Coronavirus Christians used to preach that not wearing a mask meant that you’re guilty of the sin of hatred for your fellow man and that you’re not “pro-life,” but now they preach that you’re also guilty of these sins if you reject COVID vaccinations.
Ironically, I wrote an article one year ago about Coronavirus Christians who preached the gospel of submission to government tyranny to relieve themselves of the guilt they were feeling for bowing to COVID-tyranny and oppression and the guilt they’re trying to inflict on others who refuse to bow with them.
As a constitutional conservative, I have always taken great pleasure in exposing the rampant abuse of power displayed by tyrants in all three branches (executive, legislative, and judicial) and by every level (federal, state, and local) of government, particularly when their tyranny and oppression directly threatens our God-given rights as spelled out in the Declaration of Independence and guaranteed by the Constitution.
But as a Christian and a constitutional conservative, I have been frustrated by the self-righteousness on display by those who claim to be a part of the family of believers; people who have willingly accepted coronavirus tyranny and oppression under the misguided and incorrect interpretation of Romans 13 (the infamous “submit to government authority” Scripture).
In the end, many within this circle of Christians decided to latch on to coronavirus hysteria as an easy — perhaps lukewarm? — way to excuse their surrender to tyranny as they submitted to shutdowns, stay-at-home orders, and mask-wearing mandates (vaccines weren’t available at the time).
In that article, I shared a private Facebook discussion I had with someone who disagreed with something I posted about coronavirus hysteria; a discussion where my reader reached the following conclusion:
“Politics has made this issue controversial. That too is the devil’s work. Christ tells us to treat others the way we want to be treated. Not masking is an act of hostility on the weak and infirm [sic]. Masking is an act of love. It is very clear that those who deny masking have hatred that makes them hostile to doing good to others.”
Christians, conservatives, and constitutionalists have lambasted me and made all sorts of ludicrous claims about me (personally) and my work, including accusations from self-professing Christians that my opposition to mask mandates and vaccinations means that I’m not pro-life. I have even been accused of essentially being an accessory to homicide for objecting to the police state tactics used by government to shut down churches during the so-called pandemic while keeping abortion facilities open.
That brings us to this past weekend and the growing COVID vaccinations push by coronavirus Christians.
In his recent edition of The French Press, David French writes that “there’s no religious liberty interest in refusing the COVID vaccine.” In fact, those who refuse COVID vaccinations are immoral people who aren’t pro-life:
As we approach nine months of vaccine availability and nine months of flood-the-zone coverage of vaccine safety and efficacy, it is clear that much (though certainly not all) of our remaining refusal problem is not one of information but one of moral formation itself. The very moral framework of millions of our fellow citizens—the way in which they understand the balance between liberty and responsibility—is gravely skewed.
French then takes a quote by Martin Luther completely out of context (Luther expresses a desire to “not become contaminated” during a plague in his day by avoiding “persons or places”) to find a *non-existent reference to vaccinations.
The balance is clear. It is incumbent on the Christian to take care of themselves, including by taking medicine “in order not to become contaminated” (a nice definition of a vaccine before vaccines were invented).
*Martin Luther’s exact words were: “I shall avoid places and persons where my presence is not needed in order not to become contaminated and thus perchance infect and pollute others, and so cause their death as a result of my negligence.” In other words, he elected to restrict his movements by avoiding others if necessary (liberty), not to take medicine.
After a long diatribe questioning the morality of Christians who refuse to be vaccinated, French concludes that “sound judgment should help us separate lies from truth and tell us that no argument for liberty should trump our responsibility to spare our nation and our neighbors and finally take the vaccine.” (emphasis mine)
Accusing people rejecting COVID vaccinations of not being pro-life was also the theme of the day by a former contributor to The Strident Conservative, David Thornton. Hidden within a story about the dismissal of Daniel Darling as the senior vice president of communications for the National Religious Broadcasters — who allegedly lost his job for promoting the COVID vaccination in an appearance on MSNBC — Thornton made this point yesterday on The Racket News:
There are moral, ethical, and religious problems with the NRB’s actions even if Darling’s firing passes the legal test. The most obvious one is that Christians should not be neutral about COVID-19 vaccines. They should wholeheartedly endorse them as a gift from God.
The vaccines, which have been proven to be very safe over more than 5 billion doses, are effective at reducing the spread of COVID-19 and of minimizing the severity of those who become sick through breakthrough infections. In other words, they alleviate human suffering and help to heal the sick, which is a fulfillment of Jesus’s commandments to his followers.
Rather than working to heal the sick, too many Christians have been working to spread the virus around their communities. In my opinion, the NRB should help to convince Christians that the way to fulfill Christ’s commandment to love your neighbor … is to stop infecting their communities with a life-threatening disease.
This is particularly galling from a religion and a party that claim to be pro-life, but the anti-vaxxer movement has led to hundreds of thousands of deaths and even more severe illnesses in this country alone. As one wag posted on the internet recently in satire of the anti-abortion bumper sticker, “COVID-19 stops a beating heart.”(emphasis mine)
With coronavirus hysteria sweeping the nation and a Republican/Democrat duopoly hellbent on destroying liberty, we are witnessing what could be the last days of liberty and freedom for our once, great republic. That’s sad new, but sadder still it the fact that coronavirus Christians have embraced the hysteria and are spending their time bowing to government tyranny and judging those who refuse to bow with them.
In a coronavirus Christian’s self-righteous eyes, if you reject mask mandates and COVID vaccinations, you’re not only guilty of failing to do as Jesus would do, you’re guilty of hating your fellow man . . . and you’re most certainly NOT pro-life.
David Leach is the owner of the Strident Conservative. He holds people of every political stripe accountable for their failure to uphold conservative values, and he promotes those values instead of political parties.
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