SALT LAKE CITY — By March 10, the Rev. Jeff Schooley was pretty sure his church should cancel its upcoming in-person events. However, it took him nearly 48 hours to share that thought with his congregation.
It wasn’t laziness that caused the delay or a lack of access to his phone or computer. He hesitated because of the political tensions coloring people’s response to COVID-19.
“I was aware that, if we made the decision to close, we would look like we’re taking a political side,” he said.
In his community and across the country, Democrats had embraced social distancing measures, working from home and canceling family events. Many Republicans, however, were critical of aggressive schedule changes, claiming the coronavirus was about as dangerous as the common cold.
“This isn’t just a human versus virus event. It’s a left versus right event,” said the Rev. Schooley, who leads First Presbyterian Church in Marysville, Ohio.
That now is beginning to change, as the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases rises and President Donald Trump has adopted a more somber approach that aligns with public health directives.
But, as recently as this past weekend, more than half of Republicans (54%) said the COVID-19 pandemic was being “blown out of proportion.” Three-quarters of Democrats, on the other hand, said it posed “a real threat,” according to a survey from NPR, PBS NewsHour and Marist.
In order for the country to effectively combat the growing crisis, COVID-19 will have to go from being a wedge issue to a unifying cause, said the Rev. Robert Jeffress, who is part of the president’s coalition of evangelical Christian advisers.
“I think this is a time for us not to be primarily known as Republicans or Democrats but as Americans,” he said.
Why the partisan divide?
Partisan tensions tied to the coronavirus appeared even before the illness arrived on American soil. Democrats and Republicans clashed over how the country should prepare for domestic cases and what types of measures would be required to control its spread.
As the crisis grew, Democratic presidential candidates sprinkled attacks on the Trump administration into their statements about the latest developments concerning the coronavirus. At campaign rallies and on Twitter, Trump often contradicted government health experts on the gravity of the crisis and described the response as a “Democratic hoax” aimed at defeating him in November.
To the Rev. Gilbert Gandenberger, who leads Holy Resurrection Church in Lincoln, Illinois, these battles felt almost inevitable, since the COVID-19 crisis was happening during an election year. It seemed like no one could resist a chance to score political points.
“I’m certainly not so naive to think we would all rise above partisan rancor in a year for voting ... but it was still disappointing to see it,” he said.
Even as the number of U.S. COVID-19 cases steadily grew earlier this month, partisan tensions persisted. Surveys exposed big differences in what members of different political parties believed and how they behaved.
For example, an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll conducted last week found that 68% of Democrats were worried about someone in their family catching the virus, compared to just 4 in 10 Republicans. Twice as many Democrats as Republicans said the worst of the crisis is yet to come.
“In response to every question about whether a respondent would change plans that would expose them to others, like travel, eating out at restaurants and attending large gatherings, Democratic voters consistently responded affirmatively at much higher rates than Republicans,” Vox reported on the poll.
Some of these differences might stem from natural tendencies, rather than the current political climate. Research shows that Democrats were already more worried than Republicans about pandemics before COVID-19 appeared.
In 2018, nearly 6 in 10 Democrats (57.3%) were “afraid” or “very afraid” that a major epidemic would hit the United States in the next 25 years compared to 43.5% of Republicans, according to an analysis of the Chapman Survey of American Fears conducted by political scientist Ryan Burge and provided to the Deseret News.
But political experts said the key factor affecting someone’s response to COVID-19 is their preferred source of information about the virus, which varies by political affiliation.
Republicans have high levels of trust in the president, while Democrats have slightly more trust in public health officials and much more trust in the news media, according to the poll from NPR, PBS NewsHour and Marist.
If you were paying more attention to Trump than international headlines, it makes sense that you’d be less concerned about what the future might hold, said Barbara Carvalho, who directs the Marist poll, to NPR. He spent much of the past two months trying to reduce anxiety about the coronavirus, and spoke more about potential market consequences than necessary health precautions.
“There was some confusion initially — if this was really a health crisis or an economic crisis,” she said.
Moving toward unity
The partisan gap in fear about the coronavirus made life difficult for community leaders over the past few weeks. Making decisions about whether to hold events or change typical routines in the absence of clear government guidance felt like a political act, as the Rev. Schooley noted.
“I worried there was no way to escape the political tinge on this,” he said.
But he still tried. Before the Rev. Schooley spoke with other church leaders about potentially canceling in-person events, he typed up a four-page, single-spaced report filled with data on the congregation and wisdom from public health experts.
“I was trying to present my case independent of politics, and it took a lot of work,” he said.
Similarly, the Rev. Jeffress spent hours meeting with city officials and members of his congregation before deciding not to cancel in-person worship at his Dallas, Texas, megachurch last week.
And yet this research and preparation didn’t stop people from accusing him of caring more about Trump than his church’s safety.
“The reason we stayed open had nothing to do with Donald Trump,” he said.
The good news for these leaders and others is that partisan tensions have begun to dissipate. During his press conferences this week, Trump adopted a more sober tone about the ongoing crisis, urging all Americans to stop meeting in groups larger than 10.
“Each and every one of us has a critical role to play in stopping the spread and transmission of the virus,” the president said during a Monday press conference.
As the White House’s messaging about COVID-19 aligns more closely with recommendations from health officials and news reports, the partisan gap should continue to close. Already, the Rev. Schooley has heard from more skeptical members of his congregation that they’re starting to take the coronavirus more seriously.
One man “went from saying it wasn’t as big as the media was making it seem to saying, ‘This is legit’ within two days,” he said.
Community leaders are hopeful that, as people’s attention turns from political battles to the pandemic at hand, solutions will be easier to find.
“I think unity is still on the table,” the Rev. Schooley said. “There’s nothing like a crisis to draw people together in the church and in society.”