Why the “Mask Issue” Exposes Sexist Christian Leaders
By: Emma Copper
Tags: Coronavirus, Religion, Womens Rights, Masks, Christianity

As COVID cases surge to unprecedented highs, and our country becomes nothing but a map of red, some Christians still refuse to wear a mask.

“It’s a conscience issue,” a man from my old church claims on Facebook. “The government is taking away my right to worship God. My refusal to wear a mask isn’t about being considerate or not — it allows me to protest the way religious groups are being targeted by shut downs.”

Many Christians choose not to wear a mask, and their reasons vary. Some Christians claim it’s unnecessary and they’d rather see their community’s faces. “It’s dehumanizing.” Some claim a mask erases the image of God.

While no one is admitting it, it likewise seems Republicanism and Faith have become intertwined. Could this be a political issue for many, deep down? Jesus-Trump said skip the mask, so it became allegiance to Republicanism and therefore to Jesus to wear a mask below one’s nose. Politics, Chapter 1, Verse 6 said, “The virus isn’t that bad, and I can do what I want.”

Regardless of a person’s reason for going without a mask, the fact remains: many Christian leaders are angered by the mandates. They don’t want their congregation to wear a mask. They don’t want to wear a mask. This isn’t congregation members fussing in isolation, either. Their leaders are encouraging them to keep the mask off.

Leaders prop up words to defend their “conscience choice” but the words wobble. The words aren’t enough. In reality, can’t most reasons be boiled down to, “It’s inconvenient and I don’t want to?”

Reasons not to wear:

Dehumanizing Takes away the image of God (as if a scrap of cloth could do that!) A protest Pointless

Reasons to wear:

The chance — slim or great — of saving someone’s life.

There isn’t a single anti-mask reason that isn’t about “me,” at the end of the day. No reason trumps the opportunity to keep someone’s grandmother or high-risk husband alive. Nothing. Science supports masks.

The protest, then, stinks of something else.

“It’s hard and I don’t want to do it,” the action says. “How dare you inconvenience me?”

But how does this relate to sexism?

Live For Me, Please

Any woman who has grown up in the conservative church knows the wounds of being told to submit.

The more conservative the congregation, the deeper the wounds. The louder the anger. My trauma includes approaching a pastor with a deep, aching need and simply being told, “But are you obeying your husband?” That was all I got. (The issue had nothing to do with my husband.) I was also told I would be pulled from a camp’s Speaker List, last minute, if a single student objected to women teaching. (Never mind the hours of prep work and value of what I had to say.)

Friends of mine had it worse. They were told outright that women were inferior, that men are more like God. It was a woman’s “privilege” to do as a man asked. They were obeying God by silencing their needs.

Some endured rape by pastors or older brothers. They were told to be quiet and forgive.

I have watched women wither away. The same pastor who told me to obey my man once sat across from me with his wife. He held her hand and gave us an update on their life situation. He had invited a fifteen-year-old girl and her baby to live with his young family. He left during the day, escaped to the church office. His wife stayed home.

“How is this going?” I asked.

“It’s been really wonderful,” he said.

I turned to the wife, for her answer. She tried to smile.

“It’s very hard,” she gasped.

His wife (who had just suffered a traumatic miscarriage) was almost shaking with the stress. She had no space, nowhere to retreat. She was constantly on missionary duty to this poor teenage girl, bonding with a baby who would soon be taken away, and raising two children of her own under the age of five. Her nerves were shot. Her heart was in hell. I saw it all in the space of five seconds.

The pastor smiled, beaming. He seemed full of the glow of a job well done.

I couldn’t help staring. Can’t you see that this is killing your wife?

I don’t think he cared. It was the “right” thing to do, and women are supposed to submit.

Essentially, women in conservative churches are asked to sacrifice and suffer daily. Their inconvenience is every man’s right. Women are asked to quietly give up their dreams, wombs, sanity, joy, sexual autonomy, and life —

Just so a man will be more comfortable.

And these men, now confronted with a small inconvenience for the good of others, won’t put on a mask.

The gut-wrenching, thick, dripping hypocrisy of it is overwhelming. They are catching the faintest glimpse of how it feels to alter their behavior for someone else’s good. They put their wives and daughters through emotional torment, while they sit smiling. Well fed. Now that it is their turn? Not only do they complain — they blatantly refuse to do it.

Could this refusal to wear a mask, at the end of the day, be linked to Male Privilege within Conservative Christianity? They are so used to having the world bow to them… they can’t even let their glasses fog up.