Has the entire country gone mad? The headlines sure seem to point in that direction.
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Many Americans are too stupid to understand, for instance, that proscription of all assemblies, including churches, are not breaches of religious freedom because they do not single-out churches; churches are merely one type of assembly that is forbidden. Opposing Church Closures Becomes New Religious Freedom Cause. True: You can’t expect much from people who believe in talking snakes and hope to spend eternity with a psychopath who’s got more blood on his hands than Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot combined, but … still.
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Natural selection is clearly at work at Pastor Tony Spell’s church, however. According to police, traffic was down about 75% after a congregant died, and its lawyer died of coronavirus. There will doubtless be more.
And the hit taken by The Church of God in Christ has been brutal.
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Certainly, social distancing works. After all, you can’t catch a sickness from people you never encounter. But Governor Cuomo is catching grief from some pious loon for saying the obvious: It isn’t Our Invisible Friend who flattened the curve, but thinking, conscientious citizens who isolated themselves — we did that. If an Invisible Friend is involved, that’s who sent Covid-19.
But, you know, take that for what it’s worth; I’m well-known to be extremely wicked.
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On the other hand, here is a guy who confronted the Covid-19 demon face-to-face and vanquished it by invoking Jesus’ name. Or, something.
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Meantime, Pat Robertson has been thinking deeply about our troubles and — What do you know? — says it’s all the fault of same-sex marriage. Unfortunately, Robertson doesn’t explain why anti-gay pastors and congregations are dying like flies as they insist upon assembling.
It’s just one more example, I guess, of the Mysteriousness of His Ways.
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The White House, which has degenerated into a bad cartoon under the First Felon’s management, is redirecting the U.S.’ contribution to WHO to — get ready — Franklin Graham’s Samaritan’s Purse. This can’t possibly be legal, but they’ll probably get away with it because the good guys are busy fighting more grave offenses against the law.
The Pious aren’t the only unhinged people out there. The anti-government cranks are energized, too.
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An Idaho legislator says her state’s governor is just like Hitler because he has issued a lockdown order.
Just so’s you know, there is some good news out there.
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The University of Chicago is setting-up a live webcam at Botany Pond, the home of Dr. Jerry Coyne’s beloved ducks. I’ll post a link to the cam just as soon as Dr. Coyne does.
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“That woman in Michigan” is trouncing the First Felon in the polls. This is good news, because Trump seduced Michigan into his camp in 2016; there would be a sort of poetic justice in it if his abusive characterizations of her prove fatal to re-election this time around.
Last, I pointed a few days ago to a recent issue of Philosophy Now that focuses on Friedrich Nietzsche. In my follow-up discussion of Nietzsche, I alluded twice to his sister, who didn’t have a clue what her brother was all about.
Here’s a book review that discusses Elizabeth’s role in screwing-up her brother’s legacy.