Tagged: men
They’d Call Me a White Evangelical Who Won’t Voluntarily Get the Vaccine
I don’t believe masks work.
This is a simple claim that is as obviously true as ‘what goes up, must come down’, but it is also apparently the dumbest claim I could ever make these days. That I would assert it apparently reveals something very wrong with the way I am built.
The reason I don’t believe masks work is because of the word “work”.
Before last year, if we were flying a patient with Tuberculosis, we would don an N95 for the leg of flight with the patient on board. But before ever launching on that leg, we had been through our companies “fit testing” wherein the company and ourselves would use a tester and learn whether the mask actually sealed around my face. I don’t recall ever flying a patient with Tuberculosis, but I do recall believing that the N95, of my size, worked to keep me from contracting the disease.
It would be used for one flight. Maybe an hour long at the most.
Given that I am a pilot and not a clinician, to hang out around a Tuberculosis patient at length is just not my calling. In other words, I never considered long term mask use or if I would continue to work in an environment which required it.
Does an N95 or simple or cloth mask work to end a pandemic? Hmm. Let me think… no. How do I know? Because it hasn’t yet. And rather than pretend some hypothetical situation where everyone complies with my wishes is actually possible, I’ll just look around and state the obvious: the “pandemic” is not over. So wearing masks doesn’t work to end the pandemic. Next question.
It doesn’t end there, though. No. Somewhere along the way, by well-meaning folks with platforms, these folks attempted to hoodwink me into wearing masks by the reasoning that the mask was to save high-risk people from my unsuspecting transmission of the disease. “Put on the mask for love of fellow man.”
Then vaccines are created and the best message that Dr. Fauci’s team can develop to convince stubborn ol’ me to follow orders is, “Get the vaccine so you don’t die, Pete.”
Mask up for others, vaccinate for me. Got it.
But I still say, “No.” Or, “Not without some undue level of coercion.”
Why? And does my faith in Jesus Christ as captured by the social science label “white evangelical” have any correlation to my stance?
Let’s talk about that.
Simply put, I don’t believe masks work and I won’t voluntarily get the vaccine because I believe I have something to teach you.
You read that right. I believe I have something to teach you.
Get it? Understand?
(Picture me pointing at you). You believe you have something to teach me. You believe you know information that I don’t and you believe that I need to learn from you. Right?
(Now picture me pointing at me). Well, I believe, likewise, that I know information that you don’t and I believe that you need to learn from me.
I have noticed that your beliefs clog your ears, so I have concluded that I have to demonstrate my beliefs to your eyes.
One more time: I don’t believe masks work to end the pandemic. And I won’t voluntarily get vaccinated. The reason for my twin beliefs is that I believe that I have something to teach you.
I can freely admit that this situation, then, is similar, in method, to why I don’t become an apostate and renounce my faith in Jesus Christ at your bidding. Besides my fear of everlasting damnation being greater than my fear of enduring lackluster social shaming, besides my gratefulness for Jesus’ sacrifice for my sake, besides my awe at the daily display of God the Father’s Glory, besides the comfort of the Holy Spirit who indwells me at this moment, I also believe that I have something to teach you about life.
And in both cases, the pandemic and Christianity, my lesson is necessarily one of action. Unlike you, I have no theory, no models, no hypotheticals, only action.
As briefly as I can, then, the fact that I don’t believe masks work and I won’t voluntarily get the vaccine is my physical manifestation of the question: Will you learn from me?
Honestly, we all already know the answer in the pandemic sense is: ‘you’ll never learn.’ You will choose to live in fear until death.
In the Christian sense, it is possible that you will learn from me, or be willing to receive the gospel someday. But time is never on our side. And unfortunately, there is no escaping judgment. On that day, there will be no piece of paper or cloth big enough to hide behind. On that day there will be no data-driven model robust enough to be accepted by your maker. On that day one question alone will remain.
Jesus is going to ask you: “But who do you say that I am?”
I Love Focusing
I want to be clear about a couple things. Yes, I lie when it comes to the vaccine. I am not vaccinated and I do not wear a mask, even if I cross some magic boundary that suggests I am now at risk for killing people. So maybe you should get your third and fourth and tenth shot and quadruple mask. ‘Cuz I’m out there. Oooo.
This “little white lie” of mine isn’t going to hurt anybody, least of all kill them. And if I was to get vaccinated at this point, it would feed the bigger lie, being that my act of taking the vaccine saves the very lives of every person on planet earth. It doesn’t.
For context, I will add that my oldest friend got the vaccine because of social pressure at a university. He really believed his professors would somehow put a stop to his doctoral work if they found out he was unvaccinated. So rather than lie like I do, he chose to lie in a bigger way—that is, he chose to take a vaccine to please someone else. We fight ferociously about this choice of his whenever the topic comes up.
I will also add that when my job makes it mandatory to get the vaccine, I’ll get it. I make good money. It’s not a difficult decision.
And I’m sure that the mandatory-at-work thing is in the works, how could it not be?
That said, as I approach it, my focus has become clearer and clearer. And I love the feeling. I imagine that it’s like how gaining a superpower must feel.
Here’s why I won’t get the vaccine, put even more clearly: firstly, my doctor has never had a conversation with me and told me to get it (I haven’t spoken to any doctor about the vaccine ever). Secondly, the reason I am being told to get it by everyone but my doctor (who I don’t see because I’m not sick) is to save the entire population from dying. This is no joke. People are telling me that when I join them in getting vaccinated then life goes back to normal. People are telling me that my vaccine is so I don’t get other people sick.
No one is telling me, none of these people are suggesting that I get the vaccine so that I don’t die. Not one person has ever said that, my doctor or otherwise. No one. Not ever. Why? Because it’s a lie. And the chance of me getting Covid again and dying is meaningfully zero. This means I’ll be able to promptly call out their bullshit—and don’t miss this—and they know it!!
So they package their—get this—“attempt to avoid the reality of death” in a more palatable and completely unprovable, unmeasurable, and unbelievable manner by saying that the vaccine that goes into my body is about other people.
Nobody ever got a vaccine to save someone else. Unheard of. I won’t be a part of that nonsense. (I will, however, get a vaccine for my salary. Again, that’s an easy choice. Of course I can be bought. I’m not on some crusade to prove it’s possible to be poor.)
But as far as “do it for others”? That’s a lie. One big fat lie. And it’s told by cowards, as all lies are.
Want me to get the vaccine? Call my doctor and tell him/her (not really sure who my doctor would be) to recommend to me that I need the vaccine to save myself. Or you can keep lying and my work will cave to the zeitgeist for business reasons, as it’s forced to do by virtue of being a business.
Unvaccinated
To become a pilot in the US Air Force, I had to go through a process more similar to a job interview than simply “being recruited”. At one point, I had to be interviewed by a current officer—otherwise I might prove to be just a really good looking piece of paper.
I cannot recall exactly what I had been reading at the time. I know I wasn’t some well-read war or military history/philosophy guy. I would’ve been a junior or senior in college when I drove out to this man’s house. But I’m sure I was preparing mentally for all sorts of questions etc.
At one point, I remember being asked, “Why do you want to serve?” My answer went something like, “I’ve thought about war a lot. It seems that most people think that defense starts a war. As in, someone wants the land that another person is on, and if the current occupant doesn’t defend themselves and the land, then there would be no fight, no war. But,” I went on, “this type of thinking doesn’t satisfy or admit the full truth. The truth is that the aggressor starts the war. The aggressor wants the land. The occupant indicates that the land is not available and, here at this point, the aggressor can back down and keep the peace,” I opined all those years ago in some stranger’s home library.
“Well,” I concluded, “I figure that out of all my family, like my cousins and brothers and sisters, I am best suited to meet the aggressor on the field. Best suited to make sure we win the war.”
This answer (and my grades, 20/20 eyesight, physical ability, private pilot’s license and more) was good enough to get me my dream job of being a pilot in the USAF.
The current spirit in this country includes many powerfully-positioned folks telling me what I should do with my body. I hear them. Obviously. And I disagree. Period.
This vaccine battle is not an argument. This is not a debate. This is a moment where they, the “teller/aggressor”, have to decide if they’re going to start a war over controlling my body. It’s that simple. It’s not about other vaccines (consistent living). It’s not about protecting other people (sacrificial living). It’s not about “delta variant” (flexible living) and “94% of new cases being unvaccinated” (more flexible living). It’s not about “smart” (consensus living) or “stubborn” (unbalanced living). It’s only about the meaning of the word “no” (living with integrity). The only world I want to live in includes “no” meaning “no”. And, make no mistake, I will attempt to resurrect that world if necessary.
This post is simply clarifying that if they persist in their little ‘ask’, then just like in all wars, they will have started the war. Not me. Maybe it’s worth it to them.
And the only real reason for the post is that while starting this war, they persist in the belief that they want peace.
I cannot say it enough.
We are living in a time of perversion.
Where Are You From?
Not too long ago, I heard that it was rude to ask a strange looking person, “Where are you from?”
The reason, so they said, was that that question implies an “us and them” situation. And this makes “them” feel uncomfortable.
Okay, I thought. I can adjust a bit. But, I won’t totally avoid the question and here’s why. If I ask, “Where are you from?” to someone who looks or sounds different than whatever norm I’m used to, I probably am right that they’re from somewhere exotic to our current location. They already know this fact. It is not a surprise to them that they didn’t grow up on Seinfeld and Sunday School.
And language is not math. So some burden of the conversation can be placed on their shoulders too. As in, if they are “Asian”, and yet were born in Houston, they surely could reply, “My parents are a mix of x, y, z but I grew up in Houston. How about you?”
In other words, the strange looking potential-respondent can understand the “you” to mean “whoever made you look strange to me” instead of trying to suggest they’re right as the mail.
It’s called effort. Try it.
Just About Halfway There
To a fearless hero like me, the funny part is that neither of the two patients we flew the other day made me think of my own mortality, despite their obviously traumatic injuries. One ol’ timer had a head wound that contributed more blood to the atmosphere than I can say I thought was possible while still outputting normal numbers on bp, heart rate, sats etc. The other was a person who had made an ill-timed pass and was subsequently thrown from the vehicle. (Who doesn’t wear their seatbelt in 2021? Seriously? Put it on!) A hundred yards away, at the helicopter, I could hear their cries of pain.
But I didn’t think of death.
However, upon returning home last night and laving up yours truly with some Aveeno body wash that my wife picked up for me (it just pours easier, so what?—the Suave charcoal flavored manly stuff takes the strength of Superman to be squeezed out of the bottle and this gets annoying), well upon laving up and in the midst of repositioning myself in the shower, I almost fell, slipping on the self-same lady-parts-soap that has rinsed off and coated the tub floor.
The “almost fell” really means, that while shadow-boxing the water, the next thing I know I feel the wall with my back. I can’t say for sure why I stayed upright, but my right foot dug in and the help from the wall was enough to offset whatever other project the devil had set in motion.
I immediately started laughing. “Only old people fall in the shower! I’m not old,” I chuckled. “And what would I have done if I did fall? I have no rope!” I thought. You know, those ropes on the wall to pull if you need help. “I have no rope!”
It’s true, my 40th birthday is a couple weeks away. What does that have to anything? It just means I’m halfway there. Halfway to 80. Halfway to natural death, unless I get some of them bonus years.
I’m not old. It was the soap.
Don’t Label What Happened, Just Read
So we’re moving the aircraft around the taxiway via a tractor/towbar setup on the nosewheel. It’s three of us management-type pilots. To have three of us at a base is abnormal. This is very rare. Having three managers do the work of one man, well, that is not very rare. That’s just comedy. As such, the mood is elevated and jocular, and each of us kind of basque in the radiance of the other two.
The pilot on the tractor is acting like an eighty-year old farmer who has “been there, brother” as he hunched over and keeps the tractor to a crawl.
The other pilot, by virtue of growing up in America, is compelled to say, (join with me), “It’s like he’s ‘Driving Miss Daisy’!”
The pilot on the tractor doesn’t seem to hear the quip over the engine. So the typical conversation ensues.
“DO YOU KNOW THAT MOVIE?”
Farmer man kinda indicated, “Yeah, but it’s too loud to talk.”
Then the funny man turns to me.
I say, “I know OF that movie, but I can’t say I ever saw it.”
Pause.
Here’s the climax: this pilot now says, “I don’t know how that movie ever got made. It’s about a racist woman talking rudely to her driver” etc etc.
Dear Reader: Please don’t disrespect me, steal my humanity, or whatever, by proceeding to tell me that you know the name for what he just did.
Instead, just read and consider.
Even among the brave, the pilots, this particular evil infects. This is very, very wrong.
For my part, I could only say, “I believe in freedom. People can write whatever they want, make whatever movies they want.”
Moment over.
Motivation Clarification
Fellow parents are likely aware of the advice, “Don’t worry about reading your child the perfect books; the fact that you’re reading is enough. The data between children who weren’t read to and the children who were is clear. But beyond that, no sub-category yet exists. Just read to them.”
While dark, my last post was essentially in the same vein. The reason motivational speakers “motivate” is because the person “needing motivation” sought them out. Action began the process, not speech. Motivational speakers don’t work because the cheerleading and encouragement and advice is actually necessary and effective. Again, let’s keep things in order. First, the person decides to act. Then, and only then, the motivational speaker/writer sees an opportunity to monetize or simply seek glory.
You may ask, “If you believe you lost, what, then, is your ‘action’, Pete, if not to ingest motivation to persevere? You’re not saying that it’s hopeless. You’re saying something worse, that the fight is over. What, then, do you do with your time?”
Great question.
I wait.
I’m Tired of Motivational Speaking and Writing
If you’re of a mind to think thoughts in any direction besides Left, you have to admit that the end of all scrolling is motivational circle-jerks. The last two articles I’ve read, one sent by a close friend, were of this sort. The singular theme running through all of them, whether in words like “Remnant” or “Silent Supporter,” is “Keep at it!” and “Persevere!”
I’m tired of them.
Since when did motivational speaking and writing eclipse all other forms?
What exactly caused this shift of the West’s ideal archetype from “mentally strong” to “emotionally inspired”? Wealth? Abundance? Ignorance? Leisure? Nature? Nurture?
No different than how it is a lie that systemic racism exists in America, it is a lie that individual motivation results from exhortation and admonishment.
You are weak and will fail if you need outside sources motivating you in order to act. Individual action is not the result or effect of cheerleading, it is the cause of cheerleading. In life, you, capital Y, have to want it. No one else can tell you to want it. As we’re observing moment to moment, the opposition is counterfeit opposition. We’re placing our hope in confidence men.
Here’s the problem: the Left daily, definitively, boundlessly, and successfully employs the power of shame to achieve its desires. Put another way, the problem is “shamelessness” is more powerful than “truth.”
And no matter how many pep rally’s those outside the Left conjure in response, this problem is simply and unavoidably depressing.
The truth is we just lose. Someone’s got to.
Final Thoughts On The Pandemic
I finally contracted COVID-19. Obviously I didn’t die.
Honestly, it wasn’t even bad. About ten years ago I used to get “strep throat” every winter. That would take me out for two weeks during which I would have have a horrible sore throat that made life pretty miserable. I eventually decided to have my tonsils removed and voila! No more strep throat.
I wanted to write this post to record how ridiculous this disease behind the whole pandemic was. To begin, I’ll share that I often comment to my family that the “West” is simply depressed. We are in a great “psychological” depression, nothing more, I say. I share this assessment here because it may help paint the picture I have of this disease. The worst part of the disease is psychological.
I never felt that bad. Sure, I had the fever. And I wished it would be gone every day. And it wasn’t. But that was it.
The very odd, and I mean unconscionably odd, part was that no one—not one medical professional I spoke with—offered me any help. As in, I would call this number for work. And they asked some administrative questions. Then I would call this number at the hospital. And the doctor asked some clarifying questions and scheduled a test. Then at the test, I took the test. There was some small chitchat. That was it.
No one ever suggested Tylenol or Advil. No one asked if I needed something stronger than OTC drugs.
The world is going to shit over this, I thought?
No, I answered, the world is going to shit over fear. Some generation of absolutely weak-minded and untested humans, spread thoroughly around the globe, gave up their minds to so-called “experts” and “science”. They gave up their minds.
I can’t be more clear here. The worst I ever felt was when I saw the email notification that the test result came in. I really had wanted to stay clear of all the nonsense. I only took the test because I figured work would want to know. And as I read “positive” I can’t deny there was a haziness to my vision. I mean, what should I expect? This was a killer disease. Just fatal. A plague by all accounts. And I had it. I stared at my phone screen, having logged into a newly created account (store that pw same place as the others), and the word stared right back at me. After lingering in this interaction of mind and language for a bit, I got bored. Then I remembered. What the fuck am I doing? I have a fever. That’s it.
This whole thing started because…because… Why did this whole thing start? Because a generation of absolutely weak-minded and untested humans, spread thoroughly around the globe, gave up their minds to so-called “experts” and “science”. They gave up their minds.
To all you “anti-vaxxers” and generally free-thinkers who never gave an inch: Well done. To the rest of you, never again. Never again will I even show cordiality when you try to shame me into compliance with groupthink. Stay outta my way.
One Example of Allowing the Gospel To Ferret Out the Lie That Is BLM And To Cast Down The False God George Floyd, Followed By Advice for Irritated Christians.
“Black Lives Matter!”
“No. Paul wrote, ‘There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.’”
“But you don’t understand. Black and brown people have been unduly oppressed for far too long. Now is the time for justice. Black Lives Matter!”
“Nope. Paul wrote, ‘There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.’”
“We’re not at church, man. This isn’t some ideal world. This is the real world. You’re either with us in our long overdue support of Black and Brown people, or you’re a white supremacist. Black Lives Matter!”
“Not true. Paul wrote, ‘There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.’”
“Is that all you know? One verse? Do you think it is working on me? The Bible is about justice, man. You can’t take one verse and throw it around and think you’re going to change minds. I’m not saying that Paul’s wrong. It’s a nice thought. But we’ve got to help the Black and Brown people right now. They have been oppressed for far too long. It’s the system that needs to change. Black Lives Matter!”
“‘A nice thought?’ Interesting. If you liked that one, how about this thought? The Bible says George Floyd deserved to die-”
“-what?”
“-I’m not finished. You asked for more than a verse right? I’d ask you to let me finish. The Bible also says that Derek Chauvin is currently receiving patience and grace. I believe that with all my heart. But I also believe those two points are fairly irrelevant. More relevant is the next one. The Bible says you and me are receiving grace and patience from the only god, the one true god, the god before whom every knee will bow, before whom every man will confess that Jesus Christ is lord of all. What do you think about that? Do you think the Bible is right? Are you receiving patience and grace? Or no?”
****
People. As stated in earlier posts, I am doing my best to avoid reading the political commentary, especially the left’s marketing team known as “conservative political commentary.” But no matter how hard I try, I can’t kill the hope that there is hope. So I watch. I watch the conservatives. And they always lose. I never see a “leftist” give an inch. Instead, I see the Left continually gaining inroads. And I see the Truth preaching to the choir.
Read your Bibles. The Truth, Victory itself, is not found by “reasoning”. It is not in “logic” or “good points”.
The “Left”, the “collectivists”, the “racists”, the “communists”, the whole lot of them, will never be defeated by an argument.
The battle is not one of ideas. It is not “logical idea” vs. “illogical idea.”
The battle is not between “cultures”. It is not “inclusive culture” vs. “exclusive culture”.
The battle is Truth vs. Lie.
Tell the Truth.
Admit the Left isn’t budging. Admit the argument for “individualism” isn’t growing. And, finally, admit that the battle is the LORD’s. Fight with the Gospel. The Gospel is not that black and brown people were saved by Jesus’ blood sacrifice and all-powerful resurrection. The Gospel is that Jesus died for you. Just you. The end state of the conversation is your opponent saying this exact same thing.
In brief:
Why is BLM a lie? See the Gospel via Paul.
Why is communism a lie? See the Gospel via Moses.
Why is racism a lie? See the Gospel via David.
Christians: we are the only people who can possibly make a dent, and we’re the only people who also know that God may not want the judgement to be delayed. We’re to offer our lives as examples of hope for the unseen. We must not fall prey to the appeal of using worldly tactics. We’re not unique because we’re mathletes. Life isn’t last Saturday’s high school debate tournament in overtime.
In life, our weapon is Truth—specifically scripture. Read it. Study it. Repeat it. If you offer it, like in the above example, and the opposition won’t have it, that’s on them. But once you test what I’m saying, you’ll see with your own eyes that the Left will engage it. This is because they are working for the devil. And he is a liar. He actually thinks he wins. The Gospel is that he already lost. Your job is to let the supernatural, unseen spiritual realm go to work. Use the Gospel against what you perceive are lies.
Lastly, watch out. It’s a two way street. You (we) may find some uncomfortable truths in this process too.
Captain’s Log 