You Can't Fix Stupid

rustypickup said:

But half the country won't take this seriously. This quote
“One pastor said half of his church is ready to lick the floor, to prove there’s no actual virus,” said King, lead pastor at Second Baptist church in Conway, Ark.

From this article https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/without-guidance-from-the-top-americans-have-been-left-to-figure-out-their-own-coronavirus-solutions/2020/03/15/9875aa64-6550-11ea-845d-e35b0234b136_story.html#click=https://t.co/n1pweTSS3Q

I will add, a high school friend (professional pilot, professed libertarian) was posting on Facebook yesterday about how he was glad people were ignoring the hype and packing the bars where he lives in Florida.

I actually saw that article, and reflected on the low population numbers of Arkansas (I think the city of Houston has more people in it than the entire state of Arkansas.  I'm not kidding.).  I've known people like the ones described by Pastor King.  Neither Trump nor the Internet invented them.  But I wouldn't say they are a representative grouping. Then I saw this article today:

“Do you believe God would bring his people to his house to be contagious with the virus? Of course not,” said pastor Guillermo Maldonado, who goes by the term of “apostle,” at a service on Sunday morning at the King Jesus International Ministry in Kendall.

“This service is usually packed. So now they’re home in a cave afraid of the virus, that you want to transmit the virus,” Maldonado said to a venue that appeared half empty, as some churchgoers left seats between them. “If we die, we die for Christ. If we live, we live for Christ, so what do you lose?”

And who is this pastor really putting his faith in?

“Do you mean you call me irresponsible for bringing the people of God to the House of God where the power and the presence of God is?” Maldonado said.

“Coronavirus, 5,984 people infected in the world and there’s 2 percent death. See what fear makes you see? I think Mr. President is watching right now. Mr. President, Donald Trump is watching the service. Can you put your hands together, please?”

Even some members of his congregation aren't that stupid. But some people are; some people always are.  Maldonado thinks he is God, or speaks directly for God; that's a dangerous kind of hubris both to his spirituality and to the physical health of his congregants.  It also makes him grossly irresponsible; which explains why he's attracted to a public figure like Trump.

Birds of a feather, and all that.  Well, and by their fruits you shall know them.  Maldonado says: “Fear is a demonic spirit.  That’s what the bible says.”  Well, no, it doesn't; but it does include that line about how to recognize people you shouldn't follow, or even give credence to.