a different kind of infection

With local congregations slowing trickling back to church for abbreviated, socially distanced, masked sacrament services, I find the decision on whether to return with them a simple one. With roughly half the ward being COVID-deniers (and they will be first to sign up), I cannot have confidence that they conduct their daily lives in a socially responsible manner. They represent, then, a danger to my physical being. So, thanks, but no thanks. I’ll not be back until there’s a vaccine.
 
With the availability of a vaccine, I will face a much more difficult decision. Do I go back to church and risk a different kind of infection?
 
Half the ward members are COVID-deniers. As such, they have shown themselves incapable of discerning even the most rudimentary truth from the clearest and grossest of errors—errors stemming, as they do, from the lying and murderous occupant of America’s White Outhouse and the false prophets that propagate his sputum.
 
Jesus complained, “O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?”[1] Today, I live among a people who cannot even discern the “face of the sky.” If they cannot discern a truth so clearly obvious, how can I sit and listen to them speak of much less obvious truths and errors? How do I avoid the possible infection they represent?
 
Do they not represent a clear and present danger to my spiritual being?
 
In the end, I will likely go back. Jesus, God Himself, after all, climbed into a human body and walked on this rat-infested planet without fear of spiritual contagion. He did so in hopes of rescuing individuals from the prince of darkness while, at the same time, laying the ground for the undermining and ultimate destruction of that dark prince’s principalities, powers, might, dominions, and spiritual wickedness in high places.[2]
 
I cannot do less than try to follow his example. But, unlike, Jesus, I am a mere man, vulnerable to infection. So, my attendance will be cautious. I will mingle with those who have shown themselves trustworthy lovers of truth. As for the others, I will practice proper spiritual distancing. And I’ll wear a damned mask; one that will filter out the killing droplets of falsehood that flow from the undiscerning lips of TRUTH-deniers.


[1] Matthew 16.3
[2] See Ephesians 6.12