An Unheeded Lesson

This article may rile some readers. However, if US churches wish to avoid contributing to the human suffering and loss of life associated with the COVID-19 pandemic as well as damaging the public image of American Christianity, they need to let science, not politics, guide their response to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

President Trump’s contracting COVID-19 should be a lesson to all of us. It is a lesson that I believe will go unheeded. Trump’s statements and actions while he was in hospital and his statements and actions after leaving the hospitals point to that conclusion.

Upon returning to the White House, President Trump discarded his face mask even though he is still infectious. It shows a complete disregard for the health and safety of those around him. Coupled with the propensity of the White House to withhold and manipulate information regarding the COVID-19 pandemic and the president’s health, what might have been a useful lesson on the danger of ignoring the guidance of health experts against the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus will itself be ignored.

Those who take their cues from President Trump will continue to endanger themselves and to put others in danger. They can be expected to fail to take notice of the fact that when the president falls ill, he receives a far higher level of medical care than they would receive under the same circumstances. The White House has its own medical suite. While he was at Walter Reed Naval Hospital, President Trump received experimental treatments that they would not receive.

President Trump is engaging in bravado, something which he is wont to do. Like his tax records, the president is keeping the state of his health from the public. He does not want anything to interfere with his image as a successful businessman and a robust political leader.

What has not been mentioned in the various reports on the progress of President Trump’s illness is that the COVID-19 coronavirus can in older people like the president affect their mental functioning. It can cause confusion and poor judgment. Among the side-effects of one of the medications that he has been receiving—a steroid given to patients with severe cases of the COVID-19 coronavirus--is that it can also affect mental functioning.

Even if his illness or the medications that he has been given are not affecting his judgment, the personality traits associated with the president’s narcissistic personality, particularly his lack of empathy, will impair his judgment. He will be unable to fully appreciate the negative effects of the advice that he is offering Americans.

Being infectious and showing no regard for the health and safety of advisors, aides, security personnel, and staffers is hardly evidence of good judgment. While President Trump may claim that he beat the COVID-19 coronavirus and that Americans have nothing to fear from the virus, thousands of Americans have become seriously ill with the virus and have developed life-threatening complications. As many as 220, 000 Americans have died. The president’s bravado is not going to prevent more suffering and further deaths.

How then are these observations relevant to US churches? A segment of the US churchgoing population is more likely to listen to President Trump than to the health experts. Despite a long history of sitting loosely to the truth, a history that predates his election to the office of president of the United State and which has earned for him the reputation of being a pathological liar among those who have had dealings with him, this population segment regards him as more credible than the health experts. They cling to this belief despite the evidence which has accumulated not just during the last four years but over his entire career that he is neither believable nor trustworthy. While he may have delivered on a number of his campaign promises, may have claimed to have done so, or may have taken steps to give the appearance of having done so, he did so because it serves his interests, not the interests of his constituents.

For readers who are unfamiliar with the term “pathological liar,” a pathological liar is someone who lies habitually and chronically. They lie for no apparent reason. Their lies are not attributable to an “immediate stressor” but appear to be internally motivated. What distinguishes a pathological liar from a compulsive liar is that they lack empathy towards others. They “demonstrate little care for others and tend to be manipulative in other aspects of their lives.” Their lies may be believable and may be partly true. Their lies typically present them and their actions in a positive light.

Most of us will tell an occasional white lie to spare someone’s feelings or to avoid trouble for ourselves. A pathological liar, however, compulsively lies about all kinds of matters, both big and small, irrespective of the situation. They may not realize that they are lying.

Pathological lying is often a personality trait of individuals who have a narcistic personality. Narcissists “have an inflated sense of their own importance, a deep need for excessive attention and admiration, troubled relationships, and a lack of empathy for others.” Narcissists will frequently shift blame away from themselves in order to avoid responsibility for their actions. They seldom if ever take responsibility for what they have done. When they do, it is superficial and not long-lasting. They will quickly find someone else to blame. While lying makes most people nervous, lying does not have the same effect upon narcissists. Pathological lying helps them to avoid nervousness and to stay calm.

As a consequence of listening to President Trump and treating what he says as being credible, a number of US churches where his influence is the strongest have ignored the health experts’ guidance against COVID-19 transmission or have adopted ineffectual and insufficient preventive measures and have only half-heartedly put them into practice, endangering their congregations and their communities. The same churches have responded to reasonable state and local public health measures as infringements upon what they claim is their right to do whatever they please without regard to the consequences to others—a view that has little to do with the teaching of Jesus and the apostles.

People may choose to believe the president because he has similar views to theirs at least on the surface. We are more likely to regard as credible those who appear to share our views than we are those who have views different from our own. Sharing our views from an objective standpoint does not make an individual more truthful or trustworthy. They simply make the individual’s views more agreeable to our own inclinations. We are confusing credibility with agreeability. They are two different things.

People may choose to believe the president because after all he is the president. This sounds like a rather naïve reason for treating someone’s statements as being credible, but it is not an uncommon reason, particularly if the individual voted for him in the 2016 presidential election. They may not wish to admit that they were mistaken in their judgment. The thought may not have even entered their head. They may believe that they made the right choice.

They may want to believe him because what he says fits with their own denial of the seriousness of the pandemic. Listening to the health experts raises their anxiety level. Listening to President Trump, on the other hand, lowers their anxiety level. They prefer his fantasizing and wishful thinking over the cold reality of the health experts. They will believe and pedal all kinds of misinformation for the same reason. It helps them to convince themselves that the COVID-19 coronavirus is not the threat to human existence that the health experts claim that it is.

Listening to President Trump instead of the health experts enables them to avoid making unwelcome changes in their lifestyle, changes which, while different from what they are accustomed to, may have unforeseen positive benefits. For example, where public health protocols such as face masks, social distancing, and washing have been implemented in South America, there has been a downturn in the infection rate of other contagious diseases.

In the case of a number of US churches, listening to the president has enabled them to avoid making unwelcome changes in the way the church leaders prefer to conduct the worship services and the other ministries of the church, changes which, while they represent a departure from the way they prefer to do church, would protect their congregations and their communities, strengthen their connections to the community, and facilitate the church’s engagement with the community’s unchurched population. Here again these changes have proven to have unforeseen positive benefits. For example, a number of churches, when they moved their services online, found that they were reaching a population segment that they had not reached before, a population segment that would never attend in-person services.

The objections of these churches to state and local public health measures, when we peel away the various ways the churches rationalize their objections, are motivated by two things, the same things that underlie individuals’ objections to these measures. They interfere with the way that the church or individual prefers to do things. They also cause inconvenience.

Considering human lives are at stake, these two reasons are rather petty. Indeed, they may be described as selfish. They do not embody the love of others and concern for their well-being which lies at the heart of Jesus’ teaching. “I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” “Show yourself to be children of the Most High.” “Be merciful as God himself is merciful.”

The disparity between how these churches are acting and Jesus’ teaching is not lost on non-Christians and reinforces their stereotypical view of Christians—that is—we are hypocrites. I have a lot of contact with university students and young adults and the great difference between what Christians profess and how they act is a major criticism of Christianity and Christians.

The relationship between President Trump and US churches where he exercises a strong influence is not one way. It is reciprocal. The president himself echoes the views that have come to dominate thinking in these churches. He sees them as a key part of his base of support. He has shown himself to be successful at sizing up the sympathy of an audience toward him and of telling that audience what they want to hear regardless of whether he himself believes what he is saying. In doing so, he also generates the attention and adulation that he as a narcissist craves.

The unheeded lesson of President Trump’s infection with the COVID-19 coronavirus is that no one can escape the reach of the virus particularly those who refuse to follow the guidance of the health experts on how to avoid infection. A different president might have drawn a different conclusion from the experience and might have backed measures to protect the US population from the virus on a nationwide scale. Churches that have been resisting state and local public health measures might have reappraised what they are doing. They might have become more open to taking steps to protect their congregations and their communities and to improve their public image, an improvement from which all US churches would have benefitted.

Despite his encounter with the COVID-19 coronavirus President Trump has continued to downplay the seriousness of the pandemic. Instead he is encouraging Americans to act recklessly. We are entering the cold season of the year in North America. Due to the cold weather Americans and Canadians will be forced to spend more time indoors, often in poorly-ventilated enclosed spaces, ideal conditions for the transmission of the virus.

I live in a state and a county where the number of COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths has been rising incrementally since March. A major reason for the growing number of cases, hospitalizations, and deaths is that a segment of the population refuses to comply with state and local public health measures intended to contain the spread of the virus. 

Most people are wearing face masks, social distancing, washing their hands, not making unnecessary trips, not holding house parties or backyard gatherings, and otherwise following the guidance against the transmission of the COVID-19 coronavirus. However, this one segment of the population in their disregard of the public health measures is putting the rest of the population at risk. At the same time they are not accepting responsibility for their actions. President Trump has provided them with another rationalization to continue to be a public health risk.

Tuesday I went shopping at a local supermarket. The supermarket has special hours for older people and people with pre-existing conditions. All the employees wear face masks and a large sign at the entrance to the building warns customers that the store is complying with the governor’s executive order mandating the wearing of face masks. Most customers are wearing face masks. 

Invariably someone who is not wearing a face mask enters the store at a time when the community’s most vulnerable are present. Typically they are young or middle-aged men. While some of these men may be churchgoers, their selfish, uncaring indifference toward the well-being of the more vulnerable members of the community raises questions about whether they are disciples of Jesus Christ. As long as this kind of behavior continues, the COVID-19 coronavirus will continue to spread through the community. People will become seriously ill. Precious lives will be lost.