In times of crises we need hospitals more than we need churches!
We can feel a good portion of our audience’s butt’s clenching just at the sound of that sub-title, but we’re not gonna shy away for this truth because it makes you feel uncomfortable. Every cultural breakthrough comes as a result of discomfort.
Historically, faith and belief have been a major driver of the population. The value of religion comes from bringing people together and providing moral guidance in times of crisis.
Although this has been true in the past, the crises we’re dealing with right now are so estranged from the realm of religion that there is little to no positive coming out of churches, even worse, they’re one of the main hubs of spreading the infection.
For years, politicians have relied on the power of the church to sway votes their way and in exchange they provided them with a set of benefits such as tax exemptions and pretty little oversight of their activities.
As a rule of thumb:
If your country has more churches than schools or hospitals, you need to check your priorities.
The world we live in has changed and the issues we’re dealing with have changed with it.
No matter what your religious belief is, when you cross the road, you’re still looking both ways!
Why? Because god will not stop you from getting hit by a bus.
The issues we’re dealing with are the bus coming your way and this is the time to put your trust into what’s keeping you out of harm’s way.
Romania, the eastern European country, is a tragic example of this. A large portion of the country is highly religious, political parties have leveraged this to stay in power. Over 20 hospitals were closed down in the past few years due to poor management because the people in charge of effectively running the hospitals were politically appointed.
The current government decided to spend 150 million euros towards the build of a mammoth church right in the center of it’s capital while medics from all around the country were screaming that they do not have enough resources to keep up with the day-to-day cases.
Romania has just under 28,000 churches throughout the country.
The number of schools: 7000
The number of hospitals: 576
There are 50 times more churches than hospitals and 4 times the number of schools.
Grim fact about the Balkans, in the midst of the full blown pandemic, the church called for large gatherings and shared communion with the same spoon, pretty common in orthodox countries like Romania or Serbia. 24 hours later a good portion of the priests in the region confirmed positive for coronavirus and so did their congregations.
A large portion of the population has left the country because it lost trust in the government’s ability to secure a bright future for them.
Despite the obvious poor planning of the government, society has come together privately and through completely independent of the state efforts they have successfully crowdfunded close to 30 million euros and have built their own hospital for childcare.
Romania is not alone. In the United States there are currently 45,000 churches and only 6000 hospitals. It might not be Romania’s 50 times number, but it’s still 7.5 times a multiple.
Churches aren’t cheap to run either, so maybe it’s time society as a whole starts to think about the return society is getting from your dollar spend.
This is part 6 out of 15 about a discussion on the world in the context of the coronavirus pandemic.
You can watch the full video here:
