The United States of Romans 1
By now you know the CDC data on the risk of the Delta variant comes from an outbreak in Provincetown, MA. Based on the outbreak among the vaccinated, it is presumed the Delta variant is highly transmissible and caused the CDC to issue guidelines to include masks even for the vaccinated.
[Deleted about Montgomery County, MD. This was from last year and resurfaced on the anniversary of the school closure. I misread the date.]
What you may not know is that the CDC data is, shall we say, skews. Turns out the event that led to the concern was a “Bear Week” outing in Provincetown of gay men during Pride Week at a variety of close-quarters celebrations.
In fact, the Virginia Department of Public Health data disputes the CDC data on the Delta variant.
In fact, for vaccinated Americans, the vaccine is working quite well.
But you would not know that from the hype surrounding the CDC data, which, again, is skewed and they danced around the fact the data comes from an overwhelmingly male population, which should have raised questions.
Concurrent to that, the American Medical Assocation has declared birth certificates should no longer contain a line for for a baby’s birth sex.
It is really striking how secularists went from declaring us just another species of mammal to declaring that we, a mere mammal, are the sole species in the class capable of choosing our own sex. And notice, now it is sex, not gender, which for the longest time we were told was something else entirely and socially created.
It is really hard to trust the experts when the experts have decided to reject science for pseudoscience and the experts are extrapolating events from a “Bear Week” of gay men in close quarters to the rest of the nation. How can we belive experts when the supposed experts themselves have lost their damn minds?
A lot of conservatives have taken all this and summoned into their minds Romans 1.
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.
But hold on here.
It is easy to connect the ridiculousness of experts rejecting data, embracing pseudoscience, and rejecting basic biology and say that is Romans 1. But we should not look at the secular left and say they’re into Romans 1 while excluding a lot of people who claim to be in the church.
On the right, we’ve got people who are convinced the vaccines do more harm than good. The data does not bear that out. In fact, the data shows the vaccines work terrifically well.
Still, one does not have to travel far into church communities and find those who think the vaccine is the mark of the beast, the precursor to the mark of the beast, or filled with microchips.
One need not go far into the church to find those who think the vaccine does more harm than good, will cause mass side effects later in life, or will in some way long term cause more harm than good.
We can point to the left losing their mind and say there goes Romans 1, but we need to remember that in the church as well are those who reflect Romans 1. “Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.” They began to worship at the altar of TV celebrities and Rumble videos pushing false information and half-truths.
The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness. 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12 (ESV)
There are a lot of people in the church who claim to know Christ who will believe false things and fall away from the truth. They’ll disrupt their churches and communities and claim Jesus for things devoid of truth.
We’re seeing that happening in the Chrisitan community. We are seeing Romans 1 not just among the secularists, but among those who sit in church pews on Sunday. We can point to those who embrace things like critical race theory and assert unfalsifiable positions about race and white supremacy. But we should see it too in those who assert false things about a life saving vaccine and rely on pop culture voices who misstate, mislead, and distort.
We live in post-modern times where truth is denied, exceptions to rules become the rules, and each is entitled to his or her personal truth even when it conflicts with actual truth.
America is in Romans 1. In and out of the church we see those “filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.”
We need to ground ourselves in real truth and not be led astray by those who would tickle our ears and affirm our prejudices. We need to not meditate on Romans 1 and think it only applies to those outside the body of the visible church. We need to repent.
There are a whole lot of us in between the two extremes you mentioned. I choose not to get the vaccine. I don't believe it is a vaccine for the sole purpose of some nefarious reason. I simply don't believe that it is proven safe enough for everyone and the lack of transparency is disturbing. The inventor of this type of vaccine finds it disturbing that the government is telling everyone to get it in spite of some serious side effects when the virus is not a threat to people under the age of 18 who do not have other serious health problems. For maybe even most people who are healthy, the virus is treatable and some doctors are treating it successfully. My 92 year old neighbor was treated and never spent a day in the hospital. This same expert says anyone with natural antibodies should not need the vaccine. Why are people being told to take the vaccine even if they have had covid. It is the rabid insistence from the government to vaccinate every human walking that makes people suspicious.
I can see why people that are not of the gospel faith get caught up in conspiracy theories, but when “believers” get caught up in those things and push those things as truth, it gets me upset. How are we to preach the word of truth if we are caught up in “myths and endless genealogies?
Come on guys, get vaccinated and chill out.