We have Ebola on the brain.
Several of my friends expressed alarm when the first Ebola patient flew to the United States for treatment. Now we find that not one but two Dallas nurses have contracted Ebola, likely because their hospital did not adopt proper Ebola protocols. Americans know that their medical system is far better equipped to prevent an Ebola outbreak than are those in West Africa. We know our system is better prepared to offer effective treatment. But the appearance of multiple cases, one involving a nurse who took a commercial flight while possibly contagious, has people concerned. When a key public health expert says, "It's a learning process, and... our confidence in the hospitals was ill-founded," the rest of us might get a little nervous.
Amid so much anxiety, we turn to All Saints' Day in the church's calendar. All Saints' Day usually recalls our communion with of our spiritual ancestors throughout the centuries, celebrating our unity with saints as far away as North Africa in the fourth century and as close as our deceased relatives. But All Saints' Day also reminds us of our bond with all believers in the here and now. That includes many of the more than 4500 who have died from Ebola already outside the United States, and it includes the tens of thousands who soon will contract Ebola every week if the international community does not produce a more robust response. Jim Wallis reminds us that Ebola is "an inequality crisis," more deadly among the have-not nations than among the haves. How does All Saints' Day speak to our relationship to those who are more vulnerable than we are?