Bonus Episode: Religion in the Time of Corona

Transcript for Religion in the Time of Corona:

PDF is go! & digital transcript!

Shownotes for this Bonus Episode:

Coming to you from a responsible distance, Megan and Ilyse talk about religion, religious change, and the COVID-19 virus. This episode is equal parts talking through remote teaching and #PandemicPedagogy, feelings, and what professor-types call applied learning, because we’re looking at how we can see ideas we’ve talked about before play out in real time (especially E101’s “religion is what people do;” and E105’s “being religious is both individual and collective”).

We even had a very special guest for our very special bonus episode: Sela, Ilyse’s 6 year old daughter, killjoy in training, orange belt in karate, and reader extraordinaire who is grumpy (she gets it from her mama) about being distanced from friends, teachers, karate, and the outside. We don’t do kiddo pictures on the unpassworded internet, but here’s an image Sela (& Ilyse) approved for Keeping It 101:

We had a pithy number of keywords this time! Find them in our glossary. They were:

• Coronavirus, COVID-19, minyan, fatwa

The 101:

• We spent a good bit of this very special bonus episode listing the different ways we’re seeing religious organizations and institutions—individual congregations, collectives of religious authorities, and formal, official organizing bodies—adapt (or not) to the challenges COVID-19 is wreaking worldwide.

  • Ilyse highlighted a few things within Muslim communities and organizations:

    • She reminded y’all that Saudi Arabia had already suspended ‘umrah (that is, pilgrimage to Mecca outside of the Hajj season); and now we’re seeing Hajj is under threat as well. See here as but one example.

    • She also mentioned the role of fatwas—rulings—around the basics: should Muslims congregate for prayer? Should all Muslims carry on as usual? Because Muslims do not have a central leader or organizing body, these decisions come into focus as part of how Muslims navigate complex, changing scenarios; some opinions more conservative understandings (gather until a given secular body, acting in accordance with health organizations, says it is forbidden) while others were more proactive (limited or canceled gatherings, often citing the Qur’an (5:32) as saving one life is like saving all).

    • Finally, Ilyse talked about the dual images of Pope Francis blessing an empty St. Peter’s Square and the virtually empty area of the Al-Haram Mosque where the Kaaba is—and the work seeing such dramatic shifts in practice might do.

  • Megan did a round-up of news:

    • Megan didn’t know that Eastern Orthodox Christian churches all receive communion from a common spoon that’s been dipped in communion wine! According to the Australian Broadcasting Company, the Archdiocese of Australia told congregants that “"the holy cup cannot carry disease."

    • Friend of the pod Liz Kineke told Megan about Instagram sound baths in lieu of in-person sound baths. She said: “Sound bath is a sonic meditative practice where participants are enveloped in a sea of sound.” She just reported on this practice at Episcopal church in Brooklyn.

    • Friend of the pod Rachana Rao Umashankar also alerted me to the Hindu practice of making demons/goddesses related to diseases. Sheetala, the Smallpox goddess, is a notable example; we’re similarly seeing some claim that deities protect Hindus from coronavirus. We’re also seeing examples of new practices.

    • Megan’s favorite twitter rabbi, Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg (@TheRaDR), has all sorts of amazing resources and thoughts on caring for one another through this crisis.

      • See: Social Distancing & a Rabbi’s Need to Protect Life; the Kina Hora virus; No Touching/Kissing Mezuzahs

      • But Megan’s favorite thing she’s posted in the past week was for Shabbat: “There’s a kabbalistic concept of tzimtzum, divine self-contraction. That at Creation, God contracted Godself to make room for the world to exist. When we withdraw into our own spaces, now, we make room for health, safety—care for one another. Shabbat Shalom.”

    • And here’s the thread Megan promised to share from religion reporter Sam Kestenbaum’s really interesting roundup thread on COVID-19 and faith healing.

Primary Sources:

• In this week’s Primary Sources, Megan talked about cyberpaganism and how a return to online, socially distant religion feels downright retro to her.

• Ilyse talked about her synagogue’s rapid move from “don’t worry, wash your hands” to “no services except for graveside funerals” and teaching a downright elderly congregation (typical, given American synagogues) how to Zoom into minyan.

• Sela talked briefly (being 6 and all) about how her Shabbat and Havdallah experiences aren’t changing much, but did notice that we’ll lose our regular Passover family ritual.

Your homework for this Very Special Episode:

JK LOL! There’s no homework in a pandemic! But we can recommend some stuff to pass the time & zone out with:

Ilyse researches identity, hate, imperialism; she’s good at lite TV. Ilyse’s headspace is decidedly romcom, YA fiction, Drag Race, old sitcoms, & Bob’s Burgers. Specifics:

• The first two books of The Mirror Visitor series in English, by Christelle Dabos. Mildly dystopian future with really creative subplots and worldbuilding. Technically YA. 

• Laury Silvers’ The Lover: a Sufi Mystery. The sequel, The Jealous, is coming out later this spring. 

• For fellow parents, Cosmic Kids Yoga works for Ilyse’s kiddos (both under 7). These kids also really love Village Life, a YouTube series that just shows aunties cooking. It’s oddly mesmerizing.

• Finally, Ilyse kindly reminds everyone that the Golden Girls are on Hulu.

Megan did not assign homework but also didn’t not assign nerdy books to check out:

• Doug Cowan’s Cyberhenge (2005) if you want to learn more about online paganism

• Brenda Basher’s Give Me That Online Religion (2004) for more about cyber-religion in the early aughts.

But for fun readings, Megan is your podcast co-host go-to.

• She recommended a graphic novel called My Favorite Thing Is Monsters by Emil Ferris;

• making pull from the middle yarn balls;

• The 2011 Stephen Soderbergh flop Haywire, “because [she] like[s] to watch strong women like MMA fighter Gina Carrano beat the crap out of bad men.”

Sela also had some suggestions:

• The Mysterious Benedict Society series (all of them!)

• The new Carmen Sandiego (on Netflix)!

• All of the My Little Ponies: Friendship is Magic.

How are you holding up? Let us know on Twitter!