Two theories are circulating about the origin of the COVID-19 coronavirus.
The media are still selling the idea that it probably arose from an infected bat at an outdoor live animal food market in Wuhan. That’s also the Chinese Communist Party’s line.
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According to Dr. Michael L. Brown, whether you realize it or not, war is raging in our nation. This war is not with a flesh and blood opponent, but rather with what he terms the “spirit of Jezebel” – demonic forces that are at work in individuals today, just as those same spirits were at work in individuals in biblical times.
It’s admirable that houses of worship can adapt so quickly in times of crisis. Millions of Americans are staying spiritually engaged thanks to the incredible effort of churches and faith leaders who harnessed the power of technology, social media and the Internet. Even more remarkable is that churches surpassed virtual attendance records even though the quarantine forced them to transition overnight to online services.
An essential principle of the United States is that it is a free country, with individual liberties guaranteed, and government power limited. That concept is now being tested. A deadly worldwide pandemic has led to draconian lockdowns, forced closings of businesses, and even mandatory “stay at home” orders, some with Orwellian, friendly sounding names like “Safer at Home” or “Stay Home, Stay Healthy” – but still mandatory and enforced by police.
For those who don’t remember, back in 2017 CNN took a swipe at President Trump’s propensity to refer to them as fake news by creating an advertisement of a single apple on screen with a narrator reading this copy...
Earlier this month, David Frum spilled his spleen in a lengthy harangue at The Atlantic titled, This Is Trump’s Fault. Against the backdrop of the coronavirus outbreak, the author of the upcoming Trumpocalypse: Restoring American Democracy, spent more than 5000 words (that would be about a ten-page, single-spaced Word document, by the way) taking the president to task in hyperbolic, over-the-top, no-holds-barred terms. The piece was a doozy that, IMO, revealed more about David Frum than about the object of his harangue.
The effects of COVID-19 reach far beyond the realm of human health. In Spotlight this week Pastor Calvin Lindstrom and I consider Americans’ right of religious liberty vs. submission to governmental authorities, especially in light of restrictions on “non-essential,” in-person worship services and church gatherings. Should Christians be governed by Hebrews 10:25 or Romans 13 and what is a proper, biblical response to government overreach?
The biggest threat to the United States today is not a virus, but rather “virus-shaming.” The greatest challenge the American experiment faces in this dark hour is not our need for safety but our loss of liberty. And the complicity of the church in the wholesale abandonment of this self-evident truth is no less than stunning.
Computer models are seductive even though they are very often completely wrong. The more complicated they are the greater chance that they are wrong. Like children, they copy their parents -- the model architects. Confirmation bias involves cherry picking facts to obtain a result consistent with preexisting beliefs. A complicated computer model with many degrees of freedom is a perfect environment for confirmation bias to have its way. The investigator usually will believe, or at least claim, that his model is objectively setup without bias entering into the effort.
