I Guess I’ll Write About COVID-19

Waking up and watching the latest news online and on TV on the 11th of September 2001, many of us knew that the world would be drastically different in the years ahead. An airplane crashing into a building truly sent shock waves around the world.

It may be a slower wake-up with COVID-19, but for better or for worse, the same kind of tectonic shift is happening again.

We don’t know exactly what that shift will look like yet, but it will go far beyond just learning how to deal with future pandemics. Of course, due to the general praise of the media of countries that are cracking down hard, it’s likely that we’ll continue to see governments giving themselves more top-down control in general.

But the effect will also be great on the economy. Small business which struggle from month to month may eventually have to close, even if they survive in the short term. But not only that, there will certainly be those who will use the opportunity to make more money, and to gain more power – though, sadly, it will often be at the expense of others.

(By the way, I will try to write more specifically about the situation here in Mexico shortly.)

The effects of COVID-19 will no doubt be good and bad. Hopefully we will gain more knowledge, allowing us to better fight future diseases. Hopefully Christians will lead the way in self-sacrifice as we help our brothers and sisters, and our communities. Hopefully more people will be faced with realities and questions that are critically important, but often ignored.

Of course, the non-Christian point of view is quite different. From a random evolutionary point of view, the weak are culled and the strong remain – giving the species a better chance of survival in the future. And that’s exactly what COVID-19 is doing – culling the weak.

Many people who are thinking this very thing are too tactful to say it. And thanks to God’s common grace, many people are realizing that it’s someone they love who is at high risk. And so even in a world that seemingly is more and more rebellious against God, there is still talk of protecting the weak.

But every once in a while, someone slips and says something in keeping with the present age. Take for example, Ed Conway in the Times*:

Don’t take this the wrong way but if you were a young, hardline environmentalist looking for the ultimate weapon against climate change, you could hardly design anything better than coronavirus.

Ed Conway

I’m not sure what the “right way” is to take this, but Conway points out that older people are more likely to be “climate change sceptics” (or, at least opposed to the political economic response to climate change that many are recommending – follow the money!). How convenient to get some of those old people out of the way.

The Christian world view, of course, greatly values the wisdom of the elderly (Deuteronomy 32:7; Proverbs 16:31). The non-Christian world view longs to escape from that wisdom and re-write society into an even more rebellious culture, building a tower that will reach to heaven (Genesis 11:4).

We can thank God for the common grace that at least pushes on the brakes a little as the world rushes toward the precipice. But many people are anxious to dismantle the brakes.

And after all, more and more people are calling for the human race to be drastically diminished anyway. Humans are the real plague on the planet, they say. The only solution is to drastically decrease the population.

Once again, it’s the opposite of the biblical world view, that recognizes the God-given value of every human being – a unique value not shared by the rest of the life on the planet. Christians call on people to take care of the planet – but to care for it through people who have an eternal value.

So let’s act as Christians and value the weak and live lives of love and self-sacrifice. Why? Because we’re more than bags of chemicals which came about by chance. We’re not just concerned about the economy and “progress” and temporary comfort and happiness. We are beings who are on an eternal journey, who have a relationship with a Creator. And that view is much more radical than you may think.

* I was pointed to this article by an article in the National Post – Rex Murphy – Even in the midst of a health crisis, climate fanatics never miss an opportunity