Good points David. Some of the loudest voices against cancel culture, are actually some of the best practitioners of it, as evidenced by what happened to Daniel Darling. He wasn't anywhere near mean spirited in how he made his points. In fact, he spoke in a very concerned, loving way in expressing pain in how some people close to personally have passed away due to Covid-19. He did the most loving thing a Christian and a person can do, and is to urge his fellow people to get vaccinated. We often forget that it is a miracle that it took only a year or so to come up with very effective vaccines against a virus epidemiologists knew very little about from the beginning. Getting the vaccine is pro-life, and consistent with Christianity. God has blessed us with these remarkably effective vaccines, and I believe to refuse to get vaccinated is displeasing to Him.
Along those lines, if we want to maintain a free and prosperous society, it requires us to be moral and virtuous. John Adams stated in his famous quote that the Constitution was made for a moral and a religious people and was wholly inadequate to the governance of any other. Now let me first say that I believe you don't have to be religious to be moral. Some of the finest people I know aren't particularly religious. Getting vaccinated is a moral decision, rooted in the principles of personal responsibility. Many on the Christian right who have refused vaccination have done so under the guise of religious liberty. The irony is that many of them are trying to ban businesses and employers from mandating vaccinations for their customers and employees. Their view of liberty apparently doesn't extend to the right of businesses to set their own policies promoting a healthy working and shopping environment by mandating vaccines. Because of the lack of personal responsibility, refusing vaccination and forcing others to have to live with their ill-advised choices isn't about religious liberty or libertarianism, but is libertine, or libertinism. Once the tenet of personal responsibility is excised from the equation, fairness, morality, and freedom decline for all in our society. Getting vaccinated is the MOST liberty minded and pro-life thing one can do.
If we think about it, there will be empty chairs at the dinner table for Thanksgiving and Christmas later this year in many households. Among the 650k people who passed away from Covid here in the US, are many moms and dads. Many kids will not have their mom or dad to shower them with love, because some people have refused to mask and get vaccinated all along. There are also many moms and dads who are mourning the passing of their child or children. No parent should ever have to bury their child, especially because a self-professed Christian refused to wear masks and get vaccinated. It's so easy to say, "it's their life and if they want to screw themselves and then die of Covid-19, that's their problem". Let's not forget that there are family members and friends who loved them, and are brokenhearted. It affects them too.
On a positive note, vaccinations are on the rise. I think many people have seen the ravages of hospitalizations that include their loved ones. Many of the vax-hesitant are getting vaccinated, so that is heartening news. I think in due time the only holdouts will be hardened anti-vaxxers who were anti-vax before Covid. And also, the notorious anti-vaxxer Alex Berenson has been permanently banned from Twitter. That will certainly help improve vaccination efforts.
Any organization that has rejected truth will have no bottom. Their beliefs and morals will be untethered to anything other than what their flesh wants. It's utterly ironic that the religion of "I am the way, the truth, and the life" has completely abandoned that premise but its unsurprising to everyone who can see past their own misconceptions.
Praise the Lord and pass the peanut butter; another in the long line of reasons affiliation with church membership in the US has now fallen below 50%. In fact, a Gallup poll from 2020 showed it at 47%. I long ago came to believe there are logical reasons for everything. Perhaps, logical is a poor terminology or perhaps not.
The point is, stuff happens simply because of the actions around us. As i read your article David my mind immediately went to those statistics. If we look closely at how the "church" has functioned over the last 50 years, there's a host of horrible examples of how not to be Christ-like from people who stood at pulpits and told us all how to live our lives. I know, we're all not all perfect, but at what point are sinners who preach to us accountable for their actions? I am hopeful the answer to that is in the afterlife, if it truly exists. Sorry, just not sure.
Is it any wonder people are flocking away from the "church" in droves? When does it ever get better? When will it turn around. The answer to me is not until those who stand in front of us with their morality and their self-righteousness come to grips with the reality and challenges for the masses. This decision is just another in the long line of trying not to anger their base. How many times of late have these anti-vaxer's ended up in the hospital, and as they lay on the verge of death asked if they could get the shot? Too many and sadly, it won't change any time soon.
I believe there is a higher power, i believe living by a moral code and treating others justly. In the end, will that be enough? Again, i don't know but for me those tenets of right and wrong are the best i can do.
Good points David. Some of the loudest voices against cancel culture, are actually some of the best practitioners of it, as evidenced by what happened to Daniel Darling. He wasn't anywhere near mean spirited in how he made his points. In fact, he spoke in a very concerned, loving way in expressing pain in how some people close to personally have passed away due to Covid-19. He did the most loving thing a Christian and a person can do, and is to urge his fellow people to get vaccinated. We often forget that it is a miracle that it took only a year or so to come up with very effective vaccines against a virus epidemiologists knew very little about from the beginning. Getting the vaccine is pro-life, and consistent with Christianity. God has blessed us with these remarkably effective vaccines, and I believe to refuse to get vaccinated is displeasing to Him.
Along those lines, if we want to maintain a free and prosperous society, it requires us to be moral and virtuous. John Adams stated in his famous quote that the Constitution was made for a moral and a religious people and was wholly inadequate to the governance of any other. Now let me first say that I believe you don't have to be religious to be moral. Some of the finest people I know aren't particularly religious. Getting vaccinated is a moral decision, rooted in the principles of personal responsibility. Many on the Christian right who have refused vaccination have done so under the guise of religious liberty. The irony is that many of them are trying to ban businesses and employers from mandating vaccinations for their customers and employees. Their view of liberty apparently doesn't extend to the right of businesses to set their own policies promoting a healthy working and shopping environment by mandating vaccines. Because of the lack of personal responsibility, refusing vaccination and forcing others to have to live with their ill-advised choices isn't about religious liberty or libertarianism, but is libertine, or libertinism. Once the tenet of personal responsibility is excised from the equation, fairness, morality, and freedom decline for all in our society. Getting vaccinated is the MOST liberty minded and pro-life thing one can do.
If we think about it, there will be empty chairs at the dinner table for Thanksgiving and Christmas later this year in many households. Among the 650k people who passed away from Covid here in the US, are many moms and dads. Many kids will not have their mom or dad to shower them with love, because some people have refused to mask and get vaccinated all along. There are also many moms and dads who are mourning the passing of their child or children. No parent should ever have to bury their child, especially because a self-professed Christian refused to wear masks and get vaccinated. It's so easy to say, "it's their life and if they want to screw themselves and then die of Covid-19, that's their problem". Let's not forget that there are family members and friends who loved them, and are brokenhearted. It affects them too.
On a positive note, vaccinations are on the rise. I think many people have seen the ravages of hospitalizations that include their loved ones. Many of the vax-hesitant are getting vaccinated, so that is heartening news. I think in due time the only holdouts will be hardened anti-vaxxers who were anti-vax before Covid. And also, the notorious anti-vaxxer Alex Berenson has been permanently banned from Twitter. That will certainly help improve vaccination efforts.
Any organization that has rejected truth will have no bottom. Their beliefs and morals will be untethered to anything other than what their flesh wants. It's utterly ironic that the religion of "I am the way, the truth, and the life" has completely abandoned that premise but its unsurprising to everyone who can see past their own misconceptions.
Praise the Lord and pass the peanut butter; another in the long line of reasons affiliation with church membership in the US has now fallen below 50%. In fact, a Gallup poll from 2020 showed it at 47%. I long ago came to believe there are logical reasons for everything. Perhaps, logical is a poor terminology or perhaps not.
The point is, stuff happens simply because of the actions around us. As i read your article David my mind immediately went to those statistics. If we look closely at how the "church" has functioned over the last 50 years, there's a host of horrible examples of how not to be Christ-like from people who stood at pulpits and told us all how to live our lives. I know, we're all not all perfect, but at what point are sinners who preach to us accountable for their actions? I am hopeful the answer to that is in the afterlife, if it truly exists. Sorry, just not sure.
Is it any wonder people are flocking away from the "church" in droves? When does it ever get better? When will it turn around. The answer to me is not until those who stand in front of us with their morality and their self-righteousness come to grips with the reality and challenges for the masses. This decision is just another in the long line of trying not to anger their base. How many times of late have these anti-vaxer's ended up in the hospital, and as they lay on the verge of death asked if they could get the shot? Too many and sadly, it won't change any time soon.
I believe there is a higher power, i believe living by a moral code and treating others justly. In the end, will that be enough? Again, i don't know but for me those tenets of right and wrong are the best i can do.