The Charlatans Of Corona

By Vinnie MacIsaac

It is more than fear.  It is more than uncertainty.  It is even more than mere misinformation, and please if you try to say it is all the media’s fault I am likely to scream! The Coronavirus has some people making suicide runs with religious fervor such as we have not seen since Jim Jones and his poison- spiked Kool-Aid.[i] In 1978 Jim Jones infamously led over 900 hundred people to, knowingly, drink poison as a loyalty test to their faith in him. What I find remarkable is that it took years of brainwashing and communal living, not to mention moving his followers to the third world to achieve this, but that during the COVID19 outbreak of 2020 megachurch leaders and religious universities are able to invoke similar faith- loyalty test with ease. Every sober-minded believer should be deeply disturbed to witness such reckless use of spiritual influence in what can only be described as cultic, spiritual abuse!

Allison Mack

Last year I wrote an article called, “The Comeback Of Cults,”  where I explored the sex cult of Allison Mack and Keith Raniere, which is sometimes called the NXIVM cult, or Smallville Cult. This cult targeted young women who wanted to be empowered to be famous, but ended up being sex- trafficked, instead. While, thankfully, both Raniere and Mack were convicted and will be doing hard jail time, the point of my article was that cults are on a comeback tour and they are morphing into new forms we have not seen before.

The core of a powerful cult is not a religion, per se.   These new cults anchor themselves in falsehoods that cause, otherwise normal, people to devote themselves to the leader of those falsehoods with religious fervor. Worship is given to an idea that is focused around a central promoter or promoters. In the case of the NXIVM cult, the falsehood was, “You, too, can be famous like Allison Mack, if you do with your body, whatever Keith Raniere says, which in addition to being his sex prop, went as far as having your flesh literally branded (burned) with his and Mack’s initials. Once a cult leader has hooked your core sense of value, they can drive us to very bizarre outcomes we would have never adhered to at the start. One of the pitfalls of a highly pluralistic society is that we don’t have to believe in Truth, just our truth, and our truth may not be grounded in facts, science, or even sound philosophy. Rather, we just need to believe is our truth with fervor to make it real; and this line of thinking leaves people wide open to be exploited by those who wish to exploit false narratives for gain.

From the start of the Coronavirus outbreak, people took this really dangerous virus and exploited it for political gain. Sides were drawn and narratives formed, in both political directions. While I am not assigning blame, I am not pulling punches either. If you allow your reason, to be so highly politicalized that you deny the existence of a real threat to yourself or others, that is not Christianity. That is making your political views into Idolatry.  And once you have an idol, I promise you, a cult will follow. Americans have become too inundated with the normalization of “alternative facts” and “fake news” accusations, that they have willingly opened the flood gates to accept false narratives. After all, what really matters to most hyper-political Americans, is having their side win, not achieving the betterment of society or faith. When idols and false narratives mix, all you need to complete “the trinity of a cult,” is a charismatic leader that champions your favorite narrative and idol. When such a leader arises, he or she will take you captive, because you can’t distinguish pure faith[ii], from your favorite idol and narrative anymore. And what follows may well be the ultimate corruption of Christianity.

When the existence of the Coronavirus could no longer be denied, due to the piling up of dead bodies in our cities, the Corona Cult narrative began to morph into various forms that made it ripe for wolves in sheep’s clothing to exploit. Up came bizarre and whacky conspiracy theories that, unfortunately, got peddled by otherwise normal people. Why? Their idol and narrative were in danger and rather than admit they were wrong, conspiracy became the name of the game. It is heartbreaking to me that I saw many Christians I love and respect fall into this trap all because they mixed up faith, politics, and conspiracy. Suddenly Coronavirus was declared by those who once thought it was unreal (but no longer able to deny it’s existence), as just another flu, or only an old person’s or a certain races’ disease. Then it got downright weird, some claimed it escaped a lab, was government population control, and yes even as bizarre as it sounds, others insisted it came from 5G WIFI on our phones.[iii] The worst of all bad conspiracy theories was that this was a “dry run” by the governments to take over the world and invoke an apocalyptic “New World Order,” that would eventually outlaw all Religious freedoms. This last one is highly problematic because it plays “loose and fancy” without evidence, with legitimate Biblical apocalyptic themes and America’s anxieties of distrust in the power of Government, embedded in our psyche since the American Revolution itself. In short, it is playing with matches in a dry forest.

The point is, we made the perfect storm for charismatic leaders to step up to the plate and manipulate our fears, exploit people of faith, and rain down public disgust and distrust on the church. Don’t point fingers, don’t blame the media, we did this. We did this to ourselves by permitting such non-sense and not more directly rebuking false narratives and political idolism (on both the right and left). So when a charismatic charlatan, stands up and hides his or her egomaniacal agenda behind Christianity, it is we[iv] who gave them the platform to claim the government is trying to shut down that church, or faith can cure you from getting COVID-19, or God is calling us to support the President by showing up the conspiracy of COIVD as a ruse.

And the results of this handy work our churches are infecting people, pastors being arrested, and Christian Universities infecting their own students!  Hey Church, wake up! You are not being persecuted, but you are giving reasonable people a good reason to want to persecute you! You have played your own self, right into the devil’s hands. I am sure he is smiling at us and saying, “Well done church!”

To both the charismatic charlatans and their followings, I hereby call them out based on the words of Scripture, which declares the heart, the will, and the mindset of a true shepherd of God to God’s people, “Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers.” (3 John 1:2). Anyone advocating Christians disregard the COVID19 social distancing guidelines are violating a core Biblical principle of Shepherdship!  Yes, we care for the soul, spiritual wellbeing, and a rightful place in society for the church, but, no true shepherd would not also care for the physical health and physical wellbeing of members of the flock. If your shepherd is not holding up Biblical leadership principles like those found in 3 John 1:2, you need to seriously ask yourself if you are following a charlatan? Your health, your very life, and the lives of any whom you touch may lay in the balance.

The Atlantic, founded in 1857, is an American magazine, originally focusing on the abolition of slavery and other social news issues, has been called, “a gracefully aging … The 150-year-old granddaddy of periodicals…it keeps us smart and in the know,”[v] and it forewarned Christians, back in 2014 of the dangers of charlatans hiding in faith groups, in the article, “The Seven Signs You’re in a Cult.”[vi] The article is a sobering first-hand account of Boze Herrington, who was involved in a faith group that became cultic and led to the death of one of its members. Herrington cites Mike Bickle’s[vii] list of seven signs we should all be on the lookout for in church faith groups that practice on the fringe. They are as follows;

1. Opposing critical thinking

2. Isolating members and penalizing them for leaving

3. Emphasizing special doctrines outside scripture

4. Seeking inappropriate loyalty to their leaders

5. Dishonoring the family unit

6. Crossing Biblical boundaries of behavior (versus sexual purity and personal ownership)

7. Separation from the Church (as an orthodox accountable larger organization)[viii]

I get people are scared. I get it because I am scared too. I get that the church has a legitimate place in society, and should not be shut out. But, maybe, that place is not to fight for our rights to assemble at the risk of harm to self and others? Maybe that place is to advocate hope, trust, and faith, in times of darkness, doubt, and fear. The First Amendment promises us, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;” but they are not picking on us as a faith group, nor seeking to prohibit the free exercise of faith, they are only asking us, for the benefit of the public good, to temporarily, practice our faith in our own homes. You know, like Christians practiced in the Bible? [ix]   Remember, Christians in the Bible, and for hundreds of years later, did not have buildings and met in homes.  Under pagan Roman rule, the church was forbidden to even own property.

There will always be those who seek to abuse the good name of the church for the sake of their egos, building mortgage payments, to maintain their staff, or for deluded social/political views; really their reasons are endless. We can’t stop that, and sadly, they reflect poorly on us and cheapen true faith which is built on hope, goodwill, and love. You might not be able to stop charlatans but you can, in fact, stop producing the breeding grounds they thrive in. Please, literally, for the sake of Christ, put away all political idolatry (be it left, right or center), rebuke openly harmful false narratives, get yourself busy with doing what Christ commanded you to do, “Love Thy Neighbor as yourself.” By the way, during the COVID19 pandemic, in case you’re still missing it, that means, Stay Home!

Respectfully, to all my fellow believers, as a little shepherd to the flock, I say with the Apostle John, “Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers.”

Yours truly, Pastor Vinnie.

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Footnotes:

[i] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drinking_the_Kool-Aid

[ii] Biblical Faith

[iii] https://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/ridiculous-coronavirus-conspiracy-theories-from-5g-towers-to-extraterrestrial-origins/

[iv] Hopefully not you or I personally, the community of faith as a whole.

[v] This was said by the Chicago Tribune in June of 2006.

[vi] https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/06/the-seven-signs-youre-in-a-cult/361400/

[vii] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Bickle_(minister)

[viii] “as an orthodox accountable larger organization” was supplied by me.

[ix] I am not a lawyer not a constitutional scholar. I am not seeking to make a legal argument here, but rather, a historical one.

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COVID-19 Is This Generation’s 9/11

By Vinnie MacIsaac

The 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon forever changed Millennials, collectively. Whatever they would have become before 9/11 changed as they were just coming of age when they saw those infamous images of planes flying into the World Trade Center.

I am not a Millennial, but rather, a late Gen-Xer. However, that horrific day and those memories are as forever burned into my mind just as the shooting of JFK is likely burned into my grandparent’s minds, and the shooting of Reagan into my parent’s minds. That said, for Millennials, 9/11 formed their minds in different ways than they were headed before the massive – shifting event. For them, there has never been a time that their nation has not been at war. They lost trust in their parents’ generation, who responded to threat with, often blind Patriotism, and Islamophobia, and they grew up in a world of intense security protocols and procedures like no generation before them. It produced, in them, an odd hybrid of acceptance of high security and technology, and a type of patriotism that is suspicious of exclusion.

Eleni Towns,  a researcher at the Center for American Progress, assesses it this way:

 “Millennials are patriotic and believe in America’s institutions and the democratic process, which demands civic participation and the ability of free speech, even against leadership. The generation is also more tolerant and welcoming of different people and more eager to engage in the world beyond our borders.” [i]

While often, unfairly, labeled lazy, President Obama explains their experience in the US Military as noble, hardworking, and productive this way;

“[They became] Young captains, sergeants, lieutenants, they’ve assumed responsibilities reserved for more senior commanders and remind us that in an era when so many other institutions have shirked their obligations, the men and women of the United States military welcome responsibility,”[ii]

While there is much I could say about this fascinating group, I have come to admire, the bottom line of their development as an ‘age grouping’ was arrested by the tragic events of 9/11, and life, as they had known it, had stopped and changed direction, thus, changing them also forever.

If this immensely horrific event, happening in the midst of the coming of age moment, rocked the development of Millennials in such unforeseen and unplanned ways, then that leaves me to wonder in what ways will COVID-19 now alter the course of Gen Z[iii] and Alpha[iv]?

Their lives have been disrupted, and the disruption is not a minor one, but rather one that will last for years or even decades. They have lost a school year and just been sent home. Some have online classes, others mere pre-packaged homework, and still others nothing to aid them in studies. They are a highly social grouping that has had to be systematically isolated, through social distancing, to help stop the spread of this disease. And while it is true that they are the YouTube/Snapchat/Instagram generation, nothing can really, ever, replace human contact; suddenly and almost without any warning we ushered them off to a world where they have gone from reduced groupings of 250, to 50, to 10, to homebound, all within one week,  with no tangible end in sight! You just can’t do that to impressionable children and not leave social scars.

 Have we considered the long-term impact on our children of seeing empty grocery stores and full-grown, average, citizens walking about in homemade hazmat suits? It must be terrorizing to see these images, especially for Generation Alpha who are all still in the, very impressionable, under 10 years of age! Most of them saw this first hand, but even if sheltered, we are talking about a group of kids whose screens are more native to them than paper! They are the first generation entirely born within the 21st century and we know that by 2025 will account for 2 billion of the world’s population[v] and yet no matter where they live,  on the whole Globe, they will all share one thing in common: COVID-19’s mass breakout, the hysteria, and misinformation that reigned, in its wake.  Too often, their parents are more concerned about the disruption in “life as usual” than the impact it is making on their children. Meaning to or not, I suggest, we have built a global tribe of peoples who will grow up on all four corners of the globe and all share this terrifying event as one large collective memory that will resonate from China to France, Germany to Mexico, from Canada to New York City.

It is greater and more defining than the shootings of JFK, Reagan or even 9/11 because it is, for the first time, a global marker in time; one of a shared moment of terror they all experienced together. While Millennials, collectively, in America will forever recall planes flying into buildings, their children will recall a real-life, dystopian disease ravaging the whole world, and was coming for them, one nation at time, in what, to them, will appear like all in one mere week, forever changing their world. They literally lived a series of James Dashner fictional novel like events!

It was day 4 of being out of school. My son, seven years old, was walking our dog, Oreo, in the early evening. We live close to his, now closed, school and as we were walking on the grass heading towards the sidewalk he spotted a classmate, also walking her dog, with her parent. They began to wave and shout greetings as all kids who miss each other would. When, suddenly, the little girl’s mother shouted, “Who is that? Stop! Don’t go near them,” and she took her daughter, and their dog, across the street and ignored us, as if we did not exist. There was no observing of the 6-foot social distancing protocol; there was just pure fear being taught to youth, not with discussion, but with unexplained action. As we walked home Jose’ asked me, “Dad, what is going on? Why did they act that way? I miss my friends, why can’t we say hi from the other side of the road, even?” We went home and washed our hands and I did my best to explain this “Brave New World.”[vi]

What You Can Do:

• Be honest when you talk to your children

• Be accurate when you talk to your children

• Discuss with them the ways the world is and has changed

• Get out of denial

• Stop living in survival mode. Get over your own drama. Your children need you right now

• Beware this will have a lasting impact, not just on you, but your child

• Listen to their fear and concerns and stop trying to refocus them. They need to express their fear as a part of processing it

• Pray with them

• Model good faith

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Footnotes. 

[i] Eleni Towns, https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/religion/news/2011/09/08/10363/the-911-generation/

[ii] https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2011/0909/How-9-11-has-shaped-a-generation-of-Americans

[iii] Those born in the mid-’90s to late 2010s

[iv] Those born in the mid-2010s to late 2020s

[v] https://interestingengineering.com/generation-alpha-the-children-of-the-millennial

[vi] Brave New World is a classic dystopian novel by famed English author Aldous Huxley

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