introduction

On Sunday, people of my faith, I suppose by the millions, conducted a day of fasting and prayer. They fasted and prayed that a merciful Father in Heaven stretch forth His mighty hand and allay if not outright halt the devastating worldwide spread of the coronavirus.
 
I have asked myself, “Do I believe God can do so?” Yes, I believe He does possess the capacity.
 
“But,” I wonder, “should He?” “Does He have the right?” Or, put differently, “Would doing so be the right thing to do?” Perhaps we could ask, “Does He possess the will?” These last questions are more difficult, and ones that are above my paygrade. In the end, I can do no more than plead, submissively, “Thy will be done.” I am tempted, I admit, to rebel against this final solution. I am tempted to play God.
 
I have asked myself these questions in light of another question that I asked and answered long ago. “Do I believe God ‘causes’ disasters?” “Does he bring disasters as a call to repentance?” Bringing the questions up to date, I could ask, “Did God ‘cause’ the current pandemic as a call to repentance?” These questions elicit a resounding, “No!” Notwithstanding scriptural rhetoric, I do not believe that God causes disasters in order to call his children to repentance. I do not believe that God has a huge “punishment console” in front of him with buttons he can push when a call to repentance is needed.

Does He have a console to stop them? I don’t know.
 

 
   cause and effect—outlining a process

Now, to be clear, I do not believe that anyone “caused” the pandemic. The Chinese did not cause it. Caligula did not cause it. The electorate’s disastrous decision to elect such a sick and perverted man did not cause it. It was coming no matter who governed where. It was coming to America no matter who was sitting in the white house. Health officials have been vainly warning of this for years—years before Caligula was even a twinkle in the electorate’s eye. The virus is simply part of the natural world. There is no need to blame anyone, no man, woman, child, group, nation, or God for the virus or the pandemic whose charge it leads.
 
Having said all that, I do believe that the severity of the current pandemic is “caused.” The severity of the pandemic is, in large measure, a result of human choices. The choices, decades in the making, in preparation for and response to the pandemic have been pathetic. These choices—preparatory and responsive—have been infused with sinfulness. There can be no doubt. Sin has made the pandemic more severe than it might have otherwise been. I’ll not argue about this assertion. I’ll not hear any arguments against it. Any argument against it is less that a puff of air.
 
My stubbornness might lead the reader to stop reading right here and now. So be it. But, if the reader is curious, I will try to explain. I will do so as simply as I can, for that is the only way I can understand it myself. I am going to outline, in reverse,[1] a process of “cause and effect” that leads to our current predicament. I am going to use my own country, the U.S, as it is the one with which I am most familiar. It may look different in different countries.

Ÿ A pandemic sickens millions of Americans,
killing tens of thousands more than would be the case under a moral and competent leadership[1] Ÿ
 
Ÿ The president and his administration, more concerned with the settling of scores,
propping up the president’s pathetically fragile ego and the ungodly profit margins of the wealthy for purposes of his reelection continues to dawdle Ÿ
 
Ÿ The president and his administration,
more concerned with propping up the president’s pathetically fragile ego,
and propping up the ungodly profit margins of the wealthy for purposes of his reelection
refuses to act early when warned by health and intelligence agencies of a looming crisis[2] Ÿ
 
Ÿ The nation elects an unquestionably and demonstrably
immoral and unprincipled man as its president as he gives voice to their self-induced frustrations Ÿ
 
Ÿ The nation grows dissatisfied and frustrated with its government Ÿ
 
Ÿ Consistent with the new political and religious ideologies,
individual greed, and rejection of community (including racism),
public officials systematically starve government of needed financial resources,
thus reducing government’s capacity to function appropriately.
Agencies so starved include those related to human health and pandemic response Ÿ
 
Ÿ The nation elects public officials who, discerning the nation’s mood,
run on platforms that are hostile to government and contrary to good governance[3] Ÿ 
Ÿ Greedy for more materialistic vanities,
chaffing at the restraints community places on induvial appetites,
less inclined to help others through government tax-based programs,
and heeding idolatrous ideologies and false religions,
the nation’s citizenry calls for less government Ÿ
 
Ÿ Making virtue of vice, calling good evil, and evil good,
secular economic ideologies are developed and “Christianity” corrupted
in order to justify the nation’s appetite for and addictions to materialistic consumption[4] Ÿ
 
Ÿ The nation, addicted to consumption, demands more and more and more. Ÿ
 
Ÿ The nation grows rich Ÿ


[1] At this point, it seems this is the best case scenario. Health officials today warn that the deaths could add up to 100 to 200 thousand. Of course, for too many Americans, “experts” of all strips are not to be believed. After all, it is from the gut that all true thinking and truth comes.

[2] This is beyond rational dispute

[3] “Government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem.”

[4] Economic Neoliberalism and Prosperity Gospel among them.

​Note: Please don’t get me wrong. Notwithstanding scriptural rhetoric ascribing such things to God, I am not saying that “God sent a pandemic to call a generation to repentance.” I do not believe in any such god—little g. But a pandemic can certainly serve to turn one’s heart back to God and the principles he has given us.
He has given us ethical principles by which to live. In his infinite wisdom, he has given us principles that he knows make for stable, healthy functioning societies. Because we have ignored these principles, selling our souls for vanities of all kinds, built up churches and abusing our more vulnerable fellow citizens in the process, when a challenge to our society naturally comes, we are unprepared for the challenge. We have been too busy sinning to build and upkeep the watchtower. So, the enemy has come upon us unawares.[1]
 
 
“After this manner do I write concerning them.” This is how Enos ended his lamentation concerning the impervious hardness of his people. There is not the slightest doubt that Enos would say much the same if he time-traveled into American society as it has devolved today.
 
No matter how much evidence has bombarded them on a daily basis over the past three years, somewhere between 30 and 35% of the American electorate have been impervious to warnings concerning Caligula’s deeply immoral, profoundly dishonest, and grossly incompetent governance.
 
As I, from my self-isolation, watch the coronavirus pandemic unfold, I fear that the day of “exceeding harshness” in “preaching and prophesying”—a day in which I and many others have been raising a warning voice—has come to end. Because the preaching and prophesying has gone largely unheeded, it may just be that the real thing is now upon us. The “preaching” may come from the “voice of pestilence.”[2] One fears that it is just this kind of lamentation that we will now hear far too often.
 
“Yet hear the word of the LORD, O ye women,
      and let your ear receive the word of his mouth,
and teach your daughters wailing,
      and every one her neighbour lamentation.
 
’For death is come up into our windows,
      and is entered into our palaces,
to cut off the children from without,
      and the young men from the streets.’”[3]
 
I am reminded of another nation that were brought to lamentation after repeated warnings and unheeded calls to repentance. This lamentation was heard through thousands upon thousands of open windows.
 
“And Pharaoh rose up in the night, he, and all his servants, and all the Egyptians; and there was a great cry in Egypt; for there was not a house where there was not one dead.”[4]
 
Jeremiah did not wish the lamentation for his fellow citizens. When it came, it brought him no pleasure.
 
“Oh that my head were waters,
   and mine eyes a fountain of tears,
that I might weep day and night
   for the slain of the daughter of my people!”[5]
 
Moses did not wish this upon the recalcitrant Egyptian empire. He warned thrice, thrice more, and thrice again. No, none hopes for any such repeat performance today.
 
Yet, nothing has penetrated the impenitent hearts of Caligula’s disciples. One hopes that it will not take a deceased friend, grandfather, mother, father, sister, son, or daughter to awake their sense of decency and decide that this evil Caligula is unfit for governance and must be removed from office—removed for the health and safety of the body politic. However, with news today that a sizable number of Caligula’s advisors have reprehensively advocated for more aggressive military actions against an Iran reeling from the coronavirus almost brings one to despair, fearing that the day of repentance has passed a stubborn nation by.


[1] Actually, it was not “unawares.” The dastardly evil man in the White house was warned months ago, but he would not take heed, sinfully being more concerned with his own prestige and stock portfolio than the lives of his fellow citizens.

[2] See DC 43.25

[3] Jeremiah 9.20-21

[4] Exodus 12.30

[5] Jeremiah 9.1

​I am going to be perfectly honest. Say things as I see them. For many, my observations and, finally, my prayer will not be pleasant. The truth can be a brutal thing.
 
First, we need to understand this.
 
There is not a single individual who lived in “Biblical Times” that would not identify Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Laura Ingraham, and all the other pundits on right-wing radio or over on FOX—or, as I call it, WOLF—as prophets. These ancients would do so based upon their observations of the speech of these opinion makers and the ‘reverence’ with which their audience, or disciples, hear and follow them.
 
In very point of fact, while not using such “sacred” language as “prophet,” the audiences/ disciples of such “news sources” possess an attitude toward these societal vampires that exactly parallels the ancients’ attitude toward prophets.
 
Unfortunately, they are false prophets.
 
I do not understand for the life of me how these vipers have survived; maintained their power over their audiences as long as they have. They have repeatedly been caught in one lie after another. Their survival, I suppose, can be credited to their audience’s enjoyment in having their ears itched.[1] Now, once more, in real time as it were, we are witnessing their lies and deceptions. Their dishonesty and lack of integrity. We have seen it most recently in the abrupt shift in their rhetoric on the coronavirus pandemic. Ten days ago, aping their idol, Caligula, in his lying and irresponsible rhetoric, they refused to acknowledge it as “pandemic,” and prophesied that it was a hoax—one of Caligula’s favorite words, rivaled only by the equally unjustified “witch hunt” and “fake news.” Caligula and his pack of lying scoundrels—and this is being far too polite—might just as well have lived in Jeremiah’s Jerusalem.
 
“For from the least of them even unto the greatest of them
   every one is given to covetousness;
and from the prophet even unto the priest
   every one dealeth falsely.
They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying,
   ‘Peace, peace;’
      when there is no peace.
Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? 
   Nay, they were not at all ashamed,
      neither could they blush:
therefore they shall fall among them that fall:
   at the time that I visit them they shall be cast down,
      saith the LORD.”[2]
 
As it turns out, it was the false vision infecting the hearts of FOX’s wolves’ that was the hoax. The deadly threat of the virus wasn’t a hoax after all. Certainly, no Democrat conspiracy. So, what do we hear from them now? It’s an emergency of the first order. Why the shift? Their god, Caligula, has spoken a new word, and his wish is their command.
 
Unfortunately, their shift has come too late. Lies have consequences. No matter how much they change their tune now, people will die because of their previous lies and the delays those lies caused in a wise and sane response to the threat.
 
Yes, a wise and sane society would have long ago gotten rid of these false prophets of false profit. Is it too late? For some, yes. Some will die because of the lies they told, and Caligula’s lies that they passed on. But I have to hope it is not too late for our society.
 
However, measures must be taken to defeat the FOX virus.
 
I have quoted Moses warning before, but it is particularly appropriate in the present circumstances.
 
“But the prophet, which shall presume to speak a word in my name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or that shall speak in the name of other gods, even that prophet shall die. And if thou say in thine heart, ‘How shall we know the word which the LORD hath not spoken?’ When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.”[3]
 
Make no mistake about it, right-wing radio and FOX’s vipers have been speaking in the name of a god. In the view of far too many “Christians,” they spoke the thoughts and words of their God, Jesus. But American Christianity’s god is no longer Jesus. It has become the substance of an idol. Nothing more or less that an adulterous Moloch.
 
The unholy ministry of the right-wing prophets must be ended. I am fine with the fact that we no longer stone adulterers and adulteresses—good thing, really, least our population be about half of what it is today. And so, I would not advocate a literal stoning of any of the right-wing wolves in sheep clothing. But their ability to poison the airwaves must be severed, once and for all.
 
In a democracy, we worry, legitimately, about protecting the “freedom of speech.” But protecting the systematic—dare one say, Network—“freedom of lying,” does not protect democracy. The sudden about-face by FOX’s false prophets is evidence of their previous lies.[4] They will, of course, hide behind the defense that they genuinely believed one thing and then had a change of heart. Penitents, they be! Just in time for Easter. In the spirit of the Hebrew prophets: Bullshit! Such practitioners of priestcraft always play this faux card.
 
“Nevertheless, this did not put an end to the spreading of priestcraft through the land; for there were many who loved the vain things of the world, and they went forth preaching false doctrines; and this they did for the sake of riches and honor. Nevertheless, they durst not lie, if it were known, for fear of the law, for liars were punished; therefore they pretended to preach according to their belief; and now the law could have no power on any man for his belief.”[5]
 
FOX’s wolves never believed a word they said. They only said it because it earned them big contracts with their employer and glory in the eyes of their disciples. They “went forth preaching false doctrines”—which they pretended to believe—“for the sake of riches and honor.” Oh, yes, their success, like that of Korihor, may have led them on occasion to “believe” a lie.
 
“But behold, the devil hath deceived me… And I have taught his words; and I taught them because they were pleasing unto the carnal mind; and I taught them, even until I had much success, insomuch that I verily believed that they were true; and for this cause I withstood the truth, even until I have brought this great curse upon me.”[6]
 
But this is no more an excuse for them, than it was for the great anti-Christ, Korihor.
 
“Behold, I know that thou believest, but thou art possessed with a lying spirit, and ye have put off the Spirit of God that it may have no place in you; but the devil has power over you, and he doth carry you about, working devices that he may destroy the children of God…. But behold, it is better that thy soul should be lost than that thou shouldst be the means of bringing many souls down to destruction, by thy lying and by thy flattering words; therefore… God shall smite thee, that thou shalt become dumb, that thou shalt never open thy mouth any more, that thou shalt not deceive this people any more….
 
“Now Alma said unto him: This will I give unto thee for a sign, that thou shalt be struck dumb, according to my words; and I say, that in the name of God, ye shall be struck dumb, that ye shall no more have utterance.”[7]
 
May it be so, even now!
 
Nuff said? Well, then, I will end with a prayer. I will pray the words of the Psalter. May he hear my complaint and act in his righteousness to bring deliverance from the ravening wolves at FOX and other right-wing outlets. May he change the many poisoned minds and hearts. May he, too, heal the virus racked bodies that will surround us over the coming weeks and months.
 
“I was envious at the foolish,
   when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
For there are no bands in their death:
   but their strength is firm.
They are not in trouble as other men;
   neither are they plagued like other men.
Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain;
   violence covereth them as a garment.
Their eyes stand out with fatness:
   they have more than heart could wish.
They are corrupt, and speak wickedly concerning oppression:
   they speak loftily.
They set their mouth against the heavens,
   and their tongue walketh through the earth.
“Until I went into the sanctuary of God;
   then understood I their end.
Surely thou didst set them in slippery places:
   thou castedst them down into destruction.
How are they brought into desolation, as in a moment! 
   they are utterly consumed with terrors.”[8]
 
“Why standest thou afar off, O LORD? 
   why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble?
“For the wicked boasteth of his heart’s desire,
   and blesseth the covetous, whom the LORD abhorreth.
The wicked, through the pride of his countenance,
   will not seek after God:
      God is not in all his thoughts.
His ways are always grievous;
   thy judgments are far above out of his sight:
      as for all his enemies, he puffeth at them.
He hath said in his heart, “I shall not be moved:
   for I shall never be in adversity.”
His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud:
   under his tongue is mischief and vanity.
He sitteth in the lurking places of the villages:
   in the secret places doth he murder the innocent:
      his eyes are privily set against the poor.
He lieth in wait secretly as a lion in his den…
“Break thou the arm of the wicked and the evil man:
   seek out his wickedness till thou find none.”[9]
 
“The transgression of the wicked
   saith within my heart,
that there is no fear of God
   before his eyes.
For he flattereth himself in his own eyes,
   until his iniquity be found to be hateful.
The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit:
   he hath left off to be wise, and to do good.
He deviseth mischief upon his bed;
   he setteth himself in a way that is not good;
      he abhorreth not evil.
“There are the workers of iniquity fallen:
they are cast down, and shall not be able to rise.”[10]
 
“They are inclosed in their own fat:
   with their mouth they speak proudly.
They have now compassed us in our steps:
   they have set their eyes bowing down to the earth;
Like as a lion that is greedy of his prey,
   and as it were a young lion lurking in secret places.…”[11]
 
”For the sin of their mouth
   and the words of their lips
let them even be taken in their pride:
   and for cursing and lying which they speak.
Consume them in wrath,
   consume them, that they may not be:
and let them know that God ruleth in Jacob
   unto the ends of the earth.
And at evening let them return;
   and let them make a noise like a dog,
      and go round about the city.
Let them wander up and down for meat,
   and grudge if they be not satisfied.”[12]
 


[1] See 2 Timothy 4.3

[2] Jeremiah 6.13-15

[3] Deuteronomy 18.20-22

[4] One can witness for themselves the tiniest sliver of their vile conspiracy against truth at the following link: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/fox-news-coronavirus-supercut-video_n_5e71ac69c5b6eab7793e9bf6

[5] Alma 1.16-17

[6] See Alma 30.53

[7] See, Alma 30.42-49

[8] From Psalm 73

[9] From Psalm 10

[10] From Psalm 36

[11] From Psalm 17

[12] From Psalm 59