At this time, only one issue dominates our thoughts: the novel coronavirus global pandemic. That crisis dominates this issue of R&L, as well. Our coverage seeks to be prehensive as possible: national and international, church and state, body and soul.

In our cover story, Henrik Rasmussen puts “medical liberty” at the heart of a nine-point plan to rebuild from the coronavirus. “These proposals might seem fanciful with long odds of success,” he writes, “but so did the economic liberalization and revitalization of Europe after Nazi Germany surrendered in May 1945.”

Per Ewert brings a native’s insight to answer why Sweden responds differently than the rest of the world in peace or pandemic.

Dustin Siggins asks whether the Roman Catholic Church deserves a government bailout. Doug Bandow states unequivocally that the media do not.

Anne Rathbone Bradley explains why “economic benefits are moral” as she weighs in on the maladaptive psychological mechanisms behind hoarding.

Anthony Bradley analyzes the racial disparities in health es and concludes “a more sinister culprit than racism for COVID-19 health disparities is the expansion of government power.”

Editor-at-Large John Couretas describes how the contagion deflated the city planners’ utopia of densely packed urban dwellers herded together on public transportation.

Trey Dimsdale reveals how the crisis has trimmed the gossamer threads upholding the European Union’s status quo. The sight of member states ignoring EU guidelines poignantly illustrates how, in a crisis, national sovereignty reasserts itself.

As this issue went to press, the department store chain J.C. Penney filed for bankruptcy. Its founder, who believed “business is … as much religious as it is secular,” is the subject of our “In the liberal tradition.”

With all this, there is so much more to be said. We pray by the next issue, there will be less need to say it. Until then, may the Lord’s unfathomable providence bring you and yours physical, spiritual, and economic health.

This issue has been made possible in part thanks to a generous donation from Jeffrey and Cynthia Littmann. Jeffrey and CynthiaLittmann arechampions ofconservation and thegood stewardship of our natural resources as a gift from God