Truth in This Moment

The Irish would not cancel St. Patrick’s Day and the Italians would not shut down their country just to impact an American election.

What is truth? The dictionary defines truth as “the quality or state of being true.” So then what is true? The dictionary defines true as “in accordance with fact or reality.” Scripture tells us that Jesus is “the way and the truth and the life.”

What does that mean? Well, in short, it means Jesus is reality — God is real and factual and existent. Christians are to walk in that truth. We, as Christians (assuming here that you are), have an obligation to fact and reality because Jesus is fact and reality. We harm our witness for the truth of the gospel when we are unwedded from fact and reality. We cannot say the resurrection is real when we say an ascertainable, real fact is false. No one will believe us.

All of us are allowed to look at facts and reality and process them differently. We are allowed to arrive at different outcomes arrived at through experience and learning we use to examine the same set of facts and reality. But the underlying facts and reality are common to all. A progressive and a conservative can look at a homeless person and both recognize there is a problem. The progressive can determine we need more taxes for the government to take care of the homeless. The conservative can decide we need churches and nonprofits and the family of the homeless to step up. Neither is negating the problem. They are accepting the truth of the situation, i.e. there is a homeless person in need of help, and arriving at different conclusions.

What is not allowed is your truth and my truth. The truth is in accord with facts and people talking about their own truth are talking about emotions more often than not. That leads me to this picture that is going around on conservative corners of social media. I drew the red BS on it.

This picture is designed to minimize concerns over the Wuhan coronavirus. But it is not true. It is not the truth. If Christians are supposed to walk in truth and be grounded in truth, then to disseminate this is to sin because this is such a willful distortion of truth as to be a lie. A lot of Christians on social media are sinning.

SARS broke out *after* the 2002 election and was worse in 2003. Avian flu first broke out in 1997 and came back later, in an odd-numbered year, in a more deadly variety. Swine flu came out in 2009. MERS occurred in 2014, but in Saudi Arabia, then hit South Korean in 2015. Ebola has been happening for years in Africa. It is a particular bit of American arrogance to assume Africans are hemorrhaging to death with Ebola to impact an American election.

Likewise, while the “cure rate,” which is actually a recovery rate, for this virus is very high for people under 50, it actually has a higher mortality rate than the flu or pneumonia. It is also more easily spread than the flu or pneumonia.

The good news is that way more people have probably contracted it, so the mortality rate is lower. But even in the best estimates, it is higher than the flu. Likewise, above the age of 60 the mortality rate increases pretty dramatically and at some estimates stands at 15%. The bad news is that serious symptoms usually take upwards of 14 days to develop and most of the people diagnosed in South Korea have been diagnosed in the last ten days. We will see how this plays out. It is also worth noting that South Korea is testing everyone, including with drive-thru testing clinics, and that has impacted the numbers there. It also gives us a better snapshot of how the virus spreads.

These are the facts. This is the truth. This virus spread from China. The Chinese failed to tell anyone then refused to release critical data until they could not contain it. By the time they started aggressive measures, the virus was already spreading globally. They did not do this to mess with the American election. In fact, this whole situation is destabilizing the communist regime there.

Put another way, the Irish would not cancel St. Patrick’s Day and the Italians would not shut down their country for a “viral pneumonia being hyped as The Black Plague before an [American] election.”

If you are bound to truth, commit to it. Neither you nor I will get everything right, but we should make best efforts instead of sharing viral memes that reinforce our own partisan tribalism.

About the Church

Early Christians stood out in Roman society for their willingness to go where pagan Romans feared to tread. When Romans were dying from the various plagues that swept the empire, it was often the Christians who would go feed the poor and take care of the ill. They did not just focus on fellow Christians but on the citizens of the empire.

Ironically, this led to Christian persecution because they were just so damn weird being all selfless. But over time, in some areas of the empire, as persecution flared, Christians who had shown true love for their neighbors were spared.

At a time of growing persecution and hostility to the faithful in the United States, it does make you wonder what local churches can do to help as this virus spreads. It also makes you wonder whether churches and Christians going through this will look more like the world or more like the great physician.

About the Media

I find it notable the media — every single network and most newspapers — used the phrase “Wuhan virus” or “Wuhan coronavirus” as this virus started spreading. Only recently has the press declared the phrase racist. Doing so comes just as the Chinese government starts a propaganda campaign against the United States blaming us for the virus. As a Chinese conspiracy spread that the virus in the Americans’ fault, the Chinese government was happy to see it spread.

But originally, even the Chinese government agreed the virus originated in Wuhan. You can go translate this commie site if you don’t believe me.

Ebola comes from the name of a river in Africa.

Lyme disease gets its name from Lyme, CT.

Zika virus comes from a forest in Uganda.

One guess where West Nile gets its name. What about the German measles? Or Saint Louis encephalitis virus.

To claim that we cannot refer to the Wuhan virus by that name is to give special preference to China we have not given to African regions, Connecticut, or many other areas. It remains curious that the media would scream racism about using “Wuhan virus” after using it for two months and only getting upset about its use after China started screaming.

I would not suggest the Chinese are pushing propaganda through the American media and paying reporters. While it is true China does do stuff like this, I think the easier explanation is more straight forward. “Wuhan virus” was acceptable when the media and Democrats used it, but since the Trump Administration has started using it regularly it is now deemed racist.

This is also strikingly similar to NBA teams refusing to speak out about Hong Kong (whatever happened there, by the way?). China is upset and angry that people are tying the Wuhan virus to its source of origin. MSNBC is owned by Comcast, which owns Universal. ABC is owned by Disney. CNN is owned by Warner. Sure would hate to see no one show up for their movies in China, right? Gotta placate the commie overlords who rain down cash or cause cash droughts for film studios. American press operations are not really as independent as they claim.

But, being honest and truthful, I really do think this has everything to do with Trump Derangement Syndrome. Team Trump as adopted a universal naming convention for a virus, but because it is Trump doing it, it must be racist.

That’s Part of the Problem

A whole host of Americans have written off the Wuhan virus as an elaborate media conspiracy designed to hurt the President. They’re wrong, but I cannot blame them given the media’s propensity to treat it as a political situation.

If the media doesn’t want Americans to treat this virus as partisan, perhaps the media should stop treating it that way. On CNN, MSNBC, and the rest of the non-Fox networks, they are parading through Democrats to attack the President and make demands for progressive policy proposals.

On MSNBC, they continue to peddle the myth that the President cut the CDC budget. Yes, he proposed a cut, but no it did not get cut. They also push the idea that a virus spread in China under the radar until it got out of control could somehow have been stopped by a committee of bureaucrats established by Barack Obama and disbanded by Donald Trump.

Christians have an obligation to truth and if the standard MSNBC analysis stands, they’re either going to need to repent or prepare to burn in hell for eternity.

People have reverted to tribal corners because the media has been very partisan and very tribal about the virus. It makes it both very easy for the left to get freaked out and for the right to get dismissive.

The Truth

The truth is that the virus is a far bigger concern than the flu and pneumonia. But it is not some deadly pandemic that will see millions die. The truth is that one of the major concerns about the virus is that it is relatively new and still mutating. Coronaviruses like to mutate in ways that kill people. If this thing keeps spreading in an uncontained manner, it could mutate for the worst. That is why governments are doing everything to contain and mitigate its spread.

Most cases will be mild. But many cases will have far worse symptoms than the flu. People will be far more likely to die from this virus than from the flu or pneumonia.

The odds of you getting the Wuhan virus are pretty small. But if it gets into your community, the odds of you getting it go up exponentially. There is no reason to be a hoarder. But there is no reason to act as if life is normal and fine. We are in between bad disease on one end and the flu on the other.

A Bit More Truth

Ironically, many of the same people freaked out right now would be sleeping well at night if Obama were in charge. Fox News would be highly critical and MSNBC would be as dismissive as the conservative meme writers on Instagram. Likewise, were Obama in charge, many of the same people right now saying they’d gladly take a shot of the coronavirus would be screaming for quarantines and executions of anyone thought to be infected.

Remember when Anne Coulter insisted the American doctor/Christian missionary to Africa should not be allowed back in the country because of Ebola? If Obama were president, a lot of the “no big deal” people would want to torpedo and sink that cruise ship in California.

I almost expect that if this virus does turn out to be far more deadly than I think, many of the same people who now think it is no big deal will immediately go to Jade Helm conspiracy theories. As it is, those who hate Trump are rapidly going into conspiracy mode and outright lies. Again, MSNBC thinks Trump ending a panel of experts that Obama put together could have kept this virus from entering the United States. But in January, MSNBC and other outlets were attacking Trump for suspending travel to China.

About That Travel

Please do remember that when Donald Trump shut down air service to China, the media and global “experts” attacked him. They claimed it would make it harder to fight the virus. They actually did that.

Now they are attacking the President for not being aggressive enough.

Is it any wonder no one believes the media?

Speaking of Trump

The President needs to do a better job of looking presidential. Not all media criticism of him is wrong. His interest in making sure people do not panic has caused him to tweet out and say things to calm people that are not true. He has downplayed the virus so much that he risks his supporters not being cautious. He has nurtured an environment wherein his supporters can claim media conspiracy at the expense of truth.

I understand the President does not want people to freak out. But it is better he calm people by being highly detailed and truthful than in half-truths, misstatements, and lies. Every time he does this, he gives ammunition to his critics and undermines his own ability to persuade people he is competent to lead in a crisis.

Were I advising the President, I would tell him to get off Twitter, stop doing interviews, and let Mike Pence do the job the President chose him to do. I would be seen in meetings with economic and health care policy experts every day. I would let the experts do the talking. I would not be at fundraisers and I would not be on the golf course. I’d be showing my work ethic and my willingness to let the experts do the work they need to do.

But I don’t think that will happen. I also think that will hurt the President as this situation continues to unfold.