Part of an article from Scott Morefield at Townhall.com Sept 2021
…Far more prevalent, and even encouraged by the media and powers-that-be, are Christian arguments from the left that focus on vaccines and mask use as something that ‘Jesus would have done.’ Most notably of late, Saddleback Church pastor and author Rick Warren: “The Bible says ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’”, Warren said in March in a video that recently gained widespread attention on social media. “The most practical way right now you can love your neighbor as yourself, wear a mask. Okay? And to not wear one basically says, ‘I don’t care about you,’ or ‘I don’t even care about your fears.’”
So, according to Warren and others with that mindset, one must “wear a mask” in order to properly love our neighbor. Nevermind that there is a preponderance of perfectly valid scientific and data-based evidence that masking DOES NOT WORK to stop the spread of Covid-19 or any other highly contagious respiratory virus, you should just wear one anyway so your ‘neighbor’ knows you care about them. Nevermind that universal masking creates a false sense of security that everyone is ‘safe’ from contracting or spreading Covid and that this false sense of security quite likely made a lot of people unnecessarily sick over the past year and a half, the feelz dictates we mask up because our ‘neighbor’ might be a media-induced hypochondriac deceived into thinking that masks work and the risk of Covid is much higher than it actually is.
Obviously, you can see where this is going. It’s what happens when someone with influence over others interprets and applies a Biblical passage or concept unilaterally to a highly charged modern political issue while ignoring all nuance and dismissing other ways of interpretation. Sadly, such tactics have always been part of the toolboxes of religious demagogues hellbent on imposing ‘their way or the highway’ on their followers.
In truth, Jesus commanded us to love the Lord first with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength, then to love our neighbors as ourselves. How then are we to love the Lord with our minds if we dismiss data and evidence on a topic that goes against our presuppositions or a prevailing narrative? How are we to ‘love’ our neighbors while at the same time bearing false witness to them? Is our duty to make them “feel better” or to tell them the truth? What would Jesus have done? In an age where masking has become a talisman, even an idol of sorts to people desperate to find something, anything that ‘controls’ something that is ultimately proving to be uncontrollable, would the Son of God have given people comfort by lying to them or by telling them the truth?
No, I don’t believe Jesus Christ would have put on a mask any more than I think he would have pretended a blood sacrifice to a graven image would have brought rain during a time of drought. And when at all possible, you shouldn’t either.
⇛ return to Christ Jesus ⇛