I am appalled by the superstitious beliefs of some bigoted elements in the church who believe that the Coronavirus is a plague sent by God as a punishment for sins committed by man. Even after two years, the origin of the virus still remains a mystery and a question mark whether it is of natural occurrence, man-made in the laboratory or an act of God. Of late, however, there appears to be clinching scientific evidence that the virus was manufactured in the Wuhan lab of China. In earlier days, plagues were experienced as natural events, and rationalised as acts of God by bigots, going by the events in the Old Testament where pestilences and plagues were used by God to punish the unrepentant Israelites. The church has not come out with a statement that the present pandemic is a plague and punishment from God. On the flip side, we have a few doomsday prophets spreading the canard that the pandemic is the fulfilment of earlier prophecies and a sure ‘sign of the end times’ as predicted in the synoptic gospels and the Book of Revelation. Our human minds are too small and incapable of understanding the wisdom and sovereignty of God, and why a loving , caring, merciful and forgiving God allows pestilences and plagues, even as we read in the gospels how Jesus healed sinners without attributing guilt to the sinners.
