I have some unchristian thoughts because of Covid
These are my confessions
I have a few confessions to make. And, they are not very “Christian” of me.
Despite having written a book on Christian living, I suppose at times I will still fail to achieve perfection in this life. “A” for effort I guess. Let the imperfect thoughts commence.
Confession 1: When I see prayer requests for people with Covid, I immediately wonder if they were vaccinated or taking enough precautions to avoid catching it.
Look, I know it’s wrong of me to wonder about the situation rather than just lifting them in prayer. But, at this point, if an adult is willingly unvaccinated and not taking proper precautions, I’m finding it hard to feel sorry for them if they catch Covid. Not very Christ-like of me, I know.
There are opportunities to be as protected as possible without just living in a bubble, and unfortunately it’s many of my Christian brothers and sisters ignoring these precautions the most.
So, when I see a prayer request and someone has come down with a case of Covid, I initially wonder if it’s due to their own unwillingness to take precautions like vaccination and mask wearing. Forgive me Lord.
Confession 2: Some of my Facebook friendships are not really friendships
Facebook makes me think I have a ton of friends, when in reality, I rarely speak to any of them more than an occasional “like” on a post, or comment. If I had a chance to get together over coffee, I’d certainly be open to talking more and reconnecting, though.
But, when one of them posts something idiotic about Covid, and I feel the uncontrollable urge to comment and gently course correct them, it quickly reveals the nature of the “friendship.” Or, more often, just results in an unfriending of me.
I’ve given an open invitation to everyone on my Facebook to preemptively unfriend me now if they disagree with my Covid viewpoints so that I can stop getting news feed alerts of the latest goofball conspiracies or anti-vaccine sentiments.
Sadly, many of the folks posting these views are people with whom I have interacted at a church at some point over the years. They’re legitimate Christian brothers and sisters. But, we differ substantially on how to handle this pandemic.
As Christians, are we required to maintain friendship with all Christians everywhere? I’m not sure, but hopefully we can still pick and choose a bit. Forgive me Lord.
Confession 3: I am judging you if you refuse to get a Covid vaccine or won’t submit willingly to requests to wear masks in public.
“Judge not,” I know, but come on!? People are being ridiculous. If they can’t take basic precautions to keep others around them safe, are they really loving their neighbors?
If someone can say they’re Pro Life regarding abortion, but then willingly ignore measures to save lives of others, including more young children now, are they really in favor of life?
Too many contradictions from folks. My daughter is capable of wearing a mask without complaining, why can’t adults handle it?
Medical data has shown Covid vaccines to be safe and effective for MOST people. Why can’t we just get a shot to help curb the spread a bit? Or at the very least, eliminate some of the serious cases so our hospital beds can be free for real emergencies again.
Even when a vaccinated person got a breakthrough case, only .008% ended in death. And, 88% of the .008% were aged 65 or older, which is a higher health risk group to begin with (Based on CDC data from Jan-Aug 2021 which may have updated since the time of this writing).
So, when basically 99% of cases of serious Covid leading to death are in unvaccinated folks, I think we can say the vaccine is the safer bet now. And, bonus, for those who have had Covid already and get a vaccine, you get more antibodies to fight Off Covid. So, it’s like you become “super resistant” compared to someone who never had Covid, but was vaccinated (like me).
If you choose to gamble on Covid by not getting a vaccine or wearing a mask in public, I will be judging you for that decision. Especially, if you call yourself a Christian and claim to care about others. Forgive me Lord.
Confession 4: I want to slap some sense back into people at this point
If a good old-fashioned smack in the face would wake some of these folks up, I’d gladly volunteer. Some deserve a nice slap right now for misleading others.
Gonna start a new comedy routine called “You need a smack if…”
If you’ve promoted livestock dewormer as a Covid cure, you need a smack. Though, to be fair, you’re probably already too sick from taking livestock medication to notice my slapping.
If you’ve said Covid vaccines cause infertilty you’ve spread unsubstantiated misinformation and need a smack.
In fact, they recommend vaccines more for pregnant women now since an unvaccinated mother who gets Covid has higher risk of death for herself and the unborn child. In self reported data from pregnant and nursing mothers who took the vaccine, there were no negative side effects beyond the expected mild vaccine side effects that everyone reported. It’s the safest option for pregnant or nursing mothers.
If you lean more politically to the right and can’t see that even the most diehard right wing folks have secretly received the vaccine because they know it’s important (despite pretending it isn’t to maintain their voter base), you need a smack.
Even the political golden god, former commander-in-chief, told people to get one. And, he had Covid at one point. Demonstrating again, that if you have had Covid, you still need a vaccine since we don’t know yet how long antibodies from having Covid will last. And, at last data check, a person who had Covid previously was potentially 2x more likely to get Covid again if unvaccinated.
It’s beginning to feel like a Jesus table turning in the temple scenario for those of us who want this pandemic to end. Anti-vaccine folks have set up shop in the temple of social media selling their misinformation to the willing masses. Time to flip the tables and kick them out.
Not my best analogy. Forgive me Lord.
Peak frustration
I’ve reached peak frustration. The fact that the Delta variant is affecting more kids now concerns me for my daughter’s sake, as she’s too young to get a vaccine. We have her doing preschool at home, even though the local elementary is open, because after a single day there we realized the precautions at school wouldn’t be enough to protect her from catching Covid from a kid whose unvaccinated parents still send them to school to infect others.
Action Plan?
I can’t suggest that we somehow segregate the vaccinated and unvaccinated because that still seems too far-fetched. But, can the unvaccinated folks just willingly stay home? They have home grocery delivery now.
Let those who were willing to take precautions be out in the world as needed, and if you aren’t willing to participate for sake of humanity, you can stay home in a Covid infection bubble.
If there is any truth to the amount of unvaccinated folks taking up emergency room ICU beds, then some system of helping the folks who were vaccinated first in emergency rooms might be needed. Though, even that has its problems I suppose.
Could we have the unvaccinated hospital where unvaccinated staff tend to unvaccinated patients, and then let eveyrone else go to the normal hospital? Forgive me Lord.
Venting helped a bit
These are my confessions. I needed to get it off my chest. If it makes me a bad Christian, I hope it does so only temporarily. I’ve already alienated most of the demographic for my book, even though my book wasn’t about Covid. Ironically, I’m probably falling into the same “Danger of Divsion” I warned about in the book.
I know I can pray for forgiveness and repent. But, I want it to be genuine. And, at the moment, I genuinely have no sympathy for people who choose not to protect others with the options we have available. Sorry, not sorry.
Chris is currently caught up with his Covid vaccines, and continues to wear a mask in public when around others. He has written a book that is NOT about Covid, that you can check out here. He appreciates your support!
