Pray to God for Protection. Then Praise Him for Your Mask.

The concept of competitive agency pits God’s actions against our own. But they go hand in hand.

The first thing to say about our battle against COVID-19 is that it represents a feat of human genius and diligence. Our dash from discovering a deadly virus to administering the first batch of vaccines in less than a year is a testament to a lot of people doing a lot of hard work. Medical researchers, public health officials, doctors, nurses, and first responders have labored heroically, day in and day out.

The second thing to say about our battle against COVID-19 is that it represents an act of God. Vaccines, ventilators, hand washing, face masks, and healing are astounding gifts of grace amid suffering and illness.

There is no contradiction between these two ideas. Our work and God’s work are blessedly and inseparably entwined.

But in public discourse, we often pit human and divine causality—God’s efforts and ours—against each other. Case in point: Last April, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo explained declining coronavirus rates by saying, “Our behavior has stopped the spread of the virus. God did not stop the spread of the virus.”

In my latest book, I call this idea “competitive agency”: If human responsibility and work are involved, God’s responsibility and work are not, and vice versa.

This view runs rampant even among some Christians. In California, former congressional candidate DeAnna Lorraine put it bluntly: “If you have a mask on, it means you actually don’t trust God.” (It seems this logic could also apply to wearing seat belts, driving the speed limit, or locking your doors at night.)

Finance guru Dave Ramsey has suggested that to wear masks or take other COVID-19 precautions is to live in fear. Other leaders, too, have echoed this idea. The implication is that if we really trust God, we ignore public health recommendations. God’s protection does not come through human expertise or behavior but in spite of it.

Though masked (or unmasked, as the case may be) in pious language, this logic is largely based in a deistic understanding of the world. For Cuomo, Lorraine, Ramsey, and others, God’s protection has little to do with human action. Read More

This article is a must read. It draws attention to an unorthodox, unbiblical belief held by charismatic and evangelical Christians, the belief that God works solely through extraordinary means such as miracles and does not work through ordinary means like ourselves. The Bible, however, is full of examples of how God works through human agents as well as supernatural ones. For example, he used Esther to save the Jews from extermination when they were held captive in Babylon.

Jesus himself gathered a small group of disciples, trained and equipped them, and then sent them out out to proclaim the good new of the Kingdom of God. When he arose from the dead, he commissioned them to spread the good news to all four corners of the earth and to make disciples of all people groups. But if we apply the logic of this belief to what Jesus did, Jesus erred. He should have ordered legions of angels to proclaim the gospel.

This belief is often found in churches where faith healing and the prosperity gospel are preached. It is tied to the belief that God rewards faith not only with healing and good health but also wealth, material possessions, success, power, influence, and prestige.

The thinking of the proponents of this belief like the financial guru David Ramsey have been influenced by American ideas of masculinity. Men are supposed to be strong and brave and to put on a bold display of their manliness and act in ways that show a disregard for their own safety, It is accompanied by the belief that women should also be strong and brave but should not be proactive, taking steps to make things happen, instead of waiting for things to happen to them, and should suffer in silence whatever happens to them. It is a harmful way of thinking for both men and women and it does not encourage the development of a sense of social responsibility, of responsibility for the health, safety, and well-being of the community. In this regard and in other ways it conflicts with Jesus' teaching.