Former Republican Senator and Presidential candidate Bob Dole died this morning at 98 years old, according to a statement released by his family. I worked for his campaign as a Republican for President in South Dakota in 1988. Interestingly, Pat Robertson won the South Dakota primary that year.
Anti-vaxxers confuse their "rights" with their egos. The ironic thing is that most of these same folks embrace something they call "being a Christian," when clearly, they have no interest in anything but their rights and themselves.
COVID has now killed more Americans than did the combat deaths in every single war America has ever fought COMBINED, from both World Wars to the Civil War to Vietnam and Korea right down to the invasion of Grenada (666,441 total combat deaths vs. 787,695 COVID deaths).
Romans 13:1-2 says: "Obey the government, for God is the One who has put it there. ... There is no government anywhere that God has not placed in power. So those who refuse to obey the law of the land are refusing to obey God, and punishment will follow."
Romans 13 has been a problematic chapter since when it was used to both defend and to not defend the Revolutionary War. Then there's: “We must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29
"Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's; and to God the things that are God's..." (Matthew 22) can be a basic statement that claims the things of Caesar and those of God are not the same thing. Then there's the historic problem that "Democracy" has always been an unstable form of government. Any kingdom in the Bible that God established was a Monarchy (with a king)..but allowed one with judges because the people wanted it and purposely rejected God ...and it ended badly. And man without God is not capable of ruling without corruption since man was created in Gods image and was not created to rule as individuals without Him. Under Trump the rightwing embraced Romans 13....now under Biden they have reinterpreted it to allow disobedience to Biden. But it can't be both ways...at least not logically. I am in prayer about it for clarity at least for my purposes.
II Corinthians 4:8-19: We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.
CS Lewis had a response to being "hard pressed, persecuted, or perplexed" in his musings about facing destruction by an atom bomb.
"The first action to be taken is to pull ourselves together. If we are all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible and human things—praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts—not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs. They may break our bodies (a microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our minds." (C S Lewis - “On Living in the Atomic Age.” Written in 1948.)
