Transing myself to own the libs

My friend and debate partner recently sent me an article titled The Evangelical Church is Breaking Apart by Peter Wehner for The Atlantic, published October 24, 2021. Wehner had heard a lot from Evangelical pastors (and reached out to a lot more) that lately there was a lot more dissension within their congregations with large prominent factions accusing him if being insufficiently conservative and “too woke.” Some of these pastors had or were thinking of new careers. So he started looking into what was causing it. Some of what he found: Over decades there has been the growing view that certain political positions were deeply Christian. In those decades Jesus was replaced by John Wayne – a belief in rugged masculinity and Christian nationalism. Then the nasty guy grabbed and ran with that idea. He added hatred and resentments to what a true believer should believe. Part of the problem is the current Evangelical movement rose in the anti-institution spirit of the 1970s. That left individual communities open to insider abuse and corruption because leaders had no guardrails. Another part of the problem is catechism, the basic precepts of the faith. The church has limited time to teach this – usually just the pastor’s sermon which is less than a half hour a week. Yet the society, especially conservative radio and TV, teaches its catechism and is able to do that dozens of hours a week. They’re after ratings and engagement and the best way to do that is through anger and hatred. There is, of course, a similar problem in the progressive church. That means if a particular pastor’s preaching doesn’t match the politics a member hears the rest of the week they’re likely to leave that particular church. The Evangelical church has done a poor job of teaching its values and the values it does teach aren’t always biblical. But whatever they teach they are quick to label that teaching as biblical. What is considered biblical is influenced by the culture, though Evangelicals tend to be loudest in insisting their faith has no cultural influences. Even with the John Wayne influence many still proclaim Jesus as friend, protector, and savior, as do progressives. However, there is a difference in what one needs to be protected and saved from. The militancy of Evangelical faith is often declared to be in response to fear. But it is the Evangelical leadership that is constantly stoking that fear – against communism, humanism, feminism, gay rights, radical Islam, demographic decline, critical race theory, and Democrats. And that constant fear distorts and deforms. Claude Alexander, pastor at Park Church in Charlotte, NC, described the “southernization of the Church.”

Some of the distinctive cultural forms present in the American South—masculinity and male dominance, tribal loyalties, obedience and intolerance, and even the ideology of white supremacism—have spread to other parts of the country, he said.

Each of those, including obedience, support social hierarchy. By obedience they mean obedience to those above you in the hierarchy. So pastors have left or are strongly considering it. And the reasons they give aren’t theological, but political.

Many Christians, though, are disinclined to heed calls for civility. They feel that everything they value is under assault, and that they need to fight to protect it. “I understand that,” [Pastor Scott] Dudley [of Bellevue Presbyterian Church in Bellevue, WA] said. “I feel under assault sometimes too. However, I also know that the early Christians transformed the Roman empire not by demanding but by loving, not by angrily shouting about their rights in the public square but by serving even the people who persecuted them, which is why Christianity grew so quickly and took over the empire. I also know that once Christians gained political power under Constantine, that beautiful loving, sacrificing, giving, transforming Church became the angry, persecuting, killing Church. We have forgotten the cross.” Dudley, my high-school and college classmate, left me with this haunting question: How many people look at churches in America these days and see the face of Jesus? Too often, I fear, when Americans look at the Church, they see not the face of Jesus, but the style of Donald Trump.

We’ve heard of the promotion of various (and useless, even dangerous) substances recommended to the anti-vaxx crowd for treating COVID. These have included hydroxycloroquin (works well for lupus), bleach, and ivermectin (great for horses with worms). A new one is piss – yeah supposedly you can drink your own for great health benefits (my view is my body is getting rid of this stuff for a reason). And Marissa Higgins of Daily Kos discussed yet another. This new recommendation is spironolactone. Yeah, I’d never heard of it, either. But for those who actually need it, it is critical. It is part of an anti-androgen therapy – which trans women take to become more feminine. There’s some twisted logic at play here, more than usual. The use of spiro was promoted by Fox News. They have a long history of an anti-trans agenda. Yet, they are promoting a drug that makes their toxic masculinity crowd less masculine – which in a way would be a blessing, but I’m sure not what they’re after. So is it to create a demand for spiro so actual trans people can’t get it. That happened to lupus patients when there was a big demand for hydroxycloroquin. Or is it a way to associate spiro with a dangerous treatment that trans people become afraid to take it? Or is this just a super high level of stupid? Actual trans women discussed this one on Twitter. Lady Jane Gay said it comes down to “transing myself to own the libs.” Yesterday I mentioned that insurance companies reported a 40% rise in deaths. Micah Pollak, a professor of economics at Indiana University Northwest, listened to the news conference in which the insurance CEO discussed all this. Pollak added that if a person “recovered” from COVID (no longer positive) then died from consequences of the infection (such as heart attack) they aren’t classified as death from COVID. But the virus can linger in the body for 7-8 months. He also noted:

You will also see multiple hospital CEO and presidents talk about how the claim that vaccine mandates are in any way responsible for shortage of staff is ludicrous. It's the opposite, the mandates have resulted in fewer staff out sick and helped REDUCE staff shortages.

Other COVID related things to share: Heather, an ICU doctor, tweeted:

The reason nobody wants to talk about triage is because it opens up the can of worms conversation. If I have 10 people who need a bed and resources to care for 2 of them, it is politically much more comfortable to give inadequate care to all 10. By giving everyone worse outcomes overall, “everyone” gets the same “package” If your chance of a good recovery and excellent functional status would have been X% in normal times, it will be reduced to Y% now. the bar shifts for everyone. the entire population gets sicker ... The much more uncomfortable discussion would be how to maximize excellent care for the most people who are likely to benefit from it. But in this society, people have unrealistic expectations. And our system has done nothing to encourage limit setting. People believe they have a right to demand inappropriate care. They believe we have an obligation to rescue them (repeatedly) from themselves. So, no. We won’t triage. Not explicitly. Not visibly. Not with a guideline or a protocol. Or an approved set of ethical standards that will make sure bias and discrimination aren’t factors. But what that means is that it will be me or one of my many excellent colleagues looking at the list of people who need immediate care and having to make our own judgement call. ... But having an actual conversation about who SHOULD receive invasive, heroic, life sustaining measures and who SHOULD NOT takes a type of leadership and fortitude that we are sorely lacking.

Trisha Greenhalgh , a professor of primary care at Oxford University, tweeted:

Stop testing, play it down, normalise the deaths, deny the long-term consequences, learn to live with it, mock the scientists. Trying to imagine what would've happened if we'd taken the same approach to a previous fast-spreading infectious disease (eg smallpox, polio, TB, HIV). There's an alternative to putting your fingers in your ears and shouting La La La. 1. Acknowledge how it spreads. 2. Use simple measures to reduce spread. 3. Tighten or loosen measures as cases rise or fall. 4. Make buildings safe. 5. Vaccinate the world.

Leah McElrath tweeted (a week ago – I’m getting into that stack of tabs):

At this point, it seems clear the unavailability of rapid tests is a policy choice and not a mistake. Biden promised to provide them when he was a candidate. It never happened. A plan was presented to the WH in October to provide them for the holidays. It was rejected. Why?

Nathan Tankus tweeted:

A lot of how Covid has played out in policy discourse is understandable when you learn that only 4200 college educated white people under 65 died in 2020.

Justin Feldman added, with links to a study:

What if everyone died of covid at the same rate as college-educated white people (of the same age and gender)? In that scenario, nearly 90% fewer people of color ages 25-64 would have died in the US.