In today’s pandemic selfishness file, a Louisiana pastor who keeps violating state coronavirus-control orders and subjecting the public to greater risk of contagion insists that he and his flock have the right to do whatever they want, their neighbors be darned:
District Judge Eboni Johnson-Rose denied Pastor Tony Spell’s motion to dismiss six criminal counts against him.
…“You just ruled against God,” Spell said outside the 19th Judicial District courthouse. “Get ready for the judgment of God.”
The pastor learned of the ruling through his attorneys, because his refusal to wear a mask barred him from the courthouse.
…“If you’re afraid of the virus, stay away from us,” Spell said in an interview after the ruling. “As for us and our house, we’re going to serve God. We’re going to be bold and fearless and have faith” [Harrison Golden, “Judge: Charges Still Stand Against Pastor Tony Spell for Violating Covid-19 Crowd Limits,” KELO-TV, 2021.01.26].
I’m surprised that I, an atheist, have to lecture a Christian clergyman about selfishness. But if your prescription for controlling a pandemic is simply to tell those who are concerned about the disease to stay away from those who aren’t concerned, you are shifting all burden of responsibility to one portion of the community (and that portion remains a strong majority). Then you are undermining that majority’s ability to act effectively against the pandemic by prescribing a response that you make impossible through your selfish irresponsibility. You tell everyone else to stay away from you, but then after you go to church, you and your followers go to the grocery store, the school, the gas station, every place you want, meaning that the only way we could follow your advice is if we do absolutely nothing while you do absolutely everything you want.
Hey, preacher man—what ever happened to doing unto others as you’d have others do to you? At the very least, if you’re going to tell the rest of us to stay away from you, you have to at least reciprocate and stay away from us.
Don’t fall for the pastor’s spell of selfishness; read and follow the oft-cited “Christian Statement on Science for Pandemic Times” from BioLogos, an organization founded by Human Genome Project and National Institutes of health leader Dr. Francis Collins. It calls on Christians to respond to the pandemic by wearing masks, correcting misinformation, getting vaccinated, working for justice, and praying. BioLogos roots its call to mask up, keep our distance, and respect the law in science and Scripture:
Wear masks in indoor public spaces and follow other physical distancing rules given by public health officials (1 Peter 2:13-17), unless there are underlying health conditions. Yes, wearing a mask is uncomfortable and awkward, but the evidence is clear that masks reduce the chance we will transmit the disease to others. Mask rules are not experts taking away our freedom, but an opportunity to follow Jesus’ command to love our neighbors as ourselves (Luke 6:31) [BioLogos, “A Christian Statement on Science for Pandemic Times,” retrieved 2021.01.26].
Pastor Spell gets some attention with his splashy public posturing as a warrior for Jesus, but the BioLogos statement does a better job of calling Christian soldiers to march onward for the good of the community.
People just need to ignore the whack jobs. They get way too much publicity.
Oh well, Louisiana is close to Mississippi which is close to South Dakota.
Buckobear, I couldn’t have said it better.
According to the sixth chapter of Luke’s Gospel, Christ said:
Harrison Golden writes:
Cory asks:
Irrational fear of Covid-19 is leading to more human suffering than Covid-19 itself, and wearing a mask tends to perpetuate that irrational fear. I don’t want people to perpetuate irrational fear in me, so I try not to perpetuate irrational fear in others.
I’m not saying it’s always wrong for a Christian to wear a mask, but I don’t believe the moral implications are as simple as Cory and others have suggested.
I’m with Jenny. Ignore the whack jobs, listen to science. We’ll get through it faster. The only biblical reference that means a lot to me is “god helps those who help themselves”.
I thought democratically elected leaders are ordained by God to lead (that is what I was told in church when Donald Trump was elected). Why is the congregation now not following the ordained words of President Biden?
Kurt provides the evidence that any discussion on dogma is situational ethics at best; dogma serves those who espouse the dogma and no-one else. Dogma just pretends to be universal and unyielding — only in the face of opposition.
In the event Pastor Tony Spell contracts covid, we can then discuss if it is poetic justice, irony, random happening, or God’s will.
Cory quotes the old-earth macroevolutionists at the BioLogos Foundation:
Christ quotes the Old Testament commandment to love one’s neighbor as oneself in Matthew 19:19 and Mark 12:31, not in Luke 6:31.
Robin Friday writes:
That isn’t in the Bible at all.
“o” writes:
Or Five Eyes black op.
Spell cites the following: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” He also notes that true Christians do not mind dying from the virus but from “fear living in fear, cowardice of their convictions.”
Shades of Noem?
My dear Mr. Evans, I will read your reply with an implied wink.
DaveFN, true Christians, as all true adults, SHOULD mind dying for any conviction as stupid as the freedom to not wear a mask during a deadly pandemic.
The mask rebellion again demonstrates the devolution of America’s merging theology and conservative politics at the lowest, most foolish level. This is Ayn Rand intellectually juvenile selfishness pure and simple.
2 million bucks worth of Hydroxychloroquine is up for gnome to latch hold of. Come on Sanford, here is your chance to get this stuff on the cheap. Put in a bid, a lowball one to turn a quick profit on the dummies in South Dakota. “Oklahoma is trying to return its $2 million stockpile of hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malaria drug once touted by former President Donald Trump — despite limited medical evidence — as a promising treatment for COVID-19.
A spokesman for Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter confirmed to HuffPost on Tuesday that Hunter’s office had been asked by the state’s Department of Health to help them offload the hydroxychloroquine stash. Oklahoma’s The Frontier was the first to report the news.”
The trump/gnome stupid continues.
Oh Kurt, just give your neighbor a big kiss.