A recent Washington Post article titled “Thousands who followed the rules are about to get Covid. They shouldn’t be ashamed” tells the story of one “Aline” who is struggling with her feelings of shame and embarrassment after getting COVID despite “doing everything right.”
One wonders, would this person feel “ashamed” for catching a cold, which is spread by other coronaviruses? Despite following all the local and federal protocols, she committed “wrongdoing” by becoming infected. Infection must be like a sin to such folks. The only logical conclusion I could reach was that this intelligent American believed that our government and media were equipped to “defeat” a highly contagious virus. Seeing how many errors these same leaders have made in this pandemic, it makes me wonder: “Do you believe that?”
The COVID-19 pandemic has shown how much pride has seeped into our culture, including in our Christian churches. A significant number of Americans still believe that our public health experts know the correct way to handle this pandemic. Despite being proven wrong again and again, these “experts” continue to spew forth draconian mandates and restrictions to “defeat” a coronavirus. Around December 19, 2021, Dr. Anthony Fauci recommended that families should not gather in groups unless the hosts were certain that all were vaccinated, or they had a negative PCR test result “recently” (within 15 minutes?). The technocratic experts have yet to identify metrics of success on how this pandemic becomes endemic. Fear is their currency. And social conditioning to determine how much tyranny the population will tolerate is their deliverable. We have come to believe that avoiding death from this virus at all costs is our goal, and these tyrants’ promises of “safety” will return us to comfort.
The godless technocrats have convinced many Americans that they have the knowledge, ability, and resources to “defeat” a coronavirus. These Gnostic-like experts still keep most of their data secret. Oddly, we have never eradicated influenza, despite its consistent death toll. In early 2020, the risk of COVID-19 was unclear. People understandably agreed to draconian measures to “stop” the spread. But by late summer 2020 it was clear that this virus did not come close to approaching the mortality rates of smallpox, ebola, or polio. The case survival rate has changed little since the summer of 2020, remaining around 99.8 percent for those who are not elderly or “at-risk.”
Using months of media conditioning to promote fear of serious complications or death, these experts blamed non-adherents for the failure of their own absurd plan to “defeat” the virus. The scapegoat arrived. Looking for any way to reduce the anxiety and stress placed upon them, the populace now was given a target. Tyrants often have a god-complex, and they need a nefarious group to blame when their mistakes become obvious.
Our arrogance has overridden our humility. How many times do we ignore the examples our forefathers left us? The tower of Babel, the Golden Calf, and the original prideful mistake, eating the apple from the tree of knowledge. Our leaders and elites appear to believe they are near the point that they can control nature. They can become like gods. Of course, this necessarily requires a populace in compliance with their benevolent dictates. Could one dissent from being vaccinated against COVID-19, and still have a well-formed conscience? The National Center for Catholic Bioethics answers this question: “There is no universal moral obligation to accept or refuse [the vaccine], and it should be a voluntary decision of the individual.” But rights of conscience seldom deter quasi-deities.
The technocrats’ arrogant belief they can control nature has even placed our children at risk. Over 15,000 physicians and medical doctors signed the Global Covid Summit Declaration in December, 2021. It recommends that we do not inject mRNA vaccines into children. The virus seldom harms children, but the vaccine can seriously harm their cardiac, immune, and reproductive systems. Medical ethics used to teach that children were not human shields for the elderly. If polled, how many of our compliant countrymen would mandate children be vaccinated, regardless of their parents’ objections? Sounds positively Marxist. Few church leaders have mentioned the similarities between the sacrifices to Moloch, and this COVID-19 child vaccination cult.
The Church has a duty to remind the faithful that their desire to be “charitable” can be twisted by clever tyrants to sinful purposes. Pride and greed usually drive the desire to control and subjugate our fellow man. The Church saw the danger of Marxism in the 1800s, and began to fight against its godless ideology. Today we are witnessing a technocratic twist on this prideful belief that brilliant elites should decide what is in our best interest—smart sheep herders that they are. For a people lacking belief in Christ’s kingship, scientism has apparently filled the void in their soul.
Last, but most important, is the duty of the Church to demand the faithful have access to services and the sacraments, regardless of whether they are “unclean.” As of this writing, Canadian provinces and their dioceses require a vaccine passport to enter the church. Germany warns it will institute a February 2022 deadline mandating that all residents be vaccinated. The clergy must not participate in any passport system. Silence from the Church about a mandatory digital passport is not a way to gain, or even retain, those who normally look to the Church as a beacon of hope, and a bulwark against godless tyranny. Many have already functionally abandoned the faith, resorting sporadically to YouTube church. Clergy must point out how our loss of freedoms occurred alongside our loss of access to the sacraments and their graces. This was not a coincidence if you have a Marxist worldview.
Church leaders who participated in scientism’s lies and omissions should be held to account. The faithful will ask “Did you believe that?” when they realize who were silent or complicit in these cultish beliefs. Church leaders should take steps now to avoid such rightful blame and censure. A reckoning is coming.
John Paul II’s advice to “be not afraid” should be repeated from their pulpits. Churches should make it clear Christianity is incompatible with Gnostic-like technocracy. Those that try to protect the constitutional freedoms our American founders left may regain some credibility. But for those churches more concerned about being “nice,” only following their actuaries’ risk-adversity matrix, and rendering more to Caesar than he deserves, their flocks will vote with their feet.