Vaccines, mask mandates and more: How religion motivates responses to COVID-19 crisis

Religious belief continues to motivate how Tennesseans respond to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. 

As COVID-19 cases surge across the state, a county mayor on the Tennessee-Alabama border says he supports mask wearing to curb the spread of the respiratory illness, but does not plan to implement a mandate until the Holy Spirit moves him to do so.

Two Republican state lawmakers introduced new legislation that would keep religious exemptions for immunizations in place even amid an epidemic or the threat of one. The bill was filed on the heels of promising coronavirus vaccine developments. 

These are just the latest examples of how religion factors into the debate over the best way to slow the spread of the virus. Whether public officials should issue mandates instead of only urging compliance has become a common point of contention.

In Tennessee, Republican Gov. Bill Lee has favored guidance over requirements, especially where houses of worship are concerned. Not everyone agrees with him. 

More:Coronavirus is getting much worse. Tennessee's strategy remains the same.

More:Gov. Bill Lee says his family has canceled its large annual Thanksgiving gathering

But the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, which serves as the Southern Baptist Convention's public policy arm, has called for guidance instead of mandates throughout the pandemic, said Josh Wester, the ERLC's chair of research in Christian ethics.

"The separation of church and state is a vital aspect of American life. Guidelines equip pastors and church leaders with tools to make the best decisions for their own congregations," Wester said in an email. "In issuing guidelines instead of mandates, government officials invite the cooperation of faith leaders without encroaching upon their authority or autonomy."

The conservative evangelical organization, which has offices in Nashville, wants public officials to see religious entities as allies in the fight against the coronavirus, he said.

But it hasn't always played out that way.

COVID-19 restrictions and houses of worship

In April, a Chattanooga church alleging First Amendment violations sued the East Tennessee city's mayor over a ban on drive-in style worship services amid the pandemic. The mayor ultimately reversed course.

Chattanooga was not the only large community in the state to try and limit religious gatherings, but the governor issued an order preventing COVID-19 restrictions to be placed on on houses of worship. Lee's order superseded local ones. Instead, Lee urged churches, synagogues, mosques, temples and more to pivot from in-person services to online-only ones.

An overwhelming number of places of worship in Tennessee followed his guidance for weeks if not months. Some are still meeting exclusively online while others have resumed in-person services or gone back and forth as COVID-19 cases rise and fall in their communities. 

They are climbing statewide. Tennessee has tracked nearly 375,000 positive cases of the coronavirus since the start of the pandemic and more than 4,600 people have died. As of Monday, more than 41,000 were listed as active cases. 

More:Chattanooga mayor allows drive-in church services after tabernacle sues

More:Mt. Juliet Pastor Greg Locke holds church Sunday despite coronavirus warnings from governor, CDC

St. Ann's Episcopal Church in Nashville shut down in-person services for much of the year due to the ongoing outbreak, said the Rev. Kira Austin-Young, the parish's priest-in-charge. They resumed in October with coronavirus precautions in place, but after three Sundays, returned to online-only worship because of the surge in cases.  

"I have generally been a little bit more conservative in my protection of my people and the community in general," Austin-Young said.

She finds support for her approach to COVID-19 precautions in the biblical call to love your neighbor as yourself. Austin-Young continues to monitor the coronavirus numbers as well as consider in her decisions the parishioners who would show up to church no matter the conditions or those who are more vulnerable to a severe case of the virus.

The congregation will worship online at least until the number of new cases per 100,000 people drops below 25 and stays there for awhile, Austin-Young said. On Monday, the stat stood at just over 59 in Nashville. It will be hard, but that likely means gathering online to celebrate the holidays, including for Christmas Eve worship services, she said.

"The hard thing about this pandemic for us trying to make these decisions is that it isn't just ourselves at risk," Austin-Young said. "It's other people."

In contrast, California-based worship leader Sean Feucht brought his controversial "Let Us Worship" tour to Nashville amid the pandemic. Feucht calls the events worship protests in response to censorship and discrimination by tech companies and government leaders.

Of the thousands gathered on a Sunday in October at Public Square Park, few appeared to be wearing masks. City officials said many in attendance were from out of town, but one local COVID-19 case was attributed to the event. An investigation by the city's health department was closed without charges.

More:Nashville declines to issue charges after Sean Feucht 'worship protest' drew thousands

More:COVID-19 is changing how Tennessee churches reach people online as in-person attendance lags

The U.S. Supreme Court just weighed in on whether government officials can put coronavirus-related restrictions on religious gatherings, too. In a 5-4 decision, the conservative leaning high court blocked the state of New York from enforcing some gathering size limits on houses of worship in virus hot spots.  

Christians and those from other religious traditions disagree about whether COVID-19 restrictions are impediments to their religious practice. 

But religious belief keeps coming up in this debate because Christians have two big concerns to consider: loving their neighbor and obedience to Jesus, Wester said. Christians have an obligation to gather for worship and many do not see online services as an acceptable substitute, he said.

And they also are called to adhere to governing authorities, but only if they are not disobeying God as a result, Wester said.  

"Churches across the country are seeking to balance concerns for health and safety with their commitment to practice their faith. I believe their actions largely reflect the desire to obey Christ and care for those around them," Wester said. 

Mask mandates and religious belief

While he thinks the claims of religious freedom are more strongly connected to gathering physically for worship, Wester said some Christians have used it in defense of not wearing a mask. Some churches require masks be worn during in-person services and others do not. Wester said there are reasonable arguments for both. 

But studies show that wearing masks reduce the spray of respiratory droplets, which is how the COVID-19 virus is spread, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The main purpose of wearing the simple barrier is to protect others nearby. 

The majority of states in the U.S. have a mask mandate, but not Tennessee. The governor continues to receive pushback for this approach, but Lee, who is a conservative Christian, does not appear to be budging on this decision even as cases rise. However, he has granted local governments the authority to implement them and has urged those with rising case counts to do so. 

Lincoln County Mayor Bill Newman has no plans to implement a mask mandate unless he is guided by the Holy Spirit to do so. He knows not everyone understands his approach nor agrees with it.

His rural Tennessee county along the Alabama border has had more than 1,600 cases of the COVID-19 virus and 17 deaths, the Tennessee Department of Health states. As of Monday, 260 were active cases.  

Newman, a Southern Baptist and a veterinarian, said he believes in science, encourages mask wearing and closely monitors his county and beyond. But he thinks his job is to inform and encourage residents, not to issue a mandate.

He said his decision not to issue a mask mandate is based on prayerful consideration. The mayor regularly takes time pray. He asks for guidance and discernment — not answers to specific COVID-19-related questions. Newman said he leaves those quiet, contemplative moments with a sense to stay the course he has charted for Lincoln County. He attributes that feeling to being led by the Holy Spirit.  

"It's more of a stand still. Wait, wait," Newmans said in an interview with The Tennessean. "There may be a time that something could change. But yeah, it hasn't come yet." 

Religious exemptions and coronavirus vaccines

Religion also has popped up in another facet of combatting the coronavirus: vaccines. The companies developing COVID-19 vaccines are reporting promising progress and public officials are preparing for distribution.

All 50 states require vaccines for students, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Although few religious traditions formally object to vaccines, 45 states and Washington, D.C. have religious exemptions; 15 states have philosophical exemptions. 

In Tennessee, two Republican state lawmakers, Rep. Jay Reedy of Erin and Sen. Mark Pody of Lebanon, have introduced legislation that would broaden religious exemptions for vaccines.

Currently, parents can refuse to vaccinate their children on religious grounds except during an epidemic or the threat of one. The new legislation would eliminate that epidemic exception while also allowing parents to cite their right of conscience for not vaccinating their children.   

"I do believe that if you have a religious exemption, then we the government should not shut that option down," Reedy told The Associated Press. 

An annual report for the state health department shows the vast majority of kindergartners in Tennessee were fully immunized by the end of the 2019-20 academic year. But the annual report notes a slight increase in religious exemptions. 

"The rising number of religious exemptions in the state of Tennessee is likely due to parents filing a religious exemption in lieu of a personal philosophical exemption, despite the Tennessee Code Annotated stating that doing so is subject to penalty of perjury," the annual report states. 

The governor said last week that vaccines will be key to curbing the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus in Tennessee. But Lee said taking the COVID-19 vaccines will be a choice not a requirement.   

Wester does anticipate some resistance from Christians to taking the vaccine, but he does not expect the debate to last long. 

"A lot of Christians have questions about taking a recently developed vaccine," Wester said. "I think it is most likely that as the vaccines begin to be widely distributed and data about the vaccines' efficacy and safety is made widely available that the vast majority of Christians in the United States will voluntarily take it shortly after it becomes available."

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

Reach Holly Meyer at hmeyer@tennessean.com or 615-259-8241 and on Twitter @HollyAMeyer.