Friday, March 20, 2020

A Serious Problem That Needs To Be Addressed


Take this:

None of this means that all religion is incompatible with science, but if so many Christians are endangering the lives of themselves and others, that is a serious problem that needs to be addressed.

Is there any hope? Giberson muses that with respect to coronavirus, “Fortunately, Trump is finally making contact with reality, so hopefully his followers will do likewise.” Yet even if they do, the larger problem of fundamentalist Christianity as a danger to democracy, human rights, and public health will remain.

(We'll come back to "how many Christians" in a minute.)  Add this:


And toss in all the young idiots on Florida beaches for Spring Break.  And then let's get back to "how many Christians."

Before we do, let's note that almost none of those people in the second two categories are presumptively Trump supporters.  It's a dangerous thing to assume all the members of a congregation where the Pastor professes an inordinate love of Trump are Trump supporters, too; but we all do it.  Still, let's not accept as gospel that all "evangelical" Christians are also rabid political fans of Donald J. Trump and think he can do no wrong.  Then let's move on to the complaint in the article I began with.

You've probably noted that I'm putting "evangelicals" in quotation marks.  There is a reason for this.  "Evangelicals" is an umbrella term that includes anyone not in the RC church or in most mainline Protestant churches (except the Southern Baptists).  No, that's hardly accurate, but it's how most people (including the author of the article) use the term.  And yes, I did read recently about a church in Arkansas that wouldn't stop Sunday worship because the pastor is drawing in people and "healing" them (oh, and the virus is a hoax!), and there's the pastor in Florida mentioned in the article, and there are a few others scattered about getting attention because they are defying the state and "honoring" God.  My take on these pastors is that they want people to worship them, not God; or at least to have faith in them, and not necessarily God.  I question their sincerity and their theology (such as it is) because they are being defiant as a way of getting attention for themselves.  Trusting in them, they proclaim, is proof of your trust (faith) in God.  That is something even the most bearded and fanatical Old Testmaent prophet would never lay claim to, but some pastors, especially the ones crowing about staying open for crowds in a time of pandemic, do so without blinking.  I don't know what that is, but I don't regard it as Christianity.

Most of these churches, not surprisingly, are one-off churches, non-denominational in a way Chrissy Stroop doesn't really seem to understand (the word never appears in the article, and the article veers off from "evangelicals" to the Orthodox Church and outlier priests in that denomination.  What?  Major church judicatories don't mind-control all their authorized priests?!?).  By "one-off" I mean cults of personality resting solely on the charisma of the pastor.  Consider Robert Schuller's "Crystal Cathedral" as an example.  When Schuller, who apparently was ordained in the Reformed Church of America (if memory serves) died, so did his congregation.  The building was sold to the local RC diocese. In 2014 Mars Hill, which had tried to be its own mini-denomination, went out of business when its founder was discovered to be less than an honorable person.  Richard Roberts tried to take over for Oral (much further back), but that didn't work out so well.  The churches that don't collapse when their renowned and famous pastor retires or just proves to be a stained human being are the exceptions that prove the rule.  Such churches are all about the pastor, and almost never much about God.

And out of all the non-denominational churches in America, exactly what percentage of them are keeping the doors open on Sunday to spite the government and serve the Lord?

I dare say there were more people on the beaches of Florida this week than in all the congregations combined that kept a regular Sunday schedule.  At least all the ones Ms. Stroop is so worked up about.

Are church-goers, of any stripe, really a threat to "democracy, human rights, and public health" in America?  I saw people milling about in front of Costco the other day, at 8:30 in the morning.  Costco opens at 10.  Were they desperate for toilet paper, or meat?  Or just anxious for a good deal on furniture or a mattress?  Should we check all the Costcos in the country and force them to close until further notice?  Is retail (except grocery stores, of course.  Or apparently.  My local store is more crowded now than it ever is, except just before Thanksgiving.) a danger to "democracy, human rights, and public health"?  What about gas stations?  The Costco gas station is almost always crowded with cars.  Is that injurious to the entire community?  Wherever two or more are gathered in the name of commerce, is the destruction of the Republic there as well?

Honestly, what is it about religion that provokes such hysteria?
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