Opinion by Arnold M. Eisen
Updated 9:13 PM ET, Mon May 18, 2020
(CNN) My father, a good and pious man who thanked God every morning for the gift of another day, would have said — were he alive right now — that God has a lot to answer for.
So much death and suffering! So many hopes for a better life, destroyed by pandemic. Such an incalculable amount of trust — in government, in the future, and in God — undermined or irreparably lost.
People of faith often wonder aloud at moments of personal and collective tragedy how a good God could permit “bad things to happen to good people.” They also tend to turn (or return) to religion for help in bearing the unbearable. In coming months, Americans will more strongly feel the hunger for community and meaning as we come back together (at least to some extent) and seek to find purpose in our suffering.
The nation’ s ability to heal its body and soul will heavy rely on whether or not religious institutions can find new ways to bring people together and find meaning in what we’ve experienced.
One of the cruelest aspects of the coronavirus pandemic is that it forces so many people to die or grieve the dead alone. The Hasidic Jews who congregated, without social distancing, on Brooklyn’s streets for a public funeral recently gave vivid expression to the frustration and anger that many Americans feel at not being able to accompany their family and community members to the grave.
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Article URL : https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/18/opinions/religion-faith-coronavrius-covid-19-eisen/index.html