His comments on the government operating outside parameters and violating its God-given authority are frankly ridiculous. It's the wrong way to approach such questions. He's mischaracterized the nature of government and badly misjudged and wrongly framed the Christian interaction with this post lapsum reality – a temporary situation that will be eradicated at the eschaton.
His judicial ethics are not rooted in the New Testament and
in other cases he's simply inaccurate in how he's framing the issues. It's not
my intention to defend the likes of Andrew Cuomo, nor laud (or condemn) the
courts. John MacArthur's record both before and during Covid has been fairly
dismal, a demonstration of confused thinking and ethics grounded more in the
Mammonism of the American system than in anything apostolic.
Kilpatrick further misrepresents what took place in Moscow,
Idaho. This was not persecution. This was political
activist defiance. As with many sacralist thinkers Kilpatrick confuses
persecution with punishment, the latter is the result of civic disobedient behaviour
not rooted in the gospel. The New Testament itself makes this distinction and
condemns Christians who fall afoul of the law for non-gospel issues and further
excoriates them for bringing opprobrium on the testimony of the Church. It's
the kind of behaviour we should associate with false teachers and those who are
seeking to manipulate and exploit God's people.
He also misrepresents what took place in Alberta. It's not
nearly as simple as he presents. Do I agree with the Provincial authorities? Of
course not. Do I agree with said pastors who ran afoul of the authorities? Not
one bit. Their actions were reckless and rooted in political activism and
grandstanding and now they've got big money behind them. Was that the goal all
along?
And ironically because of people like Kilpatrick, masks did
become something of a gospel issue – in the realm of Christian ethics. Because
of their shameful conduct I actually made it a point to wear a mask out in
public and be careful to do so. So egregious, un-Christian, and un-Biblical was
the conduct of Right-wing Christo-Americans during this episode that I was
compelled to take a stand as a Christian and say I will care about others and
not just myself and I will do this very minor thing for the sake of Christian
testimony – and even more specifically to testify against them.
I'm not a scientist nor am I an armchair
scientist/pseudo-expert on viruses and PPE. And yet amazingly there seem to be
thousands of such people in Evangelical circles. Using 'aw shucks, it seems to
me' regular Joe deduction they've decided that they can sift through and
decipher all that's taking place. Now granted, I'm plenty sceptical about all
that's happened with Covid-19 and I've written about it. There's been
dishonesty, obfuscation, and lots of other things taking place. But one thing I
will not grant is this sweeping dismissal that we see with the likes of
Kilpatrick. Sorry, your sources are bunk and as with James White and other
hacks, a person can spend literally a few minutes on the Internet and garner
enough information to challenge and cast down their phony narratives and
frameworks to these questions.
Does their sloppiness and erroneous thinking grant validity
to everything coming out of Fauci's or Birx's mouth? Obviously not. There's
more going on but it's not about destroying America or its economy and I must
say I still have seen no evidence of a coordinated campaign to shut down
churches – let alone a secret communist plot.
Like so many on the Right, Kilpatrick has chosen to
misrepresent the context of Fauci's earlier statements. One must take into
account what was happening at that moment. The situation was dynamic both in
terms of what was known about the virus, the way it was spreading, the means of
its spread, and the logistics concerning PPE within American society as a
whole. Kilpatrick is not being genuine here. He's chosen to employ FOX-style
tactics – to his shame, I might add.
Masks are not simply adiaphora in the sense of Christian
ethics. When I'm seeing older people getting uncomfortable at the conduct of
maskless and reckless Trumpites in the congregation and these same older folks
aren't showing up next week – that's not adiaphora. And when the elders lead
and issue an order – which in this case was not sinful, nor would violate any
kind of questions of conscience concerning what is appropriate for the Church
meeting, then it needs to be followed. And yet I watched them shirk their
responsibilities and turn a blind eye to those openly defying their authority
within the congregation. Or to put it differently, one can challenge the elders
but you had better have good grounds for doing so. Biblical grounds that is,
not some rubbish arguments rooted in 'rights' and other contrived and
un-Christian concepts.
I've talked elsewhere about irrational responses to Covid and
how some were driven by sheer terror. That's wrong and no Christian should
respond that way but I'm afraid the conduct of Christians like MacArthur,
Wilson, and yes, Kilpatrick was disgraceful.
I find it kind of rich when people like Kilpatrick try to
rebuke people for supposedly walking in accordance with the world. He's already
played his political and ethical hand and we might point out that in addition
to this, the likes of MacArthur and the larger Evangelical and yes,
Confessional community walk lockstep with the world when it comes to the
courts, the police, Wall Street, the military-industrial complex and mammon in
general. I would laugh if it wasn't so serious and frankly so pathetic.
No, the Evangelical Right never falls prey to panics. I can't
even say it with a straight face. Without even thinking too hard I can venture
back into the 1970's and 1980's and just walk through the years and the various
cultural moments. A real eye-opener for me was the absurd panic that took place
in the aftermath of 9/11 and all the hysteria culminating in the Iraq War. One
then thinks of Obama and the way the Right fell prey to external forces that
played the Evangelical movement like a fiddle, giving rise to the Tea Party and
later Trump. Right now we're seeing the same kind of FOX-induced panic with
regard to Critical Race Theory, a largely non-existent and certainly
exaggerated bogey man that I'm sure Kilpatrick buys into hook, line, and
sinker.
Kilpatrick is worried that by wearing a mask you're denying
Christ with your life. Little does he realise just how much he's already done
so and how much he's revealed in his sad and troubling postmortem. He thinks he
follows Paul but in truth he's more a disciple of Beck and Tucker Carlson, the charlatans
who are using him.
I freely admit Fauci, Birx, et al. are deceived deceivers. So
in light of that we can have a discussion but you see Kilpatrick wouldn't be
able to. He only sees half of the problem and not even that. You can't broaden
the discussion, let alone re-frame it.
Our culture, state, and system hate Christ. There's no doubt
about it. And yet as stated earlier I think if Bush or (God forbid) Trump were
president I have a feeling that Kilpatrick might feel a little more at home
with the status quo. If he really believed our society hates Christ then he
wouldn't be relying on the most popular channel (and its media-propaganda orbit)
for his view of the world. Those deceivers are even more dangerous because they
have a form of godliness (I suppose it deceives some people) and yet clearly
they deny Christ with their lives. Morning Joe and Cooper the sodomite may spew
out lies but I don't see Christians being taken in by them. But I do see
Christians being taken in by Carlson, Beck, Hannity, Ingraham – people who are
no less deceitful and frankly no less lost, maybe even more so.
As stated at the beginning I was struck by the fact that many
I know would read Kilpatrick's piece and find it sober and well reasoned. I
found it disturbing on many levels and it typifies a terrible shift that's
taking place right now in the larger Church. It's not the only shift, nor the
only bad one but it's nevertheless a cause for concern as many 'conservatives'
are giving way with abandon to Right-wing impulses and ethics – leaving those
committed to the New Testament few options. Bad church situations have become
worse and in many cases have become intolerable leaving the faithful to feel
like pilgrims and strangers even with the Church itself.