I have heard deeply thoughtful
religious leaders acknowledge that they came late to an appreciation of the pandemic, that preconceptions influenced their initial reactions, that some leaders have taken harsh stances (for example, refusing to bury people
whose families acknowledge that they died of AIDS), and that their focus on
ideal behaviors can obscure what is real and live.
Hence their worship services and other «
religious» activities have frequently been transformed as if they were means of upholding the morale of a group in society
whose special interest is the maintenance of the
ideal and program of the good life in the public affairs of the day.