Well, this has been a good month to stay away from social media. I've been avoiding Facebook and Twitter since the end of April, and that appears to have been a prudent decision. Things I have learned from Catholics online:
- The media is overhyping COVID-19 to pave the way for the Democrats (or should I say the Democrat Party, for the more authentic far-right tone?) to step into their new roles as wannabe socialist overlords. Actually COVID-19 is not that bad! People who die from it were going to die anyway! We're all going to die! What's the big fuss? Stop living your life in fear! [say the people who are posting about living in fear of an alleged Democratic plot to overthrow democracy in America].
- Objecting to the idea that vulnerable people might die hideous deaths all alone is not a pro-life position, because the label pro-life should only be used in opposition to abortion and euthanasia. Words have meanings, and therefore "pro-life" does not mean "protecting the right to life." So stop saying that, because it makes people feel bad, like they shouldn't be arguing in favor of a course of action that will lead directly to avoidable excess deaths among the elderly and medically fragile. (This assertion sounds like it must have been cooked up by a Russian bot, because it is (a) breathtakingly illogical and (b) precisely the line of argument that caused 60% of white Catholics to vote for the most incompetent president in history, but no -- this is the actual POV put forward by a very popular Catholic mom-blogger.)
- Our bishops should not be listening to public health experts. No, they should be listening to US, their sheep. Sheep who are committed to good sheepfulness usually tell their shepherds how to do their jobs. In fact, Jesus said he wants the sheep to be freeeee of meanypants shepherds. (An antidote to the madness, if you needed one.)
- Science is overrated. In actual fact, COVID-19 is no worse than the flu, and we don't shut everything down for the flu. Except sometimes science is good, like when it says that receiving Communion on the tongue is no more likely to spread disease than receiving in the hand.
I have some thoughts about these assertions:
- It is entirely appropriate to be worried about a disease that is more than twice as contagious as the flu and at least five times as deadly. (Also, if you're worried about a party attempting to pull a power grab in violation of the will of the people, it is not the Democrats whose maneuvers should keep you up at night. See: Mitch McConnell & Merrick Garland, and a whole lot of nonsense emanating from the Oval Office and culminating in this week's Supreme Court arguments).
- I am going to keep using "pro-life" to mean "protecting the right to life," and "anti-abortion" to mean "specifically, narrowly opposed to abortion." The former term includes the latter, but I take a dim view of "pro-life" perspectives that explicitly exclude the question "How can I avoid spreading a painful and deadly disease within my community?" because the answer is difficult.
- Bishops know more than laypeople about how to bishop, and public health people know more than bishops about how to public-health. The world would be a better place if more people who were tempted to say "I'm no expert, but..." just stopped talking after acknowledging their lack of expertise. (There is this one Catholic blogger who keeps railing against the alleged innumeracy that keeps people from seeing "the truth" -- that the COVID-19 numbers are no big deal and grandma was going to die anyway (that's why she was in the nursing home). It's making me bonkers. Bonkers! Access to a pocket calculator and a Blogger login doesn't make you an epidemiologist; it makes you dangerous.)
- If you see people talking about a "study" in Portland that said communion on the tongue was A-OK, here is the real story: they asked two physicians for their opinions. That is not a "study"; that is not science. I say this as a person who strongly prefers to receive kneeling, on the tongue: I am not going to do that again for a while. It would require my pastor to get closer to my respiratory tract, and I just don't know what might be lurking there. If my desire to show reverence to the Real Presence in the Eucharist supersedes my desire to show reverence to the undeniable presence of Christ in the least of these -- specifically, in the elderly and medically fragile behind me in the communion line -- then my ideas about reverence are badly out of whack.
Huh, it is almost 11:00 and I am going to throw up this rather cranky post and go to bed. Is it a bad idea to toss out hasty and unedited thoughts about being Catholic in the middle of a global pandemic? It probably is, but I think I'm going to do it anyway.
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