Christian Courage Vs Vainglorious Display

Coronavirus, Courage, and the Second Temptation of Christ

Discerning the difference between courage, cowardice, and recklessness.

David French

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Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, “‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and “‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’” Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” 

—Matthew 4:5-7

“Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

—Matthew 16:24-26

On March 7, a Christian school not far from my home held a fundraiser, an event full of faithful believers gathered for a virtuous purpose. One person in attendance had COVID-19. Now two dozen people at that event have tested positive, including a dear friend of mine. His wife is symptomatic. Several children are also symptomatic. The faith of these Christian believers was no shield against viral infection.

I thought of this event as I continue to see a division within America’s religious community. Thousands of churches are shutting down, and pastors are struggling to find ways to minister to communities that are increasingly living behind closed doors. But there is resistance. Writing in the American Conservative, Rod Dreher highlighted this story of Baton Rouge pastor Tony Spell openly defying Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards’s ban on gatherings of more than 50 people at a time:

“It’s not a concern,” Spell said of the virus. “The virus, we believe, is politically motivated. We hold our religious rights dear and we are going to assemble no matter what someone says.”

East Baton Rouge Parish District Attorney Hillar Moore says those violating the governor’s proclamation could face prosecution as a last resort. Reverend Spell is not concerned with that and boasted he had an even larger crowd this past weekend, days after the governor’s proclamation was issued.  “I had 1,170 in attendance Sunday,” Spell said. “We have 27 buses on Sundays picking up people in a five-parish area."

The story noted that a different Baton Rouge church was also defying the governor’s order. At still another church, a pastor encouraged people to greet each other and said that his Bible school was open because they’re “raising up revivalists, not pansies.”
Right-wing pastor Rodney Howard-Browne is not about to cancel church or prevent congregants from shaking hands because they are not a bunch of "pansies."  In a more sophisticated (and cautious) context, First Things editor Rusty Reno critiqued Catholic dioceses for suspending public Masses and wrote that America should “keep the churches open”:

In truth, I am demoralized by the Catholic Church’s response to what Ephraim Radner calls “the Time of the Virus.” Those of us who live in densely populated areas are aware of the intense anxiety and fear that has become pervasive. The massive shutdown of just about everything reflects the spirit of our age, which regards the prospect of death as the supreme evil to be avoided at all costs. St. Paul observed that Christ came to free us from our bondage to sin and death. This does not mean we will not sin or die. It means that we need not live in fear.

A Legend In His Own Estimation

Promoted To Levels Beyond One's Competence

Columnist Kate MacNamara  has written a piece severely criticising the present Governor of the Reserve Bank, Adrian Orr.  He has, apparently, been acting like a loose cannon which is exhibiting the same kind of self-regard more usually on display by pompous politicians rather than prudent, wise central bank governors. 

Governor Orr is running a campaign to ensure that big Australian banks commit more prudential capital to their businesses in New Zealand.  In other words, Orr wants to see more reserves in the tank, should there be a crisis in the banking sector in New Zealand.  Now this is not an unworthy or inappropriate issue.  It is very definitely a legitimate and appropriate concern for the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, and its governor, Adrian Orr. 

What is not legitimate nor appropriate is Orr's behaviour or the reported nasty manner in which he has been conducting business.  MacNamara writes:

NZ University Supinely Bows To Chinese Communist Government

For a University That Deserves The Name

Leonid Sirota
Newsroom

[AUT law expert Leonid Sirota says his own university ought to apologise to those behind a cancelled meeting to mark the Tiananmen Square massacre - and begin to live up to its obligations as a university.]

As reported by Newsroom, the Auckland University of Technology, where I teach constitutional law, prevented an event commemorating the Tiananmen massacre from being held on its campus. Despite AUT’s denials, there is good reason to think that this happened as a result of a suggestion, or indeed pressure, from the Chinese government’s diplomatic representatives. This is an ominous sign for the future of the freedom of inquiry and of expression at New Zealand’s universities.

AUT says that the Tiananmen commemoration had not been booked through the appropriate channels, and that in any case no event could possibly be held on campus on a holiday, as this one was supposed to be. It has been insisting, both to Newsroom and in what appear to be canned responses to me and others on Twitter, that the booking contretemps is the only reason why the event had to be cancelled.

This is not easily believable. For one thing, it would be a remarkable coincidence for the booking problem to be discovered and addressed just as the Chinese diplomats were bearing down on AUT’s Vice Chancellor. For another, it seems unlikely that such a mundane issue, and one with a supposedly straightforward resolution, would have prompted the frantic email exchanges among a number of highly-placed university apparatchiks, which Newsroom has published. One rather worries that, in abetting the Chinese Communist Party’s lies about history, AUT is taking its own liberties with the truth.

Douglas Wilson's Letter From Moscow

Snowflakes and Hell

Douglas Wilson
Blog&Mablog

Hell is certainly a terrible thing to envision, and for many Christians it is a difficult doctrine even to defend. Many believers resolve it at the end of the day by deciding we need someplace to put the Hitlers and the Stalins, and then deciding to not look too closely at it thereafter.Last Judgment

But God does not limit Himself to the sins that we consider high wickedness. In the list of the damned given at the end of Revelation, it is striking what He begins with.

“But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death”” (Rev. 21:8, ESV)

“But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death” (Rev. 21:8).

The word rendered as cowardly by the ESV and fearful by the KJV is deilos. It refers to the timid, the skittish, the shy, the cowardly, the fearful. It is the word Jesus uses when He rebukes the disciples on His way to rebuking the winds and the waves (Matt. 8:26; Mk. 4:40).

Now Hell really is an awful prospect, and it will be an awful prospect for all who will be consigned there.