Is Christianity dangerous?

As churches frame COVID-19 victims as ‘sinners, you wonder.

For a Christian facing public health issues, the vocabulary tends to be taken from 17th century translations of Bible stories. Contagions are ‘pestilence’. Evil spirits are probably at work. The end of the world, ‘apocalypse’, might be at hand. As David Jeremiah, the Trump advisor, suggests, this is “the most apocalyptic thing that has ever happened to us.”

This might be divine punishment. Mike Lindell of MyPillow got a second to speak to America. No words of comfort to the sick, etc. He used it to encourage religious revival. “A nation had turned its back on God. And I encourage you: Use this time at home to get home, to get back in the Word, read our Bibles, and spend time with our families.”

Let me try to unpack the concepts here. Reading the Bible, with Republican politics and nuclear families, creates safety, wealth and divine favor. During the Obama years, God was exiled, but the 2016 election was a special act of grace. Now we must prove worthy. If we don’t, we die.

Thanks Mike, but I’ll get my own face mask.

Kristina Mason, “Gas Mask Jesus” (2011)

For Evangelicals, the Coronavirus is not a health crisis exactly, though sometimes given the terminology of a sick body. America has been on “spiritual life support,” says Ekemini Uwan…