A Lesson from SARS

by Dr Leong Tien Fock

According to a report, many Christians believed that the SARS epidemic was a judgment from God on China. Firstly, "the place where the epidemic started was the city of Foshan in Guangdong Province. Foshan happens to be one of the most famous Buddhist strongholds in southern China. In fact, the name means Fo (‘Buddha’) and Shan (‘Mountain’)". Secondly, "the new Chinese leader, Hu Jintao, is a professing Buddhist ... and soon after his rise to national leadership he used his influence to start rebuilding ancient Buddhist sites in Anhui Province".

Was the SARS epidemic a punishment from God on China?

The Bible certainly teaches that people who do not believe in Jesus will pay for the penalty of their sin. But the idea that God punishes a nation just because it promotes a non-Christian religion is not from the Bible. God did punish the Canaanites. But it was not simply because they did not believe in Him. It was because they were extremely immoral, and they used their religion to promote their immorality.

God punishes unrighteous behaviour and not incorrect beliefs, though incorrect beliefs ultimately lead to unrighteous behaviour. In fact, in this world, a righteous Buddhist is better off than an unrighteous Christian. Consider Ananias and Sapphira, who both dropped dead for lying to the Holy Spirit (Acts 5:1-10). Paul said there were Christians in Corinth who died or fell sick because they dishonoured the Lord’s table (1Cor 11:30).

The SARS epidemic was indeed a punishment from God on China. But it was not because of Buddhism. It was because of greed. Other factors may have contributed to the initial spread of the disease. But if the Chinese authorities concerned had not covered-up the outbreak to protect tourism it would not have become an epidemic. Making money was more important than saving lives. We have heard it said, "honesty is the best policy". But greed over-ruled. The epidemic was simply the consequence of greed. If they had been honest, many innocent lives, in and out of China, would have been saved. And most probably, only tourism in southern China would have been affected. But because of dishonesty, tourism in the whole of China was affected.

The great Old Testament theologian Gerhard von Rad said that there was a time when proverbial sayings (like "honesty is the best policy") were more than sayings. They were "indispensable signposts in making decisions large and small". In other words, people were guided by an inner moral compass. But not any more today. He said modern people lack "a whole dimension of specific knowledge of the world".

This "specific knowledge" concerns the way God designed the world. The world is such that when we violate the way it is designed there will be painful consequences. God need not be directly involved. Thus, when we ignore the reality of gravity and jump off a building, we (and our loved ones) suffer the consequences. So we say, "look before you leap". This dimension of specific knowledge most of us know and abide by.

But God also designed the world in such a way that morality matters. When we violate this "moral gravity" by doing wrong, be it greed or dishonesty, we will also suffer the consequences. Besides "honesty is the best policy", other proverbial sayings such as "crime does not pay" or "you reap what you sow" helped people to avoid violating the moral gravity. This is the "whole dimension of specific knowledge of the world" that modern people seem to lack.

People today seem to act without being constrained by the awareness that there are painful consequences to wrong-doing. And so they repeatedly get punished for it. But this punishment is built into the way the world works. Is it then from God? It was the righteous God who designed the world, and maintains it, in such a way that wickedness will be punished in this world itself. In this sense the punishment is from Him.

It may be objected that there are people who seem to get away with wrong-doing. But they only seem to get away. Nobody really gets away. When someone commits a wrong without repenting, and he is neither caught nor punished for it, he is not getting away. For if he does not repent, his unrepentant heart will lead him to commit more wrong. Sooner or later, in one way or another, he will get caught and be punished.

Even if not, no one who does evil and is unrepentant has peace. God says, "there is no peace for the wicked" (Isa 48:22). He may be laden with guilt or the fear of being caught or some other unpleasant consequence. It is better to pay the price of repentance and suffer the remorse, accepting whatever other consequences, and move on.

As Christians we have much more than the common proverbial sayings to guide us. Besides the book of Proverbs, the other books of the Bible also provide a whole range of insights into God’s moral world. In fact the commandments in the Bible are signboards to guide us where to go and where to avoid. And the Holy Spirit is within us to lead us and to empower us to obey the commandments. So when we walk by the Spirit we can experience the pleasant consequences of cooperating with the moral gravity and escape the painful consequences of violating it.

(We will not discuss here the question of righteous suffering, which the book of Job addresses. We will just note that though wrong-doing causes suffering, not all suffering is caused by wrong-doing.)

During the 1997-98 financial crisis, many Christians got their fingers, some their entire hands, burnt because they speculated on the money market. We live in a world that has denied or forgotten about the moral gravity that God has created. And it is easy for Christians to be conformed to the same attitude. It is thus not surprising that increasingly Christians are reaping the same moral consequences as the non-Christians.

Dr Leong Tien Fock is Research coordinator of Malaysia Campus Crusade for Christ.