Rev. Todd Matocha of Main Street Presbyterian Church is preaching to the choir.
Only the choir.
His sermon for Sunday, March 22, titled “When Public Worship is Prohibited,” isn’t delivered before hundreds of parishioners. It was filmed the Thursday before in front of empty pews and posted on YouTube. Church administrator Ron Simpson added captions for Matocha’s sermon and even humorous credits — including billing for the church’s seven “Not Ready for Quarantine Musicians.” In one of the outtakes that Simpson also added to the end of the video, the musicians begin to play a hymn, but their microphones are accidentally turned off.
Matocha and Main Street Presbyterian are trying to adjust to what the pastor called “a new phase in church life” as churches across the area are adhering to prohibitions on gatherings of more than 10 people in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak.
“I don’t think in our history we’ve ever had anything quite like what we’re going through now – and that’s everybody, not just churches,” Matocha said.
Matocha filmed his sermon for Sunday earlier this week, and he’s still not sure how long this will be the new normal.
President Donald Trump said last week in a press briefing he expected Americans to be back in church houses by Easter, which is April 12, and that the economy — with businesses back open and with gathering restrictions lifted — would restart in full force that same week.
But Matocha and many pastors and business owners around the Golden Triangle aren’t as optimistic.
“I think he was hoping it would happen,” said Matocha, who believes the restrictions will last through April and possibly into the summer. “I think it’s probably wishful thinking, but he’s wanting to see what we’re all wanting to see: this thing be over. But I think it’s probably not gonna happen.”
That means Main Street Presbyterian will miss out on a packed house on Easter, a major holiday of worship in the area.
“Most of the churches are pretty full on Easter Sunday, so that’s gonna be a big missed opportunity,” he said.
Pastor Ozell Landfair of Griffin United Methodist Church in Starkville has closed his church during the week and encouraged his family and congregation to follow guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention during the outbreak of the virus.
Landfair, who filmed a 14-minute sermon and posted it to the church’s Facebook page on March 22, isn’t confident his church will have a full house by Easter Sunday either.
“I’m gonna wait and see how it turns out,” he said.
‘How real is the threat?’
Not everyone is in agreement about the threat the virus poses to society.
Some have posited that the virus actually entered the U.S. months before the current outbreak, infecting millions and leaving them already immune. It’s been pointed out the common flu has killed more people than COVID-19 so far, though health experts say the novel coronavirus’ rate of deaths per people infected is considerably higher.
There has been pushback against government-imposed intervention in the form of restrictions to gatherings, restaurants and businesses, as many have said the measures are too severe and the cost to the economy too high.
“THE CURE CANNOT BE WORSE (by far) THAN THE PROBLEM!” President Trump tweeted Tuesday, echoing a mentality becoming more common around the country.
When Starkville Mayor Lynn Spruill mentioned on Twitter on March 22 that the city’s board of aldermen was considering a resolution to close all non-essential businesses (a resolution that failed on a 4-3 vote), she received pushback along those lines from area residents.
“We better have people dying off by the droves if the board is even contemplating that,” Jerome Nettles, a Realtor with ERA Town & Campus Realty in Starkville, tweeted in reply. “I think we should just take a deep breath and calm the panic before we make any more irrational decisions.”
Nettles, who did not comment to The Dispatch on his concerns about excessive measures when contacted Friday, said he has still taken the CDC’s social distancing and safety measures to heart in the course of his job. He and his fellow agents take portable hand sanitizers with them, and they interview clients about recent travel and their health before meeting to show a property.
“We have drastically changed everything that we do,” said Nettles, who hopes President Trump is correct in his assertion that the economy can restart in a couple weeks.
Spruill told The Dispatch that she received feedback from residents who shared their concerns about their businesses being shut down, which could put their financial viability in question.
While she did hear from residents supportive of additional measures, she also heard from people unsure of the seriousness of the virus: “‘How real is the threat? Are people sick, or are they dying?'”
A New York Times opinion piece published last week featuring a mathematical model developed by mathematicians Gabriel Goh and Steven De Keninck, who worked with epidemiologists Ashleigh Tuite and David N. Fisman from the University of Toronto, set out to answer that question. The model estimated the number of people infected and killed by the virus in the United States depending on the level of government intervention and other factors.
If intervention — social distancing and restrictions on businesses — was in place from March 13 through Sunday, the model predicted that 120.5 million Americans could be infected and more than 1.2 million killed. Extend that period of intervention from March 13 to Easter Sunday, April 12, and those numbers go down to a possible 74.9 million infected and 717,600 killed. If intervention was in place from March 13 through May 31, the model estimates a relatively few 3.5 million Americans infected and 25,900 dead.
Columbus Ward 6 Councilman Bill Gavin said he’s heard from residents on both sides of the issue after the city passed a resolution March 21 enacting a curfew, closing non-essential businesses and limiting restaurants and gatherings. While many people will have their businesses impacted, most were “sympathetic” to the changes, Gavin said.
“This is going to disrupt everybody’s lives until we get this thing taken care of,” Gavin said. “… It’s their livelihood. It’s scary. This is not the normal. … I just ask them to please hang in there as best they can.”
‘The safest thing to do’
Gavin expressed hope that things can get back to normal in a couple of weeks, but Amanda Meadows of Meadows Law Group in Columbus — one of the many businesses disrupted by the virus — isn’t sold that things will change that fast.
“I think it’s very dangerous to have people coming together right now while still so much is unknown,” Meadows told The Dispatch. “I think our local churches, as well as our local judges and government, are doing the right things by taking these precautions.”
Meadows, a public defender for the city of Columbus and for Lowndes County, had to undergo extra precautions when visiting the county jail last week. After getting permission to visit, she had to have her temperature checked before being allowed to enter the jail. Meadows, who brought in her own mask, sat far away from her client.
She also lost a friend — Robert Barnum of St. Petersburg, Florida — to the virus. Barnum, a Realtor in his mid-60s with respiratory and heart conditions, was exposed to COVID-19 in the course of his job. After being sick for less than a week, he died Friday.
“My friend, who passed away today, should never have passed away from something like this,” Meadows said Friday. “Something as simple as doing his job exposed him, and I think that’s something we’re all at risk of if we don’t take it seriously.”
The Cafe on Main in Columbus, now limited to takeout and delivery services only by the city, has done its best to survive in its new environment.
Although limited in capacity without drive-through service, the restaurant has seen success in selling casseroles and similar dishes, and it also offers essentials like toilet paper, milk and bread.
Owner Steve Pyle expressed hope that things will be back to normal on President Trump’s timeline, though he said he’s unsure if the restaurant, which has been closely following CDC safety precautions to limit the spread of the virus, would be able to be “in full swing” by then.
“I definitely would like it to start as early as possible,” Pyle said of a resumption, “but at the same time, I want to do what’s safe for the public, even if it takes shutting our restaurant completely down. We want to do whatever is the safest thing to do.”
Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 35 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
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Related Photos
The chapel at Main Street Presbyterian Church in Columbus stands empty on Friday afternoon. Pastor Todd Matocha has had to get used to that, recording his sermons in front of no audience the past two weeks and likely longer. "I don't think in our history we've ever had anything quite like what we're going through now - and that's everybody, not just churches," Matocha said. Photo by: Theo DeRosa/Dispatch Staff
Todd Matocha
