Daily Verse | John 19:7
The Jews insisted, “We have a law, and according to that law he must die, because he claimed to be the Son of God.”
Friday’s Reading: Acts 1-4
Saturday’s Reading: Acts 5-7
It’s Friday and we’re only four days away from a form of electoral retribution the likes of which hasn’t been seen in 40 years. All the signs and polling suggest that the Democrats will undergo a shellacking—as long as people get out there and vote. Don’t let the highly questionable 2020 election dissuade you from casting a ballot. It’s really the only method we have for registering our views and every vote is needed.
Remember, they can’t cheat if it isn’t close.
Don’t let it be close.
I thought I’d close the week on an article that has gone viral since it was published in The Atlantic magazine on Monday. “Let’s Declare a Pandemic Amnesty” is written by Emily Oster, author and economist at Brown University.
In the column, she essentially argues that a lot of “precautions” taken during the pandemic “were totally misguided” and that “the thing is: We didn’t know.”
She’s claiming ignorance to excuse the enormous cruelty and damage done to our country and to our relational ties among each other.
The backlash to her proposal has been severe. Todd Starnes:
They closed our churches and our schools. They shut down our businesses. Many of you lost your jobs.
They made you wear a mask that did not work — They made you cancel birthday parties and holiday gatherings.
They left our loved ones to die alone. They sent out the police to shut down funerals.
And now they want you to forget about it. Not a chance, America.
There will be no amnesty. There will be no do-overs. No forgiveness. We must make the Democrats pay for what they did to our nation.
No. Hell, no. Not even a thought other than no.
And screw you.
Because we learned an awful lot about America during the COVID pandemic. We learned who loves this country and its ideals and who would defecate all over them. We learned who loves and trusts our people and who sees them as pawns to be manipulated.
Emily Burns (read the whole thing):
After we have exacted some political retribution, if there is acknowledgement of the wrongs committed and contrition for those wrongs, then we can talk about amnesty.
In conclusion, the only rational response to Oster’s article is to “Just Say No” and to vote on Nov. 8th accordingly.
Those who were responsible for the pandemic travesty need to be held accountable. Anything less is toxic forgiveness.
We are to give a pardon to the officials who, over and over, proved themselves blustering little tyrants, and worse, incompetent? Absolutely not. We are to erase the record of those responsible for leaving sick children to waste away in hospitals all alone, for separating husband from wife, for stopping families from holding the hands of the dying or gathering for their funerals? No, no, and again, no. After mandates forced people out of jobs, and the vaccine-turned-therapeutic failed to stop transmission, are we really to stop asking about its potential side effects, or the relationship between pharmaceutical companies and the FDA? Are we really to let bygones be bygones for masking and lockdowns that will set students back for a decade, that shuttered businesses across the country, that multiplied deaths of despair?
“Let’s acknowledge that we made complicated choices in the face of deep uncertainty, and then try to work together to build back and move forward,” Oster writes.
Sorry, no deal.
You get the idea. Oster says, with her own emphasis, “We didn’t know.” Here’s the thing, Emily: you and the rest of the ruling class acted as if you did know. You demonized people for not masking or refusing the vaccine. You shut down schools and masked children in pre-schools and grade schools. Remember this?
Heartbreaking.
And here’s some people in authority looking like they were making “the many important choices we had to make under conditions of tremendous uncertainty.” You sure they were uncertain?
Here’s fake conservative and liberal grifter David French, who evangelical Christians may still listen to, explaining in August, 2021, that “[t]here is no religious liberty interest in refusing the COVID vaccine.”
At the same time, however, the remaining vaccine holdouts are growing more extreme, and significant parts of the Christian Right are enabling, excusing, and validating Evangelical behavior that is gravely wrong and dangerous to the lives and health of their fellow citizens.
Us “extreme holdouts” are proving that not caving to the pressure from snakes like you was the wiser, more healthy choice.
Amnesty, according to the Encyclopaedia Britannica:
Remarkably, the word amnesty is related to “amnesia.” Clearly she’s asking those of us who opposed all of the “experts” to just shrug it off and move on, to just forget it ever happened.
As a Christian man, I understand the command to forgive. ““If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. If he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times come back to you and says, ‘I repent,’ forgive him” (Luke 17:3-4).
What I don’t hear in Oster’s article is repentance. I hear, Mistakes Were Made. Nor does scripture say anything about forgiving those who are unrepentant. As a believer, I am willing to forgive when I see some contrition. I will forgive when there are meaningful apologies. I will forgive when I see the worst offenders held accountable for the damage they did.
What was done can’t be allowed to happen again, and just pretending that none of it happened so we can all be “friends” again will not prevent it from happening again.
What do you think?
Have a good weekend.
As a Christian brother, much thanks to your Biblical reminder of when to forgive and it’s not necessary or even advisable. Thank you!