.

But if Dave and I were both strangers sitting on a train, opposite each other, then masks would be compulsory. Never mind the British idiosyncrasy, that you must never talk to a stranger whilst travelling on the train, and even then you are between 1.5 to two metres apart, or several metres away from the next person, masks are still mandatory. But if I was holding a cup of coffee in my hand or even a Mars bar, either of them bought from a passing trolley, then I can remove my mask. Woe betides if both Dave and I are holding a cup of coffee as we sit opposite one another without a single word spoken. The virus will either jump in excitement or suffer a food phobia!

What's the difference between browsing the shelves alone at a superstore, with several metres between that person and the next one, and sitting much closer to one another in a coffee bar which is annexed to the store, thus with easy access? Why is it so important to wear a mask when you're browsing the shelves while it's okay not to when you're sitting at a coffee house table?

Going back to church life. It's now mandatory to wear a mask while I'm sitting and listening to the sermon, or, I assume, while our heads are bowed in silent prayer. But, according to The Christian Institute website, it's okay for us to remove our masks if we're about to sing. I suppose there is some justification after all, at our church in Ascot, that the members of the band at the front don't wear masks when they lead the worship. Perhaps the distance between the band and the front row of seats is more than two metres wide, and with the windows open, blowing an (often cold) draught through the room and therefore, eliminating the chance of any virus lingering around. At least, when the band leads, the songs are heard with clarity.

Do I make sense? Or am I losing my mind? Am I really thinking that the world is getting more and more cock-eyed as the pandemic keeps on feeding our fears, our anxieties, and the need for greater caution? In addition to the mandatory mask-wearing, on the cards at Parliament might be the need for a Covid passport to enter a pub or a restaurant as well as at larger venues such as nightclubs, theatres, and sports stadiums. I personally don't believe that any pub manager will be happy to have a staff member at the door, a sight conspicuous enough to deter any customer who might, at a whim, decide to stop for a drink or a social. And yet, contrary to my belief, polls seem to indicate that Covid passports are more favoured by the customer.

Nothing new to me. I recall 1997, after flying into San Diego from Los Angeles Airport. That evening, I walked into a bar for a refreshing alcoholic drink. I watched the barman behind the counter prepare my drink, filling the glass to the brim. But instead of asking for payment as I was expecting, instead, he asked for my identity. I was shocked, then apologetic. I never thought that in a civilised State such as southern California, I would need to show my passport just to order a drink. With such reasoning, I left my passport tucked safely away at the hostel dormitory. The barman refused to hand the drink over, as well as having refused to take my money. What did he do with the beverage? By then, I had already walked out of the bar, onto the street. So I can only assume that he had poured the whole glassful down the sink. No other customer would accept a "second-hand" drink from the bar. Such anti-British bureaucracy causes much waste!

If there were reasons why here in Britain we are treated and trusted like proper adults than I was while I was in America, then this is a good reason. True enough, here in the UK, I do miss the balmy Californian climate, the palm trees arranged nicely along the street, the Rockies, the Grand Canyon, the Wild West Country, the desert cacti, the thundering Niagara Falls...

But I'm grateful for the taxpayer-funded National Health Service where treatments are free at the point of use, the ability to walk into any pub or bar and order a drink at will with no need of identification, the freedom of speech, the gently rolling hills of Surrey and Sussex regarded as Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, it's rugged Dorset coast, burnt toast, the pageantry of royalty, the red public telephone box, it's many historic monuments...but the most treasured side of our culture, personal freedoms - this very virtue for which many had given their lives during the two world wars.

Very British - the old phone box.

Oh well! Here we go again! As I write this, I'm wondering just how well would the public accept another full lockdown and the loss of our precious freedoms if the stats for the Omicron virus shoots through the ceiling? Despite the rapid rate of infection, this variant could be less harmful than its predecessors, so my mate, Dave, who has a degree in microbiology, speculates. But thanks to a successful experiment carried out by Edward Jenner, just over 300 years ago, we now have vaccines to help combat the virus, thus holding to the hope that the rate of hospitalisations and deaths from Covid will remain very low.

In the meantime, sing away!