An article was brought to my attention the other day by a friend.  The article’s premise is that Christians should follow the advice of the CDC out of loving concern for our neighbor.  Wearing masks and avoiding gatherings are seen as a necessary part of loving our neighbor.  The spiritual gift of discernment (not fear, as some allege) leads to that conclusion, it suggests. (Cf. https://goodfaithmedia.org/what-the-i-wont-live-in-fear-crowd-gets-wrong/)

There is so much taken for granted or assumed in this article.  The most glaring assumption is that things like masks resolve the issue.  Anyone who has ever seen the face of someone after sanding drywall – with a mask on – will never believe in the efficacy of masks to stop an air-borne virus.  And of course, every week seems to have one study supporting masking, and one denying it. 

More important, the article makes the assumption that the remedies proposed are neutral in regards to other issues.  They are not.  Masks and social isolation and non-productiveness have side effects too – some terrible ones.  Suicide rates, abuse, lack of preventive medical care for other illnesses, mental health issues, poverty are all deleterious of life, but are fostered by the CDC edicts.  These need to be accounted for.  When factored in, actions that yield such results can not be considered love for one’s neighbor. 

The article also seems to assume that the CDC (and by extension, Dr. Fauci) and scientific evidence are synonymous.  Again, they are not.  Many scientists and doctors with as much pedigree and experience as the CDC staff disagree with the conclusions and edicts the CDC promulgates.  (For example, look up the Great Barrington Declaration, among many others.)  It is only the fact that Dr. Fauci has a government position that causes his voice to be magnified and voices from Harvard/Oxford/etc. to be ignored.  That means, unfortunately, this has become a political issue, not a scientific one 

Perhaps the most glaring assumption seems to be that saving people from covid is (should be) the top priority social policy of our country.  This is an untenable assumption.  Illness and death are, and have always been, a part of life.  As a society, we’ve always accepted such facts before, and have tacitly agreed among ourselves that death’s not resulting from aggression are a price of societal living.  We frown on smoking, we mandate safe driving rules, we encourage safe personal hygiene practices.  We do this, knowing full well that car accidents will happen, and pneumonia will kill people every year.  We take precautions as we see fit, accepting that illness and even death may result from living in society.  The idea that the government should protect us from this particular illness is, simply, pernicious.  

The fact that people with only an expertise in medicine have dictated a myriad of political decisions over the last months is my major concern.  Perhaps it is normal for a doctor to believe a medical decision should override all others, but it doesn’t.  When it comes to living together in a social environment, there are some issues that are even more important than life itself.  Two that come to mind immediately are our need to follow God’s direction, and, politically, justice between neighbors.  Both are denied by the CDC’s and government’s responses to covid-19.  There is, nor can be, no justification for societal-wide lock-downs and social distancing forcing separation of families and abolition of church practices.

Since the article is purporting to be advice to Christians, we would do much better to look at what the Bible says about the control of contagious diseases than rely on the CDC.  God told Israel, when He set up the rules their society was to live by, that when a person was determined to have a contagious disease, he was to separate himself from regular society (i.e. quarantine); if/when healed, he could then become part of society again.  All the evidence we have (from previous pandemics to Sweden and various states in this one) would point to the conclusion that such a course of action would have worked as well as or better than the CDC’s.

The government and the CDC have assumed the role of benefactor and, even, savior.  It is the Nanny State in full bloom.  Unfortunately, they are impostors, and their actions prove the Christian point that only God can provide a savior and the Libertarian point that, other than protection from violence, any action by a government is a losing proposition for society. 

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