I thought about the title to this article for a long time. Would people think it’s clickbait? Is it clickbait? Is it hyperbole… even egregious hyperbole? The honest answer is, “I don’t think so.” But I know one thing: from my perspective, amid this pandemic, Evangelicals are doing everything in their power to spread a virus to prove that the virus is a hoax, and therefore persecution on their religious freedoms. Meanwhile, they’re killing friends and neighbors—even their families.
This has me frustrated… downright angry at Evangelicals who are flagrantly defying mask and gathering rules in the face of an actual pandemic. For example: “California church defies public health orders, holds indoor services for thousands with no social distancing.” In my hometown of Seattle, Evangelicals held a “Let us Worship” rally in Cal Anderson park—only two blocks from where I used to live. Hundreds showed up, and very few of the wore masks.
Evangelical Pastor Landon Spradlin called the virus ‘hysteria’ and then died from the very same disease. Herman Cain—999—himself a Covid denier, died from the virus. Almost everyone calling Covid a hoax aligns themselves with some sort of Evangelical ideology, and continue to deny it, even though their colleagues are being picked off. Church members across the country are “worshipping” and then sending dozens home with the virus. A New York Times article points out how churches have emerged as the source of new cases nationwide.
But they were a problem even before the pandemic. It was Evangelicals who put Trump into power, who have kept him there, and are working their asses off to make sure he stays for another term. Fox “news” pundits (most of them) acknowledge they’re Evangelical, and have spent years creating an alternate reality, an alternate version of Christianity, an alternate form of morality, and pure chaos around the world. They will do anything to keep Trump in power.
Trump: a man who has 22 sexual misconduct allegations against him. Who bragged about grabbing women, who hung out in girls’ dressing rooms while they were dressing. Who was best friend with a pedophile. Who chooses a Russian dictator over the American people almost every time. While his third wife was giving birth to his fifth son, he was having sex with a prostitute. He makes fun of the handicapped, demeans the poor, and cages children. There is nothing about Trump that aligns to anything Jesus taught, and yet they seem to worship him (Trump). To Evangelicals, Trump is more important than Jesus, even Paul. There is nothing Trump can do that will make the change their allegiance to him (maybe if he started caring about others and decided to help the poor they would turn on him).
And they’re not going to change. They’re determined to flaunt their disregard for human life in the most obnoxious ways possible. They scream at cops, march on capitol buildings with guns (no masks), threaten the lives of store employees who ask them to put on a mask… Nor is there anything we can do to communicate with them . We can’t use reason because they live by fear and conspiracy. We can’t use logic because that’s part of the ‘educated elite.’ We can’t use science because they deny science (it goes against the Bible). We can’t use data because anything they disagree with is “fake news.” We can’t even use the Bible because they accuse us of twisting scripture and preaching “doctrines of demons.”
Thus, the title of this article. And this isn’t hyperbole—at least as far as I’m concerned. They have either created, and/or supported so much chaos and suffering throughout the country. They have made life so difficult for so many people. Which makes me wonder: in the decades or centuries to come, will we look back on them with the same loathing we look back on the Crusades, the Dark Ages, the Inquisitions, the Witch Trials…?
But the even bigger question is, “will we survive them?” Will we even be able to ‘look back’ on them. Unlike the previous mentioned examples, we humans are staring down the barrel of real disaster—even possible extinction. Climate Change has reached crisis levels, and Evangelicals are denying it is a problem, and doing everything in their power to prevent us from doing anything relevant to help. Because of Covid, we’re not even talking about it like we should be.
Even in the face of an actual pandemic, where people are actually dying, where hospitals are actually at capacity, Evangelicals are creating an alternate reality, which doesn’t exist, and leaves us vulnerable to the very real destructive aspects of reality (Covid, for example).
So I’m angry. Frustrated. I feel helpless and hopeless, which makes me profoundly depressed. Almost daily I fight the despair that overwhelms me because of the challenges Americans are facing today and the actual reality this may continue. On top of all that, I’m not sure there’s a benign being who will come to our rescue and protect us from those who are trying to destroy us. Which begs the question—if we as a species do manage to survive, who will future generations blame for all that has befallen them? And will they forgive those who have created so much carnage?
Some days I wish I could see into the future and know if America survives… if humans survive, and to see what historians say about the time we live in. Alas, I cannot see into the future. Despite my many attempts. I don’t even know what I’m going to have for lunch tomorrow. So I have to look for fragments of hope wherever I can find them.
As to forgiveness? Right now, though, I’m just trying to survive the onslaught.