I did ask friends in China how they commemorated Tomb Sweeping Day which is usually the first weekend of April this year, considering it was during the national lockdown. Friends responded that the central government encouraged everyone to have virtual tomb sweeping, which I can't even imagine. But the lack of response on a monitored social media account (as all in China are) left me to assume that talking about it wasn't a good idea. As so much of the discussion around churches reopening has also become politicized if not weaponized here in the US, it's hard for me to figure out how to interpret the news I hear from anywhere else.
If anything these articles showed me how little I know about other religions--Islam, Judaism and even Catholicism. What is a masjid? In terms of people I interact with who do not share my beliefs, I would say they are mostly atheists/agnostics and people who self-identify as lapsed Christians/Catholics in some way. If anything I often end up staying away from topics that could be controversial rather than engaging them, if I'm honest, but I would love to have a conversation with these friends about new traditions we could consider in this new reality of Covid, and what faithfulness looks like in these circumstances.
I did ask friends in China how they commemorated Tomb Sweeping Day which is usually the first weekend of April this year, considering it was during the national lockdown. Friends responded that the central government encouraged everyone to have virtual tomb sweeping, which I can't even imagine. But the lack of response on a monitored social media account (as all in China are) left me to assume that talking about it wasn't a good idea. As so much of the discussion around churches reopening has also become politicized if not weaponized here in the US, it's hard for me to figure out how to interpret the news I hear from anywhere else.
If anything these articles showed me how little I know about other religions--Islam, Judaism and even Catholicism. What is a masjid? In terms of people I interact with who do not share my beliefs, I would say they are mostly atheists/agnostics and people who self-identify as lapsed Christians/Catholics in some way. If anything I often end up staying away from topics that could be controversial rather than engaging them, if I'm honest, but I would love to have a conversation with these friends about new traditions we could consider in this new reality of Covid, and what faithfulness looks like in these circumstances.