Do We Have Freedom or Responsibility to Wear Face Masks during COVID-19?

3. Are Your Actions Considerate of the Most Vulnerable in Our Communities?

Matthew 25:40 says, “And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.”

Over the past months we have found that certain groups are more vulnerable to the worst outcomes if infected by the coronavirus. The CDC has noted that the older you are, or if you have an underlying medical condition, you are more likely to die from this contagious disease.

I know as a healthier, younger person with young kids, that wearing masks in public is less than convenient. Now that temperatures are in the 90s and the humidity is sweltering, we all are ready to take our masks off as soon as we leave the store! They fog up our glasses, fall off my kids’ faces, and make it hard to talk to others in public spaces.

However, we still comply with the mandate as a family...because we want to be considerate to the most vulnerable around us.

I know that if the facts had turned out differently and young kids were most susceptible to severe infection, I may be shouting to everyone to wear masks and to keep their distance. Just because our stories may not be as affected by the risk this disease imposes does not mean we don’t have a responsibility to others in our community.

Our freedom should be exercised with the most vulnerable around us in mind.

As a mother, when I go to the pool, I am free to swim in the deep end because I know how to swim well. Yet, because I now have a three-year-old that is vulnerable to drowning, I opt to stay in the shallow end. I love swimming. Sometimes I even miss the carefree days before kids where I could swim alone freely. But because in this stage of life I want to protect my child, I choose to forgo that freedom for her sake.

This is the logic that pushes us to opt towards compliance when it comes to mask-wearing when we are out in our communities. We may feel unafraid, or free to breathe in the air of the supermarket unencumbered. But because in this season we have to be responsible for how our actions can work to spread this disease—we choose to forgo that freedom for the sake of the “least of these.”

Photo Credit: ©Getty Images/Marco Bonfanti