After weeks of watching Evangelicals insist they’re going to continue to hold weekly Sunday services, especially on Easter, I’ve started to wonder if they haven’t reinterpreted the verse: “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation”—Matthew 16:15—to “Go into all the world and infect as many as you can.”
For the past few weeks, even before it became official, I have been sequestered in my studio apartment, living only on toilet paper and vodka. I lost my cable in the second week of March, so my access to news has been sporadic, which has had both a positive and negative effect. On the one hand, without the constant bombardment of “death and destruction,” I’ve been a little “calmer.” On the other hand, I missed out on a lot the real challenges facing us. This became clear when I went to visit my sister on the day Governor Cuomo (New York) and Governor Phil Murphy (New Jersey) announced they were locking down their states in order to attempt the virus from spreading. This meant closing restaurants, bars, and boutiques and all other non-necessary functions would be closed indefinitely. They were also telling us not to visit our relatives as this could still endanger the community.
While I had been self-sequestered, I hadn’t realized how serious things had gotten. I have a medical issue known as “Tremors” which means I can start shaking, and sometimes it’s really noticeable. the more dangerous version of this is Parkinson’s disease. Mine is benign, thank God, but when I’m stressed out, it becomes obvious. And as I said good by to my sister, she could see me shaking and she worried that it might be something much worse. Since I live with myself, I knew it wasn’t, but I also realized that emotionally, I had been shaken—hard.
Watching the pandemic grow, I’ve grown frustrated by the way religious groups, Orthodox Jews and Evangelicals have completely dismissed the threat, and instead, have chosen to put the rest of their community, and their country, in danger even though they have been asked not to. Rockland County, New York, where I currently reside, has one of the highest percentages of the Covid-19 in the country… and a lot of it has to do with the Jewish orthodox community, who refuse to sequester themselves; and continue to meet in large groups. But they’re not alone. They join their Kin—Evangelicals, in their defiance of the government and the request of the communities asking for help protecting ourselves from the virus.
And now we’re just a day ahead of Easter, the most sacred day on the Evangelical calendar, and a very sacred day on the Jewish calendar. And we’re wondering, how many people are going to risk exposure simply to sit in a pew and listen to a guy speak whom they could just as easily download on YouTube?
One of the first Evangelical churches to come under fire was Bethany Slavic Missionary Church in California, which is now blamed for at least 70 people who’ve been affected by Covid-19, including the pastor and associate pastors.
Fortunately, a few of the “potty trained” Evangelicals have stepped in to help. One landlord changed the locks on the church he rented because the pastor refused to heed the request of the authorities to stay home. In Florida, an insurance company threatened to drop a megachurch threatening to defy regulations to close down until the virus threat was over. In Cincinnati, Solid Rock Church has continue to meet, and when interviewed by CNN, they claimed it boiled down to “freedom of religion.” One lady justified her attendance by saying she was “covered in the blood.”
How is it that as Christians around the world gather to commemorate the death of Jesus, yet Evangelicals have used it as an excuse wreak havoc—putting their lives, their families lives, and the lives of their countrymen in such grave peril? Why would those who claim to be “pro-life” deliberately put their lives, and the lives of others in such danger?
Of course, listening to the answers in the CNN interview, we can state right off that the answers to this question, according to Evangelicals, isn’t really thought through. They’re emotional not rational. We, as a species, tend to think more from our “serpentine brain” than we do with our rational brain, especially when it comes to danger—so it makes sense they aren’t taking this seriously. But as an evolved species, they should be able to at least think beyond that. Although I’ve often said:
“it’s ironic that those who refuse to believe in evolution cannot themselves evolve.”
When it comes to your basic church-goer, the real answer is simple. They just don’t take this seriously. And the reason they don’t take it seriously is because they’re watching Fox “news” which, until recently, has been calling the whole thing a hoax. Evangelicals don’t believe in evolution, which means they don’t understand how a virus can mutate (evolve) over time, and they tend to vilify science (unless it serves their purpose—which it rarely does).
This brings up the second reason they’re not protecting us. They think it’s a hoax. Fox “news,” (particularly Sean Hannity (the opposite of sanity)) has told them over and over this is a “Liburil” hoax to make Trump look bad. Therefore, their presence in the service is a way for them to stick it to the “Liburils.” They love watching “Liburils” suffer, even if it will eventually cost them their lives and the lives of their families. Yes, I know that sounds like hyperbole, but it’s not. We’ve watched them… we see their videos on YouTube, we see their interviews. They deliberately do things that put their lives in as much—if not more—peril than ours, simply because they think it will piss us off.
A third reason, which only the upper echelon of the Evangelical movement know, is money. This is where Franklin Graham, Joel Osteen, Jerry Falwell Jr., and the other Megavangelical preachers shine. The very thing Jesus warned about, the very thing Jesus despised—greed—is the very reason they hold church services: Offerings. People are more likely to give while sitting in the pew as the plate comes around than they are to write a check to someplace remotely. And with the added stress of job-loss, or lost work hours, they may be tempted to use their small amount of money for bills, or food, or maybe even a little vodka to help them cope with this challenge. Evangelical leaders know this, and to protect themselves must wrap themselves ideas like “protecting religious freedom” and “religious superiority” to assure they don’t lose that income. This is also why they insist believers keep paying their “tithes.”
When it comes to issues of money, Evangelical leaders can be compared to the Jewish Sanhedrin, those who fought to have Jesus crucified. These leaders bought their way into roles of power from the Romans and would do anything it too to hold onto that power. Even if it meant killing their own countrymen.
But the final reason is the most frightening: They want to force God’s hand. From the moment Jesus was recorded as saying he would return, his followers—particularly his extreme followers— Evangelicals—have been trying to force his return. By perpetuating this pandemic, many of the most radical of Evangelicals are convinced they’ll “hasten” the return of Christ. Evangelicals like Sarah Palin, Franklin Graham, and Michele Bachmann have stated this many times, and as time goes by, they become more desperate to bring about Armageddon.
Millennialism is complicated, with layers and layers of beliefs, ideals, ideologies, prophecies, missed prophecies, re-prophecies, and on and on and on… as we have seen by those who continue to tell us that the world is ending by such-and-such a date…
But it all boils down to one basic idea: “Jesus will save me…” but he will NOT SAVE YOU. If they hate you, Jesus hates you, and therefore if you get sick, that’s your fault not theirs. If you get sick, it’s because you pissed off God. If they get sick, they are suffering here for a better life in Heaven. And this is the why they will continue to risk their lives and ours: Simply because they hate us. We’re not like them. We have different ideas. We think differently than they do. They think they’re above the laws of physics, while we are not. Because… Jesus.
Meanwhile, the rest of us must find a way to protect ourselves from those who would willingly bring harm to humanity in the name of Jesus. Of course Jesus wouldn’t put us in this peril, but Evangelicals have never cared one-whit about what Jesus thought. What’s left for the rest of us to do is to continually present Jesus to those who hate him the most—Evangelicals. Which means it’s ridiculous to pretend “Jesus didn’t exist,” or that “religion is the opiate of the masses.” We must take Jesus seriously, and hope that someday we will get Evangelicals to care about who Jesus was and what mattered to him.
I’ve often said that my sole purpose on earth as an agnostic was:
To teach Evangelicals about Jesus.