Part 2 of 4 in the series Spiritual Perspectives on the Covid-19 Pandemic
By Mark Kutolowski
You can listen to the audio version of this blog on our podcast page.
“The Person who loves God cannot help loving every person as themselves.” St. Maximos the Confessor (580-662)
In these times of great uncertainty and upheaval, it is of utmost importance to ‘stay vigilant’ to our inner state. We must ask ourselves, “What is the origin of our thoughts and emotions, especially when we experience fear?” In my last essay, I proposed a path for remaining vigilant within a framework of the primitive, rational, and spiritual minds.
Awareness is a good first step, but how do we move from simple awareness to actually loving those who we find difficult to love? The twin goals of a Christian life are love of God and love of others. How can we find this path of love in a time of great fear and hostility?
Let us look more deeply into how the primitive mind grows and hardens into a full-fledged ‘false self’ and how the teachings of Jesus call us home to our true self. But before we go there, let us explore the unconditional love we were made to dwell in and pour out to others.
To Love as God Loves
When asked by a fellow Jew about the most important commandment of the Torah, Jesus answered – “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength,’ and ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” At the Last Supper, Jesus elevated both of these commandments to a new level by teaching : “Remain in my love” and “Love one another as I have loved you.” The Gospel teachings invite us to rest in Christ’s love, and then to love others from this same Divine Love.
How do we do this? To live and love as Jesus instructed requires leaving behind our fears and identification with our primitive mind. It asks us to grow beyond the limits of our rational mind and to transcend all self-centeredness. From a self-emptied state (kenosis in Greek), we are able to rest in Divine Love and to love as Christ loves. Living in a self-emptied state involves a radical shift in identity. While we remain our unique self, we shift our primary identification to being a vessel for the Spirit.
This shift to consciously living in the Spirit of Christ is the essence of the Christian path. The spiritual journey begins when we experience the reality of God’s spirit dwelling within and among us. We quickly discover our desire for God competes with countless fears and self-centered desires within our souls. If we are serious about ‘seeking first the Kingdom of God,’ we undergo a period of discipline that involves turning away from our fears and self-centeredness again and again in order that we might rest in God. In the language of the first post of this series, we commit to a discipline of living from the spiritual mind, rather than the primitive mind. Many Christian saints speak of this early stage of spiritual discipline as the stage of ‘purification.’ As fear and desire for self-preservation motivate many of the narratives surrounding COVID, this discipline of ‘purification’ has special relevance for any Christ follower seeking to remain spiritually awake in our time.
The spirit of God which dwells within us is not personal. It is eternal, immortal, and unites us with both God and all creation. Growth in Christian life means we gradually decrease our identification with the demands of our primitive mind, and even the curiosities of our rational mind, to increasingly identify with the living, eternal mystery of love that permeates the spiritual mind. The ancient church called this process divinization or deification. It is the journey of becoming more ‘like God’ through participation in the life and spirit of Christ. The more we are purified of our identification with the primitive mind, the more we experience the life of God as our own limitless Source.
When we ‘put on the mind of Christ’ in this way, it becomes easy to love as God loves. When we experience God’s love as the source of our being, love naturally flows through us to others. Our love for other people is no longer rooted in any external conditions. We see and experience others as ‘children’ or manifestations of the same Divine Love that is our source. We love all people, who we see as bearers of God’s image and likeness. This is the natural operation of the heart that is transformed in Christ.
From the Primitive Mind to the False Self
It often feels like there is a chasm between us and the ease of the unconditional love described above. That chasm may feel even bigger during these times of fear and polarization. The reality is this unconditional love is readily available at every moment precisely because God is ever present – nearer to us than our very breath. There is no chasm. However, there are lots of hurts, desires, and aversions that have attached themselves to our true nature. And they’ve attached themselves so closely and have been with us for so long, that we now falsely recognize them as ‘us.’ This is an aspect of identification with the primitive mind, ultimately ripening into the ‘false self.’
As described in part one, each of us has a ‘primitive mind’ which acts to keep our biological organism safe. It is easily activated by fear and divides the world into good/pleasant/safe and bad/unpleasant/unsafe. This is the natural activity of our instinctual survival mechanisms, and there is nothing inherently wrong about it. The danger arises when we come to identify with the primitive mind as ‘us.’ Unfortunately, most of us identify with the primitive mind, at least partially, most of the time. We humans seem to have a built-in self-centered psychology, that typically keeps us locked into the dualisms of the primitive mind until we begin a conscious process of spiritual discipline. Long before we gain adult consciousness and the power to choose, we become trapped in complex patterns of self-centeredness. In earlier eras, Christians referred to this dynamic as ‘original sin.’ Modern Christian contemplative authors like Father Thomas Keating describe this tragic state as ‘the human condition.’
According to Father Thomas, as we grow up, this self-centered impulse attaches itself to three primary instinctual needs: 1) Security and Survival, 2) Affection and Esteem, and 3) Power and Control. These three instinctual needs develop into ‘energy centers’ around which our thoughts, feelings, perceptions and motivations orbit. While these energy centers are based in real needs during early childhood, as we grow, they tend to develop beyond our real needs into exaggerated desires and attachments. These develop according to our particular cultural conditions. In our society, a large bank account may feed our desire for security, or our quest for Facebook likes may fuel our longing for affection and esteem. Over time, we develop constricted patterns of thinking, feeling, and behavior motivated by these energy centers – what Father Thomas calls ‘emotional programs for happiness.’ When life meets the demands of our particular set of emotional programs for happiness, we feel good. When life fails to meet our demands, we feel miserable.
Father Thomas further articulates that as we move into middle childhood, a fourth ‘energy center’ develops, that of 4.)‘Mythic Membership.’ This is the need to belong to our social groups – including our family, clan, tribe, peer group, sports team, culture or nation. At this level of development, we unconsciously absorb the values of the collective culture(s) around us, and so our individual bundle of emotional programs for happiness become much more complex as they mix and merge with the emotional programming of those around us. As mentioned in the last post, the rational mind then is easily ‘hijacked’ into providing supporting facts, concepts and arguments that further reinforce the prepackaged values of the emotional programs and the collective culture. As the ‘mythic membership’ level strengthens, we find safety, affection, and power through belonging to the group, and we quickly learn to conform our thoughts and behavior to stay accepted in our social groups.
Father Thomas, borrowing a term from his fellow Trappist monk Thomas Merton, calls this fabricated identity the ‘false self’. The false self of Keating’s and Merton’s writings is simply the primitive mind in its full expression, built up over a lifetime of attractions, aversions, and accumulated emotional stimuli and reactions. What most of us understand as our ‘personality’ is largely based on the programming of this false self. When we do not respond to the present moment with freshness and love, but from emotional compulsion, we are operating from the false self. Our emotional baggage and hang-ups from past hurts are aspects of the false self, carrying their limitations forward in time. They greatly inhibit our ability to be fully present to life.
The false self is heavily invested in narrative. It engages with each new experience from its past record of what is acceptable or unacceptable to its agenda. When living from the false self, we evaluate each new experience from the lens of our past experiences. Our past conditioning determines what food we like, who we enjoy interacting with, and what ideas we are willing to entertain. We become identified with our particularities, whether of form (race, gender, age, class, region), or belief (religion, politics). We come to enjoy those who are like us, and to be threatened or offended by those who are unlike us. The more identified we are in the false self, the more fragile our sense of self becomes. We internalize a certain set of stories of who we are, how the world is and should be, and why we are right, and others are wrong.
Think for a moment of some time when you have been offended by another person. A series of internal commentaries arise – judging, condemning, rationalizing. Our thoughts and emotions spin in a rage against the intolerable offense against our idea of what is right or just. This happens to us as individuals, and we can also see it taking place between competing groups. Whenever we feel ourselves caught up in the spin of compulsive emotions, or feel an inner contraction from life, we know that we’re living under the influence of the false self.
As mentioned in the last post, in this state we build up idols of the mind – attachments to any person, thing, idea, status or situation as an ultimate good that must be protected at all costs. In this state, we lose the ability to see others’ humanity, and become solely focused on meeting the demands of our emotional programming. Over time we may build up elaborate narratives about how the world works that are, underneath our complex rationalizations, largely the projections of our false self.
This, of course, is a recipe for human misery. Yet, from within the lens of the false self, what needs to change is always outside of ourselves. When we are in the false self, we can’t see that the false self, rather than external reality, is the primary source of our unhappiness. Instead, we try to conform the world to our image and likeness, failing to realize that the only way to lasting happiness is to drop the project of the false self and enter into the life of the spirit.
In our era, where science is held up as the ultimate source of authority, the false self is happy to call upon science to support its agendas. Many of us educated folks build up portfolios of studies and statistics to prove why we are right, and others are wrong. Once we’ve become attached to a particular idea or cause, we tend to mine for evidence to support our perspective, rather than engage in open-minded inquiry about what is true. Psychologists have named this phenomena ‘confirmation bias.com/balance/what-is-confirmation-bias’. Other related psychological tendencies include ‘the backfire effect’ (doubling down on pre-existing beliefs when one’s ideas are challenged),‘the halo effect’ (once something or someone is judged as positive in one aspect, we declare it or them universally good and overlook any evidence to the contrary), and ‘the sunk cost fallacy’ (we continue believing something against mounting evidence because of how much we have invested in the idea previously).
COVID Narratives and the False Self
The more fearful we are, both as individuals and as a collective, the more likely it is that we will collapse into the primitive mind and the false self, and the COVID pandemic has led to a massive rise in collective fear over the past two years. Early in the pandemic, the biggest challenges to staying in the true self were related to the activation of the Security/Survival center. As time went on and people felt the effects of isolation and the loss of human intimacy, challenges to the Affection/Esteem center arose. As the pandemic has failed to easily resolve, and people argue about why and who is to blame, there’s an increase in identification with the Power/Control center. Finally, with deepening entrenchment and identification with either the official narrative or the counter narrative, there’s an increase in identification with the Mythic Membership center and group identity. Each of these energy centers, when activated, can drag us further from our true self, and keep us further enslaved to the patterns of the false self.
I began writing this series as a response to the hardening of hearts and stiffening of necks I’ve seen taking place in our society. Almost daily, I feel the temptation to harden – it’s painful to stay open-hearted and take in the sorrows of our time (including, but certainly not limited to the COVID situation). Yet I know of no other way to remain in God’s love than to keep an open, vulnerable heart.
I believe that over-identification with either the dominant COVID narrative or the counter-narrative (or any other narrative!) can severely limit our ability to love God and to love one another. What are some of the spiritual obstacles that threaten to enslave us in this time, and how can the teachings of Jesus offer a way to freedom? I’ll use some examples from these two narratives, coupled with teachings of Jesus that address each obstacle:
Obstacle #1 – Fear
The problem: When we identify with our fear, we lock our awareness into the primitive mind and the false self, and easily lose access to the spiritual mind and true self.
Dominant narrative: Fear of the virus. The novel coronavirus is terrifying. Hundreds of thousands have died. The virus affects all ages, is difficult to contain, and has serious potential to harm me and my loved ones.
Counter-narrative: Fear of oppression. The virus is ‘no worse than a seasonal flu,’ and death counts are heavily overreported. There are powerful forces using this crisis to control or manipulate us to their advantage. These forces are coming for us and have serious potential to harm me and my loved ones.
The Way of Christ: “Do not fear the one who can kill the body but who cannot kill the soul (Matthew 10:27).” The essential enemy is neither microbial nor human but fear itself. Refusing to identify with fear is the essential spiritual practice of our time. We can experience fear without identifying with our fear. We can choose to remain in love, to identify with our spirits, and let fear emerge and recede in our conscious awareness without giving it undue power.
Obstacle #2 – Phobia (extreme fear leading to avoidance)
The Problem: Indulging our fears leads to phobia, a pattern of avoidance and contracting from the fullness of life to avoid a threatening aspect of reality.
Dominant narrative: Phobia of bodies. Any other person is a potential disease vector, and therefore unsafe to be around. I must evaluate all of my social interactions with vigilance about my COVID risk. Quarantine, isolation, social distancing are all appropriate responses to this risk. Previously normal human interactions must be curtailed for an indefinite period of time.
Counter-narrative: Phobia of ‘thought police.’ Free speech is being curtailed everywhere. Big tech companies are suppressing the truth. People are losing their jobs for speaking the truth. I can’t trust the people around me – neighbors, co-workers, and certainly not the government or the media. I’ll watch what I say, and where I say it.
Way of Christ: In his public ministry, Jesus reached out to people with a contagious disease, leprosy, who were ritually ‘unclean’ and outcasts of his society. He made himself ‘unclean’ through this contact, in order to heal others. Jesus also intentionally walked towards the seat of power in Jerusalem and those trying to kill him. In his life, Jesus expressed a greater commitment to God, to love, and to truth than to self-preservation. In following Christ, we are invited to serve God, love, and truth above self-interest, even when this requires great sacrifice. This does not mean recklessness, but means we evaluate personal security as one limited good among other goods, and we may sometimes choose to place ourselves at risk out of love for God and neighbor.
Obstacle #3 – Idolatry of a Value
The Problem: God alone is infinite. Regarding any value as an infinite good leads to idolatry. We end up living our lives in service to the value rather than God, which cuts us off to the freedom of resting in God.
Dominant narrative: Idolatry of biological life. The extension of biological life for all people is the supreme value. No individual or collective sacrifice is too great to preserve life. If millions need to wear masks or stay home to save one life, it is worth it.
Counter-narrative: Idolatry of freedom. My freedom to act how I want, wherever I want, is the supreme value. I will actively resist any attempts to control or curtail my private will. If others are harmed by my freedoms, that’s their problem.
Way of Christ: When Satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness, he offered Jesus ownership of all the kingdoms in the world, in exchange for worshiping him. Jesus’ response was: “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’” (Matthew 4:10) There is no status, and no value, that is of infinite value. Only God is of infinite worth, and all other goods – even freedom and the continuation of life, are partial and passing. To live in right relationship with God means we cease to view anything except God alone as having ultimate value.
Obstacle #4 – Idolatry of a Substance
The problem: Similar to idolatry to a value, idolatry to a substance gives excessive importance to a physical thing as a source of life or salvation. We then substitute the thing as the center of our trust and devotion, which must be given to God alone if we wish to remain spiritually free.
Dominant narrative: Vaccine as savior. The vaccine is the answer to the pandemic. Once we have enough vaccinations, we’re out of the pandemic. The science shows how fantastically effective they are. There are no real side effects, those who claim otherwise are anti-science. Vaccination status matters more than all other health measures combined. Natural immunity after infection is inferior to vaccination. Vaccinated = safe, unvaccinated = dangerous. It’s essential for the safety of the collective that everyone is injected. We can’t leave the uptake of vaccines to the free, informed consent of individuals. It’s appropriate to bribe and threaten people, including children, to ensure they participate in the vaccination program. (Update: If the initial vaccines are no longer working, the boosters will. More vaccination is still the best way forward).
Counter-narrative: Drugs as savior. The vaccines are dangerous, and largely ineffective. They are also totally unnecessary because therapeutic drugs like Ivermectin are hugely effective at stopping COVID from becoming dangerous once you’ve become infected. If everyone could just have access to early treatment medicines, the pandemic would be over, and we could all get back to normal. Profit-driven pharmaceutical companies are repressing access to life-saving treatments.
Way of Christ: “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die.” (John 11:25) When we have aligned the depths of our being with the risen divine-human, Jesus Christ, we experience freedom from any fear of death. We know that which is eternal in ourselves and can never die. This is one of the traditional Christian understandings of salvation – to know eternal life through intimacy with the eternal God, through the divine-human One, Jesus. When we know this in depths, we have no need for anything else to save us. We may still make use of medicine to prolong our earthly life, but we know that eternal life is already ours.
Obstacle #5 - Separation from Others, Objectification of the Other:
The Problem: When identified with the false self, we create a class of people who are ‘other’ and cease to be fully human to us. Love grows cold, and our world is divided between those whom we deem worthy of our love and those who are not worthy of our love. Identifying with conditional love, we become cut off from God whose nature is unconditional love.
Dominant narrative: Don’t socialize with the anti-vaxxers. I don’t let them into my home. They’re crazy and a threat to our health. What a bunch of uneducated lunatics. You can’t reason with them, better not to try. How can they not understand basic science? I will only be friends with people who have received a vaccine.
Counter narrative: Those sheeple are idiots. How can they not see through the vaccine propaganda? Better not to trust any of them. You can’t reason with them; they just give you a blank stare. I can only trust those who can see through the bullshit. I will only be friends with people who haven’t received a vaccine.
Way of Christ: Jesus shocked his contemporaries by deliberately spending time with tax collectors and prostitutes – those most ostracized in his society. He’s also depicted dining with Pharisees – those most lauded in his society. He worships with his fellow Jews in synagogue, then walks out and rubs elbows with the Romans and Samaritans that first century Jews despised. His life example was clear – each person’s humanity gave them a dignity with God that was greater than any external marker. If we follow Jesus, we cannot create an ‘other’ that is unworthy of our respect and love. The category of ‘human’ becomes enough to be fully worthy of our love.
Obstacle # 6 – Demonization of the Other
The problem: Our objectification deepens into seeing the ‘other’ as the source of our problems, and even as evil. The majority scapegoats a vilified minority, thinking their banishment or death would restore order to society. We begin by mentally wishing them ill will. We think that if only they were gone (or suitably punished) then the world would be better off. Violence of the heart has begun, and the conditions are present to ripen into physical violence.
Dominant narrative: Those who disagree with me are killers and criminals. Those who spread disinformation about the safe and effective vaccines are dangerous. They have blood on their hands. People listen to them and die because they didn’t take the vaccine. If they would just shut up and get vaccinated, we’d be done with the pandemic. Those who do not get vaccinated are a threat to us all.
Counter-narrative: Those who disagree with me are killers and criminals. People are refusing to admit or report adverse reactions to the vaccines. Many people are dying or being crippled by the vaccines. Those who promote and mandate the vaccines are dangerous. They have blood on their hands. People listen to them and die because they took the vaccine. The vaccines don’t even stop the spread of COVID, and they might even drive the mutation of the virus, extending the pandemic for us all. Those who force vaccination are a threat to us all.
Way of Christ: “Stop judging, that you may not be judged. For as you judge, so will you be judged, and the measure with which you measure will be measured out to you. Why do you notice the splinter in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the wooden beam in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove that splinter from your eye,’ while the wooden beam is in your eye? You hypocrite, remove the wooden beam from your eye first; then you will see clearly to remove the splinter from your brother’s eye.” (Matthew 7:1-5) Jesus teaches that to condemn others is to destroy our own souls. We are called to turn our energies towards seeing our own failings, and to entrust others to God’s mercy and grace.
Obstacle #7 – The Descent into Violence
The Problem: After the ‘other’ is fully demonized, physical violence is inflicted in the name of righting the wrongs done to us or to our society. For those in control of state power, this can include stripping the ‘enemy’ of basic rights (including the right to work, to assemble, and to have a public voice). It may also involve imprisonment, police violence, or military force. This is typically done in an ordered, controlled fashion. For those without state power, this can include sabotage, vigilante violence, spontaneous rage, or mob violence/revolt. If the powerless group gains access to power, mass ‘cleansing’ and retributive violence may result.
Dominant narrative: The risk to our society is simply too great to let vaccination be a personal choice. We must pressure all who have not received a vaccine to take one. We will take away their health insurance and their employment. We will force them to quarantine indefinitely in their homes, or in camps if necessary. Perhaps they shouldn’t be treated when they go to the hospitals. They must get vaccinated, or pay fines, or be arrested. Why aren’t we pinning them down and injecting them?
Counter-narrative: Our country is being destroyed by the globalists. We need to stockpile arms before it’s too late. If they are coming to get me, they’ll find me armed and ready for a fight. How much longer can this go on? It’s time to rise up. I’ll start with the local oppressors when they try to keep me down. I’m so glad I live in the USA where we have the firearms to protect ourselves. Maybe someone should take out the tyrants before it’s too late.
Way of Christ: I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil. When someone strikes you on your right cheek, turn the other one to him as well. (Matthew 5:39). Jesus’ way is to accept the suffering we are given with love and forgiveness, refusing to perpetuate the cycles of violence with revenge. By taking in the pain of the world and refusing to retaliate, Jesus modeled a way out of the lie of redemptive violence. Each time we are tempted to harm another out of anger for the evil they have done, we are invited to recall Jesus’ prayer as he was being tortured: “Father, forgive them, they do not know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34)
Obstacle #8 – Shrinking Jesus Until He Supports Our Narrative
The Problem: Transformative Christianity is about letting go of our egoic self to enter into the Realm of God. A distorted self-serving Christianity ends up mentally ‘shrinking’ Jesus until he fits our pre-existing narrative, fears, and desires. It robs us of the transformative power of contact with the living God. Instead, we end up with a cheap substitute that affirms and strengthens our false self rather than guiding us beyond the self into our true nature in God.
Dominant (Christian) narrative: Jesus would have gotten vaccinated!
Counter (Christian) narrative: No, he wouldn’t!
Jesus: “Oh faithless and perverse generation, how long must I endure you?” (Mark 8:19)
These are a few examples. If you’ve been studying the pandemic critically, you can probably come up with more. What we see here are the mechanizations of the false self. The specific narratives that are playing out at this time are interwoven with the deep structure of the false self. Their oppressive character can take root in fairly similar ways regardless of which narrative one takes up. This does not mean that both perspectives on the pandemic are equally accurate or inaccurate. What it means is that until we learn to live from the true self, we have little hope of loving others well in the midst of this crisis. To love both our neighbor and our enemies is an absolute non-negotiable on the Way of Christ. Until we can love all people from an undivided heart, we can’t possibly hope to speak with wisdom about COVID.
Notice how these two conflicting narratives serve to strengthen each other. There is remarkable complexity playing out in the dynamics of the pandemic, and the international effort at containment demands a level of precision and control (of both the virus and human behavior) that is virtually impossible in the real world. The efforts of the dominant narrative to present a front of complete control, even as their efforts collide with reality, serves only to reinforce the sense in the counter-narrative that there is a conspiracy to do harm at play. Chanting simplistic slogans like ‘safe and effective!’ over and over without deeply listening to the concerns of people marginalized or harmed by the medical system only furthers their fear. Threats to take away the ability to work or travel or receive health insurance only further radicalizes their resistance. The idols of each side are seen as ridiculous by the other side. Without a sincere desire to listen with respect and honor the human dignity of those on the other side, reconciliation or even peaceful co-existence becomes impossible.
As Archbishop Desmond Tutu wrote, “There is no future without forgiveness.” In a time of societal breakdown like our own, the Way of Christ offers us a future. We can commit to living in God’s love, loving as Christ loves, forgiving, repenting, and embracing all. It is our task to live from the deeper, greater love of God, and to radiate this love in our life, in our relationships, and in the world. Whatever our uncertain future brings, each one of us who lives in Divine Love will be a blessing to this world.
[1] Luke 12: 35-38. Later Christian teachers described this as the practice of interior recollection.
[2] Mark 12:28-34
[3] John 15:9-12
[4] This does not involve rejecting either the primitive mind or the rational mind. We need to feel the fears and desires that arise from the primitive mind without identification. We need to use our rational mind to think and navigate our life in the world. The rational mind is a wonderful and necessary tool. Problems arise when we identify this tool as our ‘self’ – the rational mind is a wonderful servant, but a poor master.
[5] Matthew 6:33
[6] In the classic typology of spiritual growth, Purification is followed by the later stages of Illumination and Union.
[7] Father Thomas Keating (1923-2018), Cistercian monk, priest, author and co-founder of the Centering Prayer movement
[8] Father Thomas Merton, (1915-1968), a prolific author and influential spiritual teacher.
[9] I’ve observed this play out in dramatic fashion in the world of health. Often there are two passionate, opposing sides, for example vegans and meat-eaters, or low-fat diet and ketogenic diet proponents. Both groups come to the debate armed with thousands of pages of peer-reviewed, exhaustive studies proving that they are right, and the other side is wrong. I’ve rarely, if ever, seen someone switch sides in these debates based on new evidence.
[10] Some of these lines will sound like a bit of a caricature, and our internal narratives are typically more nuanced than what I can depict here.
[11] For example, an August 2021 Gallup poll reported that 41 % of Democrats (as well as 26% of Independents and 22% of Republicans) estimated the risk of COVID hospitalization for an unvaccinated person at greater than 50%. The actual estimated risk is less than 1% - a number that just 2% of Democrats polled (and 16% of Republicans and 11% of Independents) answered correctly.
[12] Many who hold this view posit coordinated malice, like the release of the virus as a GMO bioweapon, or plans of the World Economic Forum to use the crisis to leverage a ‘Great Reset’ of human society. Others with this viewpoint see it as the result of bureaucratic overreach and ordinary greed.
[13] Mark 1:40-45
[14] Luke 9:51
[15] The reason I’m giving the narrative and counter-narrative side by side is to highlight how the same machinations of the false self can be at play in both narratives. If our primary goal is not to be ‘right’ but to follow the Way of Christ, we must be alert to these dynamics regardless of our stance and beliefs about COVID.