SHOW NOTES Episode 02

Title:  Two Years and Counting: Did the Church Do Its Part in the Coronavirus Pandemic?
Publish Date: March 2, 2022

EPISODE DESCRIPTION:

Jayne Wilcox, Kim Hu, Jennifer Johnson, and Kris Anne Swartley tackle the question, Did the Church Do Its Part in the Coronavirus Pandemic? It is March 2022 and we are at the two year mark since the initial global shutdown from the corona-virus pandemic. In this two part episode, the team grapples over whether or not the church lived up to its obligation to be the example of Jesus to the world in the midst of a pandemic. In Part I, we talk through which criteria, or metrics, we will use to evaluate whether the church did its part, and in Part II we evaluate the church’s response with a letter grade. Here’s hoping the church passed the test!

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All-girl rock band, Fanny: “Play Like A Girl” by June & Jean Millington (2011) recorded Live at WFMU on Surface Noise with Joe McGasko on August 21, 2011.

Theme Song Credit

“Play Like A Girl” by June & Jean Millington is licensed under an Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License that can be found here, Creative Commons Legal Code.

RESOURCES

On the American Church and the Pandemic:

Luke Bretherton, COVID-19 presents a moral crisis, not just a medical one – ABC Religion & Ethics, ABC Religion & Ethics, Mar 31, 2020.

Aaron Earls, Churchgoers Proud of Church’s COVID-19 Response – Lifeway Research, LIfeway Research, March 23, 2021.

Jean-Daniel Plüss, COVID-19, the Church, and the Challenge to Ecumenism, Transformation, Vol. 37(4) 286–296, 2020.

Kathryn Watson, Why “the pathway to ending the pandemic runs through the evangelical church” CBSNews April 5, 2021.

Kyle Whitmire, Faith, foolishness and COVID ‘Final Destination’ Syndrome, AL.com, Jul 28, 2021.

THE TEAM

Kim Hu (MA, MDiv ‘23) is in full-time ministry where she works with young adults at her church while pursuing a Masters of Divinity degree at Missio Seminary. She loves making her husband Tim laugh, dreaming of what missions means, caring for her growing collection of house plants, and posting unsolicited reviews of Trader Joe’s products to her instagram.

Jennifer Johnson (MEd) serves as the Chief Communications Officer at Johnson University in Knoxville, TN. She blogs about faith, doubt, the church, and the idiosyncrasies of Christian culture and compiled some of this work into her book, at See Jen Write: The Best of the Blog. Jen’s a wife, a stepmom of two young adults, a board member for Orchard Group and Christian Missionary Fellowship, an American Airlines Gold member, a reluctant dog owner, and a big fan of caffeine.

Kris Anne Swartley (MDiv) serves as Pastor of Worship and Administration at Doylestown Mennonite Church in southeast Pennsylvania. She is a wife, mom and musician; and her hobbies include caring for her two cats, feeding the neighborhood birds and drinking inordinate amounts of coffee.

Jayne Wilcox (MDiv, ThD) is a Lecturer in Religion and Theology at LaSalle University and an adjunct professor in World Christian History at Missio Seminary. She lives in Levittown, PA with her husband and Rose and Lilibet, her favorite furry four-legged friends. Her pride and joy are her two adult sons and an adorable daughter-in-law.