It's All About Me

 

As I have never been shy about spouting off on issues of the day (especially emotional ones) it's somewhat of a modern miracle that I haven't become caught up in the quagmire of social media. Probably more evidence of how God watches over His sheep, as this sheep (in a positive sense of those following the Good Shepard; not those drinking the progressive Kool-Aid) would be constantly entwined in the brambles of social discordant discourse. Technically I guess blogging is social media, but it is to Twitter, Snapchat, TikTok, etc; what snail mail is to email. You have more time to compose and edit your thoughts before you blast them off into cyber-space, where they essentially orbit the world of opinion forever. 

 

Back in the day you could (I certainly did; and do) say something you wished you hadn’t, but it was just between you and the offended parties. It may have been quickly forgotten, or never given much attention, but it was gone as quickly as the mist of James 4:14. Granted, someone could have paid special attention, maybe even writing it down, but that would certainly not be the norm. Today however, forget it! It's not only written down, but it's available for ANYONE to peruse, and weigh in on. Essentially, assume nothing is said in confidence these days.

 

All of this as a lengthy segue to the application of James (one of my personal favorite books of the Bible) 1:19-20, which basically says to listen carefully and get a grip before you respond, as swift, angry responses are not what ambassadors of Christ should demonstrate. All of the afore-mentioned instant response social media platforms are the exact antithesis of James. The instant gratification, look at me, 15 minutes of fame, combative nature of them is so appealing to our culture (the World). As Believers, we need to consider how much we want to have to do with these things. I think James makes it clear; less is more. Less involvement with such non-sense is more better (righteous). And I haven't even touched on the Bible exhorting to us to be humble and the Beatitudes that clearly are not represented on these platforms. 

 

Of course, this sinful bent in the human race (by the way, the only race; but I'm not going down that Rabbit trail) is nothing new. What is new is our capability (ergo temptation) to allow these "little foxes" to ruin the vineyard of righteousness. From the Garden going forward we have always been totally sinful. People are no better or worse than 2000 years ago; society in terms of 1. (if not acceptance) of behavior that was once considered abhorrent (if not sinful) has definitely worsened. My feeling is a lot of this can be explained by the accessibility for the masses to sin via all the electronic options. This sin inherent in social media was not available in the not-too-distant past. But I'm sure Screwtape and Wormwood (you don't know who they are, and you call yourself a Christian!) are falling off their chairs laughing over the followers of the Enemy making fools of themselves and damaging their witness on social media. 

 

I would like to close with a couple considerations: 

1. Is it a sin to be on these sites; of course not. But they certainly can be portals to sinful behavior.

2. Does anyone really care about your opinion; probably not. Let's be honest; opinions are like noses; everyone has one and they can only vary so much. Me too. I know my opinion doesn't matter much to anyone but myself (sad but true), but it's still fun to share it (for me). So here we are getting to the nut of the matter: the sharing of an opinion is more for the satisfaction of the sharer than the sharee (did I just invent a word?). So, I suppose we can add selfishness to the list of negative aspects of dabbling in social media. 

So, I will avoid the "instant gratification" social medias and stick to my "Boomer blog". It has a cathartic effect for me and helps to keep my mind engaged and hopefully my writing skills (of which I have precious few) honed. But enough about me, what do you think about me?

 

Thanks for Caring

Hey, here's an original idea! Why don't I spout off about the Rona? As they say: "another country heard from". I wasn't going to until I could come up with some angle that no one else had used (or at least, I hadn't read/heard it). So, although I'm using information from other sources, they will be incorporated in my unique perspective.

 Firstly, let's stipulate to some points:

       Covid-19 is real

        I don't want to make anyone sick

         I don't want anyone to make me sick

         your chances of getting sick from it are slim

         your chances of dying from it are even slimmer

       just living is dangerous

         we're all going to die

Now that we've got these lofty concepts out in the open, let me say that in spite of these, there has to be a limit on idiocy as it relates to these concepts. Simply put (for you Democrats out there; ha ha just kidding; not really) when the cure becomes worse than the disease; you better find another way. The cure became worse than the disease early on, and has only worsened with time (which is another bizarre aspect to this whole farce, as typically with time and perspective, you figure things out; but not with the Chinese Flu). 

 

Wearing masks has progressed (or maybe regressed is more accurate) from an option for people to exercise to public shame and government mandates. Social distancing, hygiene measures, reduced capacities, and other extraordinary measures to combat the "deadly" pandemic morphed into forced closures of businesses and unemployment. All in light of hard data demonstrating that Covid was not nearly as deadly as originally feared and that the severe measures have been largely ineffective in diminishing outbreaks but are causing immeasurable personal and economic tragedy. Not to mention the trampling of our civil liberties and the cowering of a significant portion of the population who are comfortable as sheep. 

If I hear one more official (hypocritical of course, as they are getting busted for violating rules for all others faster than I can keep up) or anyone else, say that it's about concern for yourself and others, I may elbow them to the temple (figuratively of course). There is no one more concerned for others, than a follower of Jesus Christ. We're also quite competent at taking care of ourselves. But even taking Christ out of the equation (which of course is an even bigger problem, but I digress) even heathens deserve to live their own lives and not be under the thumb of tyrannical leaders. 

So our civic leaders are concerned for our health? Okay, thanks to statistics provided by    Way of Life Literature; riddle me this. In a typical state tens of thousands of people will die every year from the following causes: cancer, heart disease, accidents, stroke, 

diabetes, drug overdose, flu (yes, regular old flu), kidney disease, firearms, suicide, homicide. I'm not sure where motor vehicle deaths fit into the above, but especially as it relates to drunk driving, it has its own special impact. Now we could argue till the cows come home (not sure exactly how long that is, but it's a long time) about causation being biological versus environmental (lifestyle), but clearly lifestyle choices have a major effect on most of these conditions. Point being, why don't the great protectors of our health and safety (you know, the ones behind ruining people’s lives and our way of life through draconian measures) take aim at the culprits contributing to these conditions?

 Cancer: Ban cigarettes. The link between smoking and lung cancer has been known for decades. Eliminate any known or suspected carcinogen as any ingredient or from any product.

 

Heart disease: Smoking again. Intensely regulate the amount of cholesterol and all fats by limiting or outlawing Big Macs.

 

Diabetes: Candy (did somebody say: chocolate) only on Halloween, Valentines Day, and birthdays (with documentation of recipient's date of birth). Pop (sodas for y'all south of the Mason/Dixon line) regulated by states. Probably more lenient in the south where the battle against obesity has mostly been lost, along with most of the population's teeth. 

 

Drugs: Make them illegal (oh yeah, they already are). Actually enforce the laws and promote a national campaign that drug addicts are dangerous to society and need to seek help for their problems and remove the victim label.

 

Flu: refer to Covid precautions as they are spread in similar fashion and can both cause death.

 

Kidney Disease: might want to eliminate drugs and alcohol.

 

Firearms: Guns don't kill people, people do. You're stupid! Take away guns and whiteout the 2nd Amendment.

 

Homicide/Suicide: See above plus lets close bars and actually categorize most alcohol as an illegal dangerous drug (I actually think this is a good idea, but want to stay on topic here).

 

Accidents: Well, this is a large and sticky wicket. So let's outlaw high powered motor vehicles where people can crash into each other at high rates of speed. Outlaw other such dangerous activities such as: boating, downhill skiing, hunting, living in Florida (hurricanes, gators, sharks, zombies, and tourists, just to name a few), living in Chicago, motorcycling and so on and so forth. Whatever the Illuminati or Gretchen Whitmer deem as potentially leading to death (pretty much anything after getting out of bed in the morning, but let them make the call).

 

Okay, I can hear you all saying I'm just being nonsensical. Well, yes and no. Either our great benevolent protectors are concerned for our health or they're not. If that concern leads you to tell me to wear a stupid mask that interferes with my perfectly healthy respiratory system, that I can't go to school or work and interact with people as a social creature, to avoid visiting loved ones who are lonely (aren't we all) because I possibly could transmit this virus to them that might make them sick and that they could then  face a .0005 chance of dying from said virus; then why doesn't that concern transmit to the more dangerous aforementioned activities? You got nothin'; I thought so.

The reason we are allowed to do so much of what we darn well are pleased to do is because of liberty, freedom, rights; whatever word you want to apply, it's all the same. Men and women died for our right to make choices; even stupid ones. But we make them (as we should be allowed to do; right or wrong), and it's a dark day in our country when authorities are trying to take these choices away. The popular phrase these days is: "follow the science".

I am and it doesn't lead to where these buffoons have taken us. This thing is arguably no more serious than the flu or other illnesses (swine flu, zika virus, HIV) and none of these devastating lockdown measures were implemented. It is certainly much less dangerous than many of the lifestyles people are free to pursue. 

If the government truly cared for us, the  last thing they would do is close down

 churches. Nothing is more essential than a relationship with Jesus Christ. Not only for our emotional maladies, but for our collective eternities, because at the end of the day it doesn't matter what takes us out of this world; we're all leaving. The next stop is Heaven or Hell. If people directed some of their fear of Covid into fear of God , that final destination would be more reassuring.

The Mask Issue Unmasked

 

Let me open with a line from the great Mac Davis movie Possums; "...it makes me vomit." Now while the character in the movie was referring to football; I'm referring to discussions of why Christians should dutifully wear masks. The arguments are pretty much all the same, but I'll use the article written by Brett McCracken of The Gospel Coalition entitled, 4 Reasons to Wear a Mask, Even if You Hate It as a template for rebuttal. He makes some good points and its entertaining; definitely worth a read. But I feel it is tainted with false premises, false assumptions, and straw man arguments.

While McCracken hates (as do I) the politicization of the issue; I don't like the spiritualization of it either. He leads off with reason number 1 we should be wearing masks (cliché and predictable): to demonstrate love for our neighbor. This naturally infers that if we don't wear one; we aren't demonstrating Christian love. That's a pretty judgmental view from his high horse. He admits the science behind wearing a mask has been fluid with still no definitive consensus. Those reasons, along with the actual risks of contacting Covid and its mortality rate being highly inflated (finally publicly acknowledged by the CDC) prompt me to forego a mask whenever I have the option; not my "hate" for my neighbor. I may hate the politics in this (and in general), but I proudly identify with the President and countless others who refused to be shamed into masking. Christians of all people should recognize the insidious nature of the far left-wing embracing this opportunity of desensitizing the populace to such control of their everyday lives. Follow McCracken's reasoning out a ways; where does it end? Should Christians mask up every cold and flu season, should we not do anything that in some way could possibly endanger anyone else? What about driving cars, flying planes, serving unhealthy food at a fast-food joint; no more ridiculous than his assertions. His glaring faux pas in his opening paragraph is his lamenting over the lost world pre-Covid and the new normal. Well, I'm not giving up that easily, and anything I can do (including not wearing a stupid mask) that reminds of the less insane world of a few months ago is a good thing. How about demonstrating our love for each other by not kowtowing to false news and faulty science?

His second point about respecting authorities is also predictable, but doesn't actually apply. As the other three points deal with voluntarily behaving as a Christian should (in his view); this point is about not following the law. I wear a mask when required; not when it's optional. So I guess I pass his Christian litmus test in that regard

The third point regarding honoring the weak, may be his weakest. I have attended church and visited secular establishments where masking is optional and people who choose to or not get along just fine. He even goes as far as to play the "stumbling block" card. Anyone with cursory knowledge of Scripture knows that passage deals with who Jesus is. To equate not wearing a mask with hindering someone's salvation is a gross perversion of the passage. I don't know where McCracken stands on alcohol consumption, but I would like to know how many of those who agree with him on this point would also declare total abstinence from drinking too. There is a stumbling block that way too many evangelicals seem very content to leave right in the middle of the road.

In his last point he contends that sharing the Gospel can be hindered if you don't wear a mask. It's really just a continuation of point three with the addition of our selfish attitudes manifested in our freedoms being more important than the lives of others. It's hard to take him seriously when he uses words like "super-spreaders", when I've already stated that so much of the emotional response to the virus is based on erroneous numbers and shaky science. Even John MacArthur declared it is not a pandemic at all if you use the factual data. Those of us who don't follow false news and did some research, realized that there was (and is) no direct correlation between masking or not and the spread of the virus.

So, where does this put us? As Believers it should put us squarely in God's Camp. We know that ultimately, He is in control, so all of this white noise we're all generating means squat. However, since we are learning that the whole "pandemic" tsunami has been driven by political falsehoods and fuzzy math; Christians should exhale and chill. If you don't want to wear a stupid mask (and they're all stupid, some less so; but all stupid) and you have the choice; don't. You (and I) are just as loving as the masked marvel next to us in the pew (maybe more so?). Our freedoms aren't selfish desires. Most are God given and all our precious, and many have died to preserve them. If we can be conditioned to wear a mask today; who knows what we can be conditioned to accept tomorrow?

Things that make you go hmmmm?