As I read through John chapter 9 in my Bible recently, it struck me that what occurred in that passage bore a striking resemblance to what we see happening in America today. For those unfamiliar, the Pharisees were, during the time of Jesus, the Jewish religious leaders, led by the High Priest, and the scribes were responsible for transcribing the law and reading it in the synagogues (some postulate the scribes were also lawyers). The Pharisees were so concerned with keeping God’s law that they created additional laws to put an additional hedge around God’s law; thus, by obeying the Pharisees’ law, one could presumably avoid breaking God’s law. Whether the intent was honorable, the result was not. The Pharisees’ traditions, for the Pharisees themselves and the Jews under their religious jurisdiction, supplanted God’s law.
As John 9 opens, Jesus, on a Sabbath (Saturday), the Jewish day of rest, heals a man born blind, a miracle never seen prior. The man is presented to the Pharisees, and they proceed question him about his healing. When he answered that Jesus had healed him, the Pharisees fact-checked him, stating that Jesus couldn’t be from God because He was breaking the Sabbath, and questioned whether the healed man was truly born blind. The man’s parents are brought in, and being concerned they would be ostracized if they contradicted the Pharisees, they confirm their son’s identity and his testimony of being born blind, but they refuse to comment on his healing. At that, the Pharisees once again question the now-sighted man regarding his healing, seeking an answer different from his first. Exasperated at their repeated questioning and refusal to accept his answer that Jesus healed him, the man says:
Well, here is an amazing thing, that you do not know where He is from, and yet He opened my eyes. We know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is God-fearing and does His will, He hears him. Since the beginning of time it has never been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. If this man were not from God, He could do nothing.
John 9:30-33
At this, the Pharisees resort to ad hominem, attacking the healed man and extolling their own superior education and piety, then they cast him out, essentially excommunicating him. The Pharisees were so entrenched in the belief system they themselves created, they refused to see the truth standing right in front of them. No matter the evidence presented, anything contrary to their established truth could not be accepted because of what they could stand to lose personally or politically. So invested were they in their own tradition, that the challenge Jesus presented prompted them to seek His death.
Over the past few years, we’ve seen similar events play out in our country. People create a belief system around an idea or ideology, and regardless of any facts presented, they will work hard to preserve that belief system because of the emotional investment in that system. One of the most poignant examples of this can be seen in the official response to COVID-19. In the COVID-19 story, Saint Anthony of Fauci plays the part of high priest, the leader of the Pharisees, the CDC and FDA compose the council of the Pharisees, and the media and fact-checkers stand in place of the scribes.
As COVID-19 began spreading, the Pharisees at the CDC came up with models and plans to help protect us all. The blessed St. Fauci, Science Himself, being infallible when speaking ex-cathedra, prophesied that COVID-19 would present like a bad flu season and that masks were not necessary, at least until he later declared it was worse than flu and masks were necessary. When they believed COVID-19 would be far worse, lockdowns became the dogma of the day. Early treatment options were deemed taboo, and only in the event of severe cases, hospitalization and mechanical ventilation were recommended. Then, in 20 Fauci 12:9, the High Priest exclaimed, “I would say 50% would have to get vaccinated before you start to see an impact…But I would say 75 to 85% would have to get vaccinated if you want to have that blanket of herd immunity.” (https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/12/15/946714505/fauci-predicts-u-s-could-see-signs-of-herd-immunity-by-late-march-or-early-april). That developed into the religious recitation, “thou must receiveth the jab; those who remaineth unjabbed shall bringeth down a plague upon us all!” The scribes recorded hastily all that their religious overlords proclaimed and shouted it from the rooftops. Case and death numbers scrolled across television screens for months on end.
They even had what could be seen as their own set of commandments:
Thou shalt have no authorities before Fauci and the CDC.
Thou shalt accept no COVID-19 information from anyone except official sources.
Thou shalt wear a mask at all times, even whilst thou driveth alone in the car.
Unless thou art essential, thou shalt worketh from home or thou shalt not worketh at all.
Thou shalt maintain a distance of six feet from all other humans.
Thou shalt walk one way only down grocery store aisles.
Thou shalt not gather together with family, even for special occasions.
Thou shalt test regularly, even when thou showest no symptoms.
Thou SHALT taketh the jab.
Thou shalt not taketh notice when the Pharisees and Scribes violate these commandments.
This is why any well-credentialed doctors who sought the means of early treatment or prophylaxis were declared heretics by our blessed Saint and his Pharisees. No amount of evidence presented, no trials showing that well-known, widely-used medications or supplements could help mitigate symptoms or speed recovery would be accepted. Only obeisance and a hearty “Thus sayeth Fauci!” was acceptable. Despite their many accolades, published papers, and peer-reviewed trials, many of these doctors and medical personnel were excommunicated from their profession. Their admonitions about safe and effective pharmaceuticals for early treatment were deemed blasphemous, and those putting forward such abominations labeled heretics.
Those outside the medical profession soon fell in line as well, seeking salvation at the hands of the Pharisees. “Please, tell us what we must do to be saved,” was the collective cry of the religious. Soon the zealots themselves began persecuting those who would not follow the commands of the Pharisees. “Haven’t you read, ‘thou shalt not kill?’ Put on your mask, you murderer!” was a common refrain with many pointing and screeching like Donald Sutherland’s character at the end of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Many recited, “how can you not get yourself and your kids injected? Do you want to die a horrible death? More horrible than the death you could die with or from the injection?” How many of the jabbed wished death on the unjabbed and exclaimed that those who would not subject themselves to medical experimentation should be unable to avail themselves of medical services? Even now, the faithful can be seen donning their religious garb (masks), regardless of the fact that there is no evidence that masks do anything to slow the spread of any virus, and proudly proclaiming their weekly boosters, and propaganda to push the poison potion continues to floods the airwaves.
Yet, what has happened? Why have we not yet reached herd-immunity? Why do people continue getting infected after receiving the shots? How is it that hospitals now report higher numbers of injected suffering severe cases of COVID-19 and even greater mortality than the unjabbed? What about all of those who have died from the shot itself?
Just like the Pharisees of old, our modern-day Pharisees and their followers cannot let go of their religion. If any of these questions are posed, you have not enough faith - cast out the unbeliever! The authorities cannot and must not be questioned, because the damage done by their tenets is atrocious and they stand to lose their power and authority. This is why they double down even on the shots in the face of overwhelming evidence that they do more harm than good. Instead, everything else under the sun, things that have been normal for hundreds if not thousands of years, must be causing all of the deaths the likes of which we’ve never seen before.
None of this is science - it is religion. People were led by Fauci and the CDC into religious adherence to their diktats. Such faith isn’t only seen in issues surrounding COVID-19, however.
Other religious ideas have sprung up over the past few years, if not decades. Since Roe v. Wade was decided by the Supreme Court in 1973, people have been led to believe that abortion is a constitutional right, that what is growing inside a pregnant woman’s womb is just a clump of cells (no different than a tumor), and that what is growing inside a pregnant woman is her body. The reaction to the recent Supreme Court ruling in the Dobbs case reverting issues of abortion to State legislatures shows just how religious an issue this is. So religious an issue is this that at least one of abortion’s ardent supporters recently published an article in which she admits that abortion takes a life, and then goes on to argue why that’s ok (https://www.thenation.com/article/society/abortion-ethics-gestation-reproduction/ ). As usual, the media is happy to run with the propaganda that the Supreme Court is taking away the rights of women (what is a woman?) and that it is because of white supremacy. Hang the heretics!
While CRT (Critical Race Theory) has festered mostly hidden in the background since the early 1970s, it took on new life with the advent of the BLM movement. Though no actual systemic racism (at least as put forth by proponents of CRT and BLM) could be proved, and statistics stand against them, the idea that America is essentially racist and now suffers from a scourge of white privilege and white supremacy has become the creed du jour. BLM, which rose to the forefront after an officer killed Michael Brown in self-defense (this has been proven without a doubt), brought us to a point where a violent felon is essentially sainted, and the officer who negligently killed him is accused of being a racist murderer despite there being no evidence of the incident being racially motivated. History is being rewritten by groups such as the 1619 Project, claiming that America did not start with the Declaration of Independence and the signing of the Constitution, but instead that America as we know it began over 100 years earlier on a foundation of racism and slavery. Statues of historical figures are being torn down and institutions bearing their names renamed because they have been deemed racist. This is even being taught in many schools. And the media is all too happy to foment the lies. Crucify!
Likewise is the issue of transgenderism. Even now, the International Classification of Diseases, eleventh edition (ICD-11) published by the World Health Organization, labels transgenderism as a psychological disorder termed “gender incongruence” (https://icd.who.int/browse11/l-m/en#/http%3a%2f%2fid.who.int%2ficd%2fentity%2f90875286 - the term has morphed over the years through many iterations including gender dysphoria and gender identity disorder). Yet the religious adherents insist on accepting people’s self-identification and “preferred pronouns,” and that denying gender-affirming therapies (dangerous hormone-blocking pharmaceuticals and irreversable mutilating surgery) is akin to the worst kind of abuse. Never mind that there is no evidence these “therapies” provide any benefit; but we must not label it something that might be stigmatizing lest we be canceled. So desperate are they to make this disorder appear normal, that women’s opportunities are being taken by men in sports (Lia Thomas anyone), employment (calling Rachel Levine), and even in the title of “Woman of the Year” (Thomas was so named by the NCAA and Levine by USA Today). Not only does the media constantly push this, but even big corporations are fighting against the effort to stop people from indoctrinating children with it. Excommunicate the infidels!
Many issues with similar adherence could be listed, but these provide a good foundational example of how religious the irreligious actually are. It seems that those Americans who fight against religion and feel religion should be anathema in an enlightened and woke age are, in reality, even more religious than those who claim adherence to a traditional faith. While most who claim faith in an all-powerful creator, contrary to aspersions otherwise, most often have reason and logic supporting their faith, those who castigate the religious hold to their faith despite any evidence revealing the flaws in their beliefs.
So Good Chad! Loved it. A great connection to John 9 as you applied what happened to the blind man then to what we are seeing today. Nothing new under the sun (son). We still have Pharisees (I call them Phariblinds). We still have blind men. We still have control and fear (as well as the divide and conquer) thing going on. Same old same old. The question is how many can recognize the spirits behind it?
Thank you for making the Biblical connection. I KNEW I had heard these stories before and now I understand why I was thinking that.
I was thinking we could call the leftists church "The church of the illogical". Their doctrine is the belief in idiocy?