The Shame and Tyranny of Contact Tracing | True Worldview Ep. 64

May 12, 2020 by Paul Dean in current events, worldview, politics, government

Churches as Agents of the State

Pastors and denominational leaders from our state (SC) were in on a live stream conference call with our governor, and we were told to make sure our churches do contact tracing. The first thing that needs to be said is that churches aren’t agents of the state. So, no can do. Except, I was shocked to hear a number of pastors happily comply and ask the best way to do such a thing. So much for understanding the times, or the nature of the state, or the nature of the church for that matter. So, no can do, for a few of us.

State Power

The second thing that needs to be said is that the state must not arrogate more power to itself. The Mayor of Kansas City is demanding the names, addresses, and phone numbers of every person attending worship. According to World Net Dailey, Liberty Counsel founder Mat Staver said, “The new order states that by recording names and contact information, the health department will be able 'to more quickly trace, test, and isolate individuals who may have been exposed to COVID-19. The Germans did this very thing to Jews – collecting the names and locations of all known synagogue attendees - in the early days of the Nazi regime.’”

So, a friend of yours tests positive for COVID-19, and you were with him for a few minutes a week earlier. Your friend will be asked for a list of those with whom he’s been in contact, and your name will be on the list. You’ll get a call or a visit and be force quarantined for two weeks. And that’s the least of it. Your privacy will have been compromised, and you’ll be put on other lists that ban you from certain things, like travel, unless you have proper health documentation.

The reality is this move is simply a push for total surveillance. Thomas Luongo noted, “The goal is to finish off the last vestiges of anonymity and individuality started with the destruction of financial privacy during the Clinton Adminstration.” Of course, the surveillance state was ramped up tremendously after 9/11.

Another frightening aspect here is the measure is not merely for tracing and surveillance, but for ensuring social distancing. Millions of people will unwittingly download a contact tracing app on their phones ostensibly to aid with public safety. If they’re not social distancing properly, they’re apt to get a visit from the local authorities. Of course, there are those who think that’s a great idea and are unaware of the consequences of our loss of liberty and privacy.

The Scarlet Letter

Further, those who test positive for COVID-19 become social pariahs. No one wants you around if you’ve got the scarlet letter C on your chest. Even worse, if you’ve been named as someone exposed to COVID-19 through contact tracing, you’ll be punished if you don’t comply with the demands of the state. The end result is an even greater expansion of the surveillance state. As Luongo noted, “They want us snitching on each other and suspect of each other. This is the most pernicious form of social control ever devised, to distrust basic human contact and interaction because there are germs in the world. . . It’s time to end the mass hallucination that we’ve never dealt with something like this before. The mass branding of this COVID-19 as the plague is laughable, and the push for global surveillance is pathetic.” Here’s where we really need a grass roots public service campaign: just say no – to contact tracing.

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Rethinking Social Distancing (Part 2) | True Worldview Ep. 61

May 01, 2020 by Paul Dean in culture, current events, government, politics, worldview

Be Optimistic

Part of how we navigate the world God’s given us is through right thinking and right attitude. We suffer, life is hard sometimes, but Christians should basically be optimistic because God has redeemed us, has given us things to do, and is with us in those endeavors. Optimism drives how we plan and make decisions. At the same time, we must recognize we’re living under the sovereign and providential hand of God. We live in light of James 4: “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit’; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.’ But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil” (13-16). So, we make our plans submitted to the sovereign decree of God. We’re optimistic in those plans: seeking to multiply the “talents” God has given us (Matt. 25:14-30) while resting in God’s providence for us. We must have a can-do attitude.

Be Proactive

Is our outlook one of fear, or confidence? Do we proceed on the basis of knowledge, or what is heaped upon us by the government or mainstream media? We know both of those entities routinely manipulate information to create their own narrative for a variety of reasons. Do we sit back and wait for the government to save us, or do we trust the Lord and seek to solve problems on our own? Think about Prov. 22:13: “The lazy man says, ‘There’s a lion outside! I shall be slain in the streets!” The point is clear: the lazy man sees a danger and shelters in place. He hunkers down in fear. But God has not given His people a spirit of fear, but of love, power, and a sound mind (2 Tim. 1:7). He’s given us the ability to think and reason soundly: to come up with solutions. The implication of the Proverb is that a righteous man sees the lion, the problem, and devises a plan to overcome it. We need to trust in God and figure out how to defeat the virus, keep the economy buzzing, and work in social community the way God has designed us to, all at the same time. Specifically here, we’re rethinking social distancing.

Nine More Reasons to Cease from Social Distancing (For the first seven, see Part 1).

Here’s an eighth reason to cease from social distancing: we’re fearfully and wonderfully made (Ps. 139:14), and our immune system is resilient. The current focus on the virus itself, the futile effort to halt it’s spread, and the dictatorial sentiments behind the production of a vaccine, all discount the “terrain” of our bodies. In addition to combatting the spread of the virus in other ways, we must focus on ensuring the health of our immune systems. The way Dr. Fauci and the mainstream media have discounted certain things like making sure we are not Vitamin C, Vitamin D, and Zinc deficient is criminal. Actual studies in the field, real numbers, tell us that Hydroxychloroquine, Zinc, and Azithromycin is an effective treatment for a majority of COVID-19 patients. Yet this treatment along with one or two others are demonized by Dr. Fauci, because they don’t fit their carefully constructed narrative. There is recent evidence that many routine procedures such as putting patients on ventilators when they shouldn’t, among other things, are leading to an increased number of deaths.

Ninth, extreme social distancing, like a lockdown, hinders the development of herd immunity. “Herd immunity is where enough people – most of whom will have very minor, or no, symptoms – contract COVID-19, develop antibodies against it, and recover. Since those who have the antibodies can neither get, nor pass on, coronavirus, it runs into more and more ‘dead ends’ as it tries to spread. ‘It finds it harder to get to a host where it can survive and it dies out,” Dr. David Katz says.

Tenth, in light of the way viruses spread through aerosolized particles, does anyone believe standing six feet apart is a real solution? As Dr. David Brownstein noted, even facemasks don’t work.

Eleventh, I mentioned a can-do attitude. Such an attitude is rooted in several biblical principles. Here are two. First, we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us (Phil. 1:13). That doesn’t mean we can’t get sick. But it does mean that we have the spiritual ability to handle whatever comes our way. That’s the attitude part. Second, we’ve been given a mandate to subdue the earth (Gen. 1:28; 9:1f). That’s the tackling the problem part. We’ve not only been given the mandate to find workable solutions that take into account fending off a virus while not tearing down the superstructure of civilization we’ve built up over the last six-thousand years, we’ve been given the brain-power and resources for innovation and efficiency. But old and political models have us cowered in a corner. It’s time to be image-bearers and get to work.

Twelfth, God has given all human beings certain unalienable rights. They include the rights to life and liberty. They’re enshrined in America’s founding documents. No one has the right to lock down entire groups of people, cities, or a nation. No one has the right to keep us from assembling with one another. Moreover, we have the right to make medical/health decisions for ourselves. While the spirit of technocracy is alive and well in our world, we must not succumb to its tyranny. Our basic freedoms including our religious freedoms have been trampled. Forced social distancing is nothing short of criminal.

Thirteenth, Christians don’t run from people or trouble, they run toward it. While people ran from lepers, Jesus reached out and touched them. Christians in eras gone by ministered to the sick and dying and those who’d been abandoned in the streets when various plagues descended upon them. The pagans hid indoors, while the Christians demonstrated the love and power of Christ. Yes, many of them died as a result. But they actually knew and felt that living was Christ, and dying was gain (Phil. 1:21).

Fourteenth, Christianity is not about isolation but community. The gathered community of faith is mandated and puts God’s glory on display (Heb. 10:25; Hag. 1:8). The church breaks down barriers that divide people (Eph. 3:10). It doesn’t create or foster division. Christianity is about fellowship with God and with one another. You can’t experience that and social distance at the same time. We all know that livestreaming and zooming is not church.

Fifteenth, while we Christians can do all things through Christ who strengthens us, even bear with a lockdown, there are millions who cannot, because they don’t have Christ. Many have already died because of the lockdown by being hindered from getting needed medical treatment or by committing suicide. There will be many more. Some will die of starvation. The tragic results of the lockdown, and many predict it’s certainty, could be far worse than the virus itself. People don’t do well in isolation.

Sixteenth, the fact is that 99% of those who contract the virus recover. A majority of us may have already been exposed. Most who get the virus experience minor symptoms and many don’t even know they’ve had it. The lockdown and social distancing really makes no sense.

We weep with those who weep (Rom. 12:15). There are those who have died from COVID-19, and it’s truly tragic. And, if someone is in a high-risk category, or is sick and would endanger others, then by all means, they should take the proper precautions. But despite what we’re being told, that all of us are carriers of a virus that’s a death warrant for those who contract it, nothing cold be further from the truth. The facemasks, the fearful looks, the suspicious whispers, and the snitching neighbors all tell the tale. We’re not carriers of the plague. We’re not lepers, and we can’t treat each other as such. It’s time to rethink social distancing.

Rethinking Social Distancing (Part 1) | True Worldview Ep. 60

April 28, 2020 by Paul Dean in current events, worldview, politics

A Lament

There’s a verse that describes our situation in this political crisis connected to Coronavirus: “How lonely sits the city That was full of people! How like a widow is she, Who was great among the nations! The princess among the provinces Has become a slave” (Lam. 1:1)! While our context is different from ancient Israel’s, our cities feel lonely and empty as everyone is under stay-at-home orders. The city is like a widow. The heartbreak is palpable, not only for those who have died and lost loved ones, or for those who’ve lost jobs, but also for those who’ve suffered and died as a result of the shutdown, as well as for what’s coming. While no one really knows what the ultimate economic fall-out will be, we’re already told to brace for food shortages. That’s a dynamic most of us have never had to face. The cracks in our nation are showing. And the sad fact is that it didn’t have to be this way, but you’ll never get the perpetrators to admit it or be held accountable. We’ve become slaves.

A Precaution

But I want to speak briefly to the issue of social distancing, and in particular, I want to urge all of us, but especially Christians, to reject it out of hand. Let me say quickly that if you are in a high-risk category, then by all means, please take every precaution, and protect yourself. If you visit anyone in a high-risk category, you should take care not to endanger them. And that’s not true for a coronavirus only, that’s true for the flu or anything else. Those in high risk categories are in danger from everything, and there are many viruses more dangerous than COVID-19. But, generally speaking, there are reasons for the rest of us to cease the social distancing.

A Plea: Seven Reasons to Stop Social Distancing

First, God Himself is trinitarian by nature. He is one God who’s revealed Himself in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. His very nature is community. We’re told in John 1 that the Father and the Son have face-to-face fellowship from eternity. The Christian community is a reflection of God. We’re created to be in community with God and one another.

Second, God said in Genesis that it’s not good for man to be alone. In context, He makes Adam and Eve husband and wife: life-partners. But the principle is true for all of humanity: it’s not good for us to be alone. When people live in isolation, certain spiritual, social, and even physical problems develop over time. Prov. 18:1 says, “A man who isolates himself seeks his own desire; He rages against all wise judgment.” A person who isolates himself has rejected community for whatever the reason. The picture couldn’t be more graphic. “He rages against all wise judgment.” It’s not wise to force people into isolation. We know the tragic results, and it’s sheer hypocrisy for our government and the mainstream media to do so in the name of a virus that’s relatively harmless to most, and even less threatening to persons in high risk groups than the flu.

Third, that’s not to say that COVID-19 is not a danger to high-risk persons. It is, and those in that category should self-isolate, as we’ve said. But everyone else should proceed as normal so that herd immunity can develop, the virus can run its course, and then even high-risk persons can come out again.

In fact, a group of doctors put out a piece entitled Coronavirus Truths. Among other things, they say we’ve been lied to. We’ve been told we don’t know much about the virus, but we do. We hear daily that the virus is more infectious than the flu. It’s not. In fact, the flu is much more virulent. The flu is actually far more dangerous despite the fact we’ve been told the opposite. We’ve also been told COVID-19 is more dangerous because you can have it without knowing it. That’s true of all viruses when they’re being shed, and COVID-19 is far less contagious than the flu. And yes, the virus is more dangerous to the elderly and immunocompromised, but so is everything else, as we’ve noted. We see daily numbers of infections and deaths, and yet the books have been cooked. The media, say these doctors, has grossly misrepresented this disease, and they will continue to manipulate us by predicting a spike in deaths if we open the country too soon. They’re already doing just that. Though we’ve been told the opposite, not every country has shut down their economy, and none of those countries have suffered higher rates of death. The medical community has failed us they say. This virus has been treated as a world-ender, but nothing could be further from the truth.

Fourth, social distancing is the world’s answer, not God’s. It tears community apart. It’s tearing our nation apart. Have you noticed how people look at you in the grocery store with fear and suspicion? And how about those who report their neighbors for taking a jog? That’s not American, and it’s certainly not Christian. It’s Satan who tears apart. God, the gospel, and the church bring people together (Ephesians 3).

Fifth, the government is picking winners and losers. Walmart will survive, even thrive, but a large number of mom-and-pop operations will not. Home Depot will thrive, but many restaurants will never re-open. The State has no right to say who’s essential and who’s not. We’re all essential; we all make up the economy. The State has no right to prevent people from earning a living. The surveillance and subsequent police raid on a woman cutting hair in her Texas home should cause all of us to collectively shout, “Enough!”

Sixth, there’s the inconsistency. We’re told that only x number of people can be in the store at one time, yet we stand in the parking lot shoulder to shoulder until we’re released into the vastness of Lowe’s. We’d be better off if all were allowed inside to start with. We’re allowed to congregate in the Lowe’s parking lot, but we can’t go to church or worship from our cars in the church parking lot. Our overlords at the national and state levels can stand shoulder to shoulder in the daily news briefings, but if you’re the lone person shooting baskets in the park, you’ll be arrested. For the life of me, I can’t understand how any of this is being tolerated.

Seventh, the government would have us believe that every American is the carrier of a deadly virus. Criticizing out-of-work protesters who were pleading for the lockdown to end and rightly saying that some things are worse than the virus, namely a decimated economy and the devasting results, Andrew Cuomo, Governor of New York, replied, “What could be worse than the virus? The virus is death.” Yes, some have died. And that’s truly tragic. But the virus is not death. Ninety-nine percent of people who contract it recover. Most will not contract it, and those who do will suffer mild symptoms, and many won’t even know they had it. But this is the official narrative, and the people have been sold a lie. Psychological warfare is being waged against this country.

These are only a few of the reasons why social distancing must end. We’ll highlight a few more in Part 2. But suffice it to say, it’s not God’s way, and it’s far worse than the virus. It’s a nation-killer.