Dear Editor,

At its meeting last week, the school board imposed a 30-day mask mandate for all students and teachers in Newberry County schools. Immediately, there was a furious outcry from many parents, who accused the school board of taking away their right to decide whether or not to send their children to school with masks. The following day, implementation of the mandate was halted until a special called meeting of the school board could be held.

Setting aside the question of whether or not parents should even be allowed to opt out of masking their children in the middle of a pandemic, I’ll pose this question instead. For those of us who claim to be Christian, should we be more concerned with our rights, or the health and safety of others? Let’s turn to scripture!

Jesus was God’s own Son, and therefore had every right to command whatever he wanted from humanity: worship, obedience, power, or riches. Yet even though he had these rights, Jesus “did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited.” (Philippians 2:6). Instead, he gave up his rights and allowed himself to be put to death on the cross, for the sake of the whole world. Jesus didn’t selfishly complain about his rights being taken away; rather, he willingly laid them aside for others.

Paul didn’t seem too concerned with his rights either. In the early church, there was a question about eating meat — which had been previously offered to idols. Paul said there was nothing wrong with it, but that Christians should be willing to give it up, if it meant protecting the consciences of those who thought it was sinful. Paul declared, “Take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.” (1 Corinthians 8:9).

Of course, the current situation involves wearing masks, not eating meat. However, shouldn’t we as Christians be more than willing to lay aside our rights, if it means we are potentially preventing others from getting sick and dying? Paul also said, “For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Galatians 5:13-14).

Writing nearly 1,500 years after Paul, Martin Luther summarized this mindset very nicely in his treatise On the Freedom of a Christian. The main point of this work is that even though Christians have been redeemed by God and set free from sin and death by Jesus’s death and resurrection, we should use our freedom to serve those around us. “A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none,” Luther stated, immediately followed by the qualification, “and a Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all.”

How are you using YOUR freedom? To serve others, or to serve yourself?

Sincerely,

Christopher D. Shealy

Newberry