A priest has taken on government for saying that church members must use alcohol-based hand sanitizers in church to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus, stressing that the use of alcohol even in hand sanitizers is immoral and ungodly since the consumption of alcohol is considered sinful in Christianity.
The priest maintained that since drinking alcohol before going into a church is not allowed, using it to sanitize your hands before getting into a church building is equally unacceptable and sinful.
Since the partial easing of restrictions allowing church members to congregate while observing protocols to reduce the spread of the novel coronavirus, many church leaders have raised issues with the impracticability of the protocols given.
“The task of government is to issue the guidelines but I am against the sanitiser machine in the temples because it contains alcohol…When we cannot enter a temple after drinking alcohol, then how can we sanitise our hand with alcohol and go inside,” Chandrashekhar Tiwari, the priest of Bhopal Maa Vaishnavadham Nav Durga Temple, India noted.
His assertions have received mixed reactions from Christians: a few have sided with him while the majority of Christians have found his assertions ridiculous.
Meanwhile the government has asserted that it will strictly enforce the measures given to the churches.
