MAGA truly is a death cult, though it’s rare for anyone on that side to admit it outright. Enter The Federalist, which today published a piece by its executive editor with the utterly un-ironic headline “For Christians, Dying From COVID (Or Anything Else) Is A Good Thing.”
And she means it.
Dismissing those pushing vaccination as “pagans,” Joy Pullmann — not only an editor of The Federalist but also the proud mother of six — declares bluntly that “God Decides When We Die, Not COVID.” She continues:
life and death belong entirely to God. There is nothing we can do to make our days on earth one second longer or shorter: “all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be,” says the Psalmist.
If your death is preordained, then presumably everything else in your life is as well. If you’re not supposed to take the vaccine because, I guess, God wants you dead, why not just go hog wild and do whatever you want whenever you want because it’s all God’s will.
Then again, maybe Pullmann is wrong about the vaccines. Instead of being a challenge to God’s omnipotence, what if the vaccines are part of God’s plan? Couldn’t God have created the vaccines in order for us to use them to protect ourselves and others?
If we follow Pullmann’s logic and reject a vaccine that will almost certainly do us a great deal of good, why shouldn’t we adopt that reckless attitude when it comes to everything else in the world that can help keep us alive — like seat belts or bicycle helmets. I’m rather doubting that Pullman demands that her (six) kids eschew seatbelts or helmets. What makes vaccines different? Or are there other safety precautions that are, like the vaccines, an affront to God? Does Pullman tell her kids to go run and play in traffic because if one or more get hit by a bus, well, that’s the way God wanted it to be? (I doubt it, but it would be consistent with her logic if she did.)
Her take on COVID is certainly as reckless as telling children to play in traffic. Not only does she mock the vaccines as “pagan”; she’s also convinced that churches should reopen even if they have no way to enforce social distancing. Because God hates Zoom. (I mean, we all sort of do, but it’s safer than sitting in a packed church surrounded by people who think vaccines and masks are tools of the devil.)
But she, she suggests, if Jesus can die on the cross for us,
we can go to our safe [sic], air-conditioned churches and worship. We can even go to the hospital rooms and bedrooms of those dying with infectious diseases and love them to the end, like the imitations of our Master Christians have boldly shown themselves to be for centuries, putting pagans to shame.
I’m not sure what happened with that last sentence in the quote there; I think Satan might have been copyediting it.
Anyway, if Christ can make the ultimate sacrifice, so can we. And we’ll even be rewarded for it!
[F]or Christians, death is good. Yes, death is also an evil — its existence is a result of sin. But, thanks be to God, Jesus Christ has redeemed even death. In his resurrection, Christ has transformed death into a portal to eternal life for Christians.
So get out there and catch some COVID for Jesus, I guess.
The Christian faith makes it very clear that death, while sad to those left behind and a tragic consequence of human sin, is now good for all who believe in Christ. A Christian funeral is a cause for rejoicing, albeit understandably through tears from those of us temporarily left behind. …
This is not a small or unclear doctrine. It is repeated over and over again in scripture. It flatly rejects the heathen idea that death is to be avoided at any cost.
Damn those heathens and their attempts to not catch a deadly virus. Such a heathen thing to do.
Christians are explicitly called to spurn pagans’ approval, advice, and beliefs for the sake of our souls.
So go ahead and spurn the vaccine too; it’s guaranteed to trigger the heathens. And if you ultimately do die of COVID, you’ll get to hang out with Jesus in the afterlife, and the two of you will laugh and laugh at those misguided pagans who had the temerity to try to save their own lives and the lives of others.
It’s almost as if The Federalist is funded by Big Death.
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@Surplus : in your plan, I see a real risk with the “repent” part. IIRC there’s a catch that you need to sincerely repent for your sins ; so if you fail at doing that during the admitely short windows for it that can backfire hard. Hard to repent from the plan that you are currently actively doing.
@Ohlmann, maybe there’s enough wiggle room. Do you think God would be receptive to a “(pushes glasses up) well, actually, the Oxford English Dictionary defines ‘repent’ as…” argument?
@Alan: Delightful cartoon! We lost a 20 year old kitty who had every chronic condition possible for an elderly cat and still hung on that long. Definitely punched all the holes.
I did see a cartoon yesterday of a MAGA-hat wearer and St. Pete pointing to the big “Masks required” sign on the Pearly Gates.
WHTM: come for the feminism and antifascism, stay for the cartoons and “Wicker Man” discussion! (and los carpinchos)
I betcha she believes in gun ownership so people can protect themselves.
Since The Wicker Man came up I’ll post the following:
Necronomidol, like the typical Japanese idol group, started with a concept, and then the members were recruited. But unlike the average idol group Necronomidol sing about things like the end of the world and monsters from the abyss.
As is common for idol groups the members have changed multiple times. Two of the singers in the video have already left since it was released earlier this year. Himari Tsukishiro, the tallest woman in the video, is currently the senior member, something I doubt she expected when she joined in 2017.
I, an actual pagan, pity her and her family for having signed on to a death cult.
@ gss ex noob
Speaking of our furry overlords…
“Sod your hooman rules.”
@ tim
Ooh, cheers for that. If we’re doing Japanese rock bands with Lovecraft obsessions I’ll trade you Ningen Isu.
@tim gueguen; @Alan Robertshaw:
I see your Necronomidol and Ningen Isu and raise you Seikima II, although their schtick is Satanic rather than Lovecraftian: they’ve cranked the Western Satanic Metal aesthetic (and consequent Satanic Panic) up to 11 by claiming to be honest-to-Beelzebub demons come from Hell to usher in the Apocalypse.
Let’s see if the same person criticises the shutdowns on economic grounds…because Jesus was so concerned that money would continue to be made.
@Alan: Maybe Hector let himself in, which lets the hoomans off the hook. Kittehs need to be inside sometimes. Mine in this millennium have been inside all the time; previous century’s cats only went out on a leash.
@tim g: I saw Necronomidol on actual US TV once, though I don’t remember when/where. I like that Lovecraft would have hated them, too. Women! Asians!
@GSS ex-noob: I suspect that Lovecraft might be equally dismayed to learn that one of his foremost literary scholars is an Indian-American: http://stjoshi.org/
More Lovecraftian rock: here’s “Ieya” by Toyah Willcox, inspired by the idea of humans striving to become God and childhood nightmares of being haunted by Lovecraftian horrors; she was herself a practitioner of Ceremonial Magick at that point in her life:
@Full Metal Ox:
Oh lord, S.T.Joshi.
The fact that Joshi being Indian-American might have dismayed Lovecraft himself would likely be a bit of a shock to Joshi, who has been known to go into extended rants at anybody who criticizes Lovecraft in any way, including criticism by bringing up the man’s pretty blatant racism.
Joshi was one of the louder voices screaming about Lovecraft being ‘censored’ when the World Fantasy Award changed its trophy to not be a bust of Lovecraft a few years back. He could be treated as a cautionary tale for anybody who considers themselves a defender of someone that others see as problematic.
Seikama II’s leader, Demon Kakka as he currently calls himself, is a real interesting character. He literally never appears in public out of character, and his real identity is secret. This includes his work as a part time commentator for sumo wrestling, which he’s been a fan for most of his life. When his friend former sumo champion Hiroshi Wajima died he was a pallbearer at Wajima’s funeral, in costume.
Demon Kakka has committed to the bit more than KISS ever did, then.
@Jenora: Joshi is a master class in denial, isn’t he? The new WFA trophy is SO much cooler, in any case.
I really like what Ruthann Emrys has done with the Mythos.
@Dave
The idea of a god making it impossible to kill yourself makes me think of I have no mouth and I must scream.
Sorry to necro; but seems best fit.
Bees socially distance!
https://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abj1398
@Alan: Yeah, but bees are almost all guuuuurls, so there. Feminism cooties!