How to Celebrate Religion While Maintaining Social Distance

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: I want to ask you about this religious weekend for so many. It’s Passover week, it’s Easter weekend and Easter week and soon it will be Ramadan. How do you tell your congregation and as far and wide as possible to do the unnatural, to stay away from groups and churches and other places of worship?

REV. WILLIAM J. BARBER, PRESIDENT, REPAIRERS OF THE BREACH: Well, thank you so much, Christiane. You know, as pastor of Greenleaf Christian Church and President of Repairers of the Breach, we have combined to offer virtual services now for over the last month. And one of the things we remind people, whether it’s Islam or Christianity or Judaism, our first connection is a connection of the spirit. And then these holy days are supposed to have a certain depth and spirituality with them that are far — that’s far deeper than just the buildings. And one of the things we are saying to people is we must celebrate now. Remember, in the Jewish Passover, they had to social distance. Everybody had to go into their own homes, but because the backdrop was a narcissistic mean-spirited leader who was oppressing the people and the Passover was the counter to that. In Christianity, remember that the crucifixion took place on a cross, not among the people, it was on a cross. It was an isolated place. And the backdrop was Jesus had taken on the system of injustice and was being crucified because he dared to care for the poor, dared to care for the lease. Ramadan teaches us to fast, to remember those who don’t have. And so, the holy virtuous of these seasons actually are discipline so that we can challenge the unholiness of society as it relates to how we treat the poor and the least of these. So, I think, in many ways, this is a powerful moment for faith and for religion. It’s a powerful reflective moment. It’s a time for us to use every tool we have available to us on social media to gather and to gather our strength so that this weekend exhibit, these holy virtuous in a time when it’s so needed, when we see so much public idolatry and self-worship and the viruses of greed and lies, it is this during this holy time that we gather our strength for that we’re going to need to continue to challenge prophetically in society.