Amidst all the bad news and the rising death toll of this global pandemic, Christians are still marking Holy Week and preparing for Easter. It’s not often, however, that such aspects of faith are explored on network television, even during normal circumstances. So it was refreshing to see CBS This Morning on Monday focus on two preachers “spreading the Gospel during this pandemic.”

Correspondent James Brown spoke to Pastor Craig Altman of the Grace Family Church in Tampa, Florida. He explained the decision to close: “We realized love is really protecting people and protecting the vulnerable. That really drove our decision to say, ‘You know, we want to do our best not to injure our community in any way.’”

Reverend Calvin Butts of the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, New York told Brown that Easter will not be stopped by the coronavirus: “I know that God will provide. That our people will get on the internet, they'll tune in to virtual services, and even those who can't get to their churches will tune in to us.”

Pastor Altman cheered, “We're going to see a resurrection of our economy, of people's lives, and I know that God's going to get us through this.”

As people face such an uncertain time, religion seems to be penetrating even usually secular MSNBC. Last week, anchor Craig Melvin asked Pastor T.D. Jakes to pray on air:

Our Father and our God, we bow our heads to you in humility, understanding that we are not competent in and of ourselves to handle this kind of global calamity. We look to you, Lord, to be the source, the strength, the help, the light that we need, strengthen our first responders, strengthen even our broadcast people, strengthen all of us whose lives have been devastated and disrupted and give us the peace that passes all understanding. In Christ's name we pray, amen.

A transcript of the CBS segment is below. Click “expand” to read more.