Twelfth International Conference on Religion & Spirituality in Society

Abstract

The global crisis poses a threat that affects people’s beliefs and attitudes, but how do religious people observe public measures and respond to the risk and changes in social life caused by the COVID-19 pandemic? Using the multiple standardized survey questionnaires designed by the board and regular members of the Research Committee of (RC36) of the International Sociological Association, we interrogated religious individuals on what public measures, threats, and changes caused by COVID-19 are to their lives. We equally examined current literature produced by cross-sectoral studies to advance our knowledge of how people observe public measures and respond to risk and anxiety and changes during the pandemic. We find that while the threat and stress of COVID-19 continue to disrupt families, workplaces, and businesses, most individuals during the pandemic contributed to the rule of law and have developed public measures to protect themselves from the virus. While it is true that religious people are not exempted from deep anxiety caused by COVID-19, religious people have interplayed strong religiosity and creative activities that strengthen their social relationships as COVID-19 ravages their health and social life. Religious people continue to experience negative influences by the perceptions of the risk of infection and being infected by the people that they can get along with, health and financial challenges, and other social consequences of the crisis. These factors contribute to the higher stress and lower mode of religious people that disorient or reorient their lives to be resilient and creative in many ways.