The fear, even panic in response to the coronavirus pandemic that we’ve seen in the United States is unprecedented, not the virus itself.
Young people in general, a lower risk group for contracting the virus, say they fear dying of COVID-19.
I cannot prove this, but I believe this fear is rooted in a lack of understanding of God and certainly biblical theology.
In a country where 80% of the population say they believe in God, it’s another question entirely who that God is and what they believe about his person, character, and purposes. Christians say they believe in God’s love, omniscience, and omnipotence, but they, too, have been susceptible the fear of the pandemic.
But Christians’ understanding and application of a Christian philosophy of life has declined precipitously. Just 6% of people claiming to be Christians actually demonstrate they hold a biblical worldview, and in the general public this biblical worldview has declined by 50% in the past twenty-five years. According to Barna Group, “A mere 2% of those 18 to 29 years old possess a biblical worldview.”
People are understandably afraid, and I do not knock them for this. But if their understanding of the character of God is a bit less than skin deep, they have nothing to fall back on for perspective, solace, and peace, nothing but screen time and celebrities. No wonder people are afraid.
Fear is a part of human life and Christianity is nothing if it cannot help us deal with our fears. This is where faith comes in.
“Faith does not know why, but it trusts God who know why. We do not trust God because he guides us; we trust God and then are guided, which means that we can trust God even when we do not seem to be guided. Faith may be in the dark about guidance, but it is never in the dark about God. What God is doing may be a mystery, but who God is is not.”
“We do not know why, but we know why we trust God who knows why.” Os Guinness, God in the Dark.
“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal,” (2 Corinthians 4:16-18).
“Dear Lord, Although I am sure of my position, I am unable to sustain it without Thee. Help Thou me, or I am lost,” Martin Luther.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2020
*This blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact me or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com/, or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers.
What would the title of your autobiography be?
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2020
*This blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact me or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com/, or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers.
Breaking news!
The death rate in the United States, and apparently globally, is 100%.
This agonizing trend will continue until a vaccine in the form of a Fountain of Youth is discovered, tested, and marketed. Researchers the world over are frenetically looking for this Fountain but have been thwarted by reality.
Until the Fountain is found, the public is advised to avoid family, friends, food, fresh air, and fun.
Remember: Stay Home, Stay Alive…well, maybe. Hide under your bed.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2020
*This blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact me or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com/, or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers.
Breaking news!
The death rate in the United States, and apparently globally, is 100%.
This agonizing trend will continue until a vaccine in the form of a Fountain of Youth is discovered, tested, and marketed. Researchers the world over are frenetically looking for this Fountain but have been thwarted by reality.
Until the Fountain is found the public is advised to avoid family, friends, food, fresh air, and fun.
Remember: Stay Home, Stay Alive…well, maybe.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2020
*This blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact me or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com/, or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers.
When the COVID-19 statewide stay at home, shelter in place, lockdowns finally end there will be a Post-Pandemic Period. No one knows for sure what this period will be like, but it’s not rocket science to predict a few guarantee-you developments.
1— Economic Upheaval. The longer the lockdowns, or if you prefer, stay at home executive orders, continue the more damage will be done to the American and world economies. Many businesses and other organizations will not survive. More than 30 million are out of work now and this may rise – unemployment is now a major problem. Perhaps one-half of all lost jobs will not return, at least in their earlier form. Some people—the lower sector or poorest or least educated or most challenged—will suffer most, some falling farther into poverty, hunger, and despair. Without significant focused help, similar to the Marshall Plan after WWII, these people will struggle to survive and social-political unrest, including likely violence, will occur.
2—Lawsuits. The US courts will be inundated, which is to say “plagued,” by post-plague litigation, owners who were forced to close “non-essential” businesses for extended periods, suffered serious financial setbacks or even lost their businesses, while other “essential” businesses were illogically and irrationally permitted to continue to make hay while the sun did not shine.
For example, what if you owned a mattress store, were forced to close, yet Sam’s Club continued to sell mattresses? Does this make sense? Is it a level playing field? Is it due process?
What if you owned a medical practice specializing in various “elective, non-essential” surgical procedures, were forced to close, and could not financially maintain your employees or customers during lockdown? Meanwhile, “essential” abortion clinics continued to operate. The list of examples could go on ad infinitum.
3—Political Recrimination. Both American political parties will blame the other, and their respective leaders, for the fact COVID-19 happened, that the US was not prepared or did not respond effectively, that the condition of the economy is due to the other party’s leaders’ missteps, and that whatever happened, their party and leaders need to be put in power via the next election. No surprise here and perhaps goes without saying, but sadly, there will be no Kumbaya unity.
4—Higher Education Online. Some colleges and universities, already struggling or uncertain of their mission pre-pandemic, will close their doors. More students than ever before will pursue and gain their degrees online. This won’t replace the value of face-to-face experiences with learned mentors, but such opportunities will diminish. The purpose of higher education will shift, moving still farther from the classic liberal arts model toward preparation for specialized careers in science, technology, information services, and business. Universities will experience an identity crisis; in fact, they already were well into this malaise. What once were places that believed in and sought truth and tested ideas against other ideas in legitimate open debate, have become places that no longer believe in objective truth and wish to silence points of view not deemed politically correct. This is a dangerous trend for open and free democratic society, but it’s happening and a host of faculty members not just youth have already bought into the idea of moral relativism, thus as the Scripture says, “Everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 17:6). This sounds like fun and games, but it ends in nihilistic despair.
Post-Pandemic is not a bright future.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2020
*This blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact me or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com/, or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers.
In a jarring, perhaps unwitting Orwellian comment, Governor Gretchen Whitmer recently described abortion as “life sustaining” for women. Think about it. She calls the death of an unborn child life sustaining.
Remember "War is peace," "Freedom is slavery," "Ignorance is strength"?
George Orwell’s 1984 (pub 1949) introduced us to “Newspeak,” the propaganda language necessary to maintain the ruling Party’s power over the people, a way to limit their freedom of thought. This was primarily accomplished through “doublethink,” a “process of indoctrination whereby the subject is expected to accept as true that which is clearly false, or to simultaneously accept two mutually contradictory beliefs as correct, often in contravention to one's own memories or sense of reality.” Doublethink is happening today.
Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s executive orders for Michigan pertaining to COVID-19 response applies to all elective surgeries except for abortions—which her order specifically excludes.
April 15, 2020, “The Axe Files” podcast with David Axelrod, CNN commentator and former adviser to Barack Obama, Governor Whitmer defended her decision to protect abortion clinics during the Michigan stay-at-home protocol: “We stopped elective surgeries here in Michigan. Some people have tried to say that that type of a procedure is considered the same and that’s ridiculous.”
“A woman’s healthcare, her whole future, her ability to decide if and when she starts a family is not an election, it is a fundamental to her life,” Whitmer said. “It is life sustaining and it’s something that government should not be getting in the middle of.” Meanwhile, several governors declared abortions nonessential and temporarily banned the procedures.
Governor Whitmer’s turn-of-phrase notwithstanding, no human being, at least one that’s intellectually honest, can logically define abortion as “women’s healthcare” that’s “life sustaining.” Any adult human being knows otherwise, recognizes the truth in their soul if not in their rhetoric.
Governor Whitmer says it’s the woman’s “ability to decide if and when she starts a family,” and here she tips her hand. Abortion is not life sustaining; it’s really about power. It’s the power of might makes right. It’s the power of one person over another. It’s the power of life or death. But the unborn child is a life and everyone knows it no matter what they say publicly.
May 11, 2020, Michigan coronavirus infection incidents to-date are 47,552 with 4,584 deaths. Meanwhile, in Michigan, about 19.3% of pregnancies end in abortion, and a total of 26,716 abortions in year 2017. A similar total is projected for 2020, the point being that five times as many people are being killed by abortion per year in Michigan as have died from C-19. Attempting to protect life via stay-at-home policies while allowing abortion clinics to keep operating makes no reasonable sense.
Jesus said this of Satan: “He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44). One of the great lies of our age is that abortion is good.
In COVID-19 response, abortion is “essential.” Abortion, we’re told, is “life sustaining.” But we know this is Orwellian doublethink, an upside-down illogic that denies creation and defies the Creator.
© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2020
*This blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact me or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com/, or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers.