“Pseudoscience speaks to powerful emotional needs that science often leaves unfulfilled. It caters to fantasies about personal powers we lack and long for.”—Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World

“I’m not wearing a mask. I’m not asking my customers to wear a mask either. If I get COVID, I get COVID. I put my faith in the Lord. My God will protect me. Y’all come on in and have a seat! Order a bottle of wine! We’ll take care of you!”—Family restaurant owner/manager in a wealthy subdivision in San Antonio, Texas, speaking to seated patrons at the bar, then turning to greet customers as they walked in the door.

It’s all about the peanuts, even for the organizations dedicated to doing God’s work. Atheists are wearing masks. Of course, with atheists (and Democrats) wearing masks, most of the God-fearing, Conservative people I run across wouldn’t be caught dead wearing a mask in public. Statistics indicate that a percentage of them won’t have to worry about such things much longer. The ones who don’t suffocate in the night will re-enforce their self-righteousness knowing down deep in their lizard brains that they were blessed and marked with God’s grace. Let’s Rodeo!

I should care less. I’d sleep better. Unfortunately, I still consider myself a member of this Demon-Haunted and potentially-doomed society and hope for its continued long-term survival, but it’s not looking good. We are in a feedback loop of destruction enabled by the very organizations that could potentially turn things around if they actually started doing the work of the entity they claim to worship. It’s still all about the peanuts though. They need their peanuts if they are going to keep the lights on, the meals rolling, and the good works flowing. Without their peanuts, these organizations wither away, forced into falling back on their staff’s ministerial talents as individually embedded traveling caretakers, nursemaids of the soul without a checkbook, like Jesus Christ.

Telling their congregations to love their neighbors and to follow the scientific evidence regarding COVID means upsetting their flock’s emotional (and financial) needs, causing them to turn away and find another church that will support their beliefs about the pandemic, causing their own coffers to shrink and their ministerial activities to diminish. They are being hoisted by their own petards. 

Find me a single, maskless COVID denier who isn’t a Protestant. I’m not saying all Protestants are COVID deniers, but the ones who are the most vocal about flaunting stay-at-home orders and mask regulations certainly appear to embrace the Protestant flavor of Western Christianity. 

Another characteristic often present in this group is climate change denial, yet another scientific inconvenience that directly affects worshiper’s peanut vaults and emotional needs.

If Protestant organizations truly care about the needs of their flock, then they will take steps to counter the messaging being fed to their congregations by those whose interests are selfishly motivated. Of course, this means risking acting against their self-interest, which is why I call this a feedback loop of destruction. 

Bexar County is currently experiencing some of its worst statistics since the pandemic started. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/us/bexar-texas-covid-cases.html Yet, many of us are planning Super Bowl parties and eagerly awaiting a rodeo that by all accounts should be postponed or canceled. Our city is a religious city. Its churches should be helping out our beleaguered government officials and health care professionals by preaching what needs to be preached, even if it means creating some cognitive dissonance and emotional distress amongst the believers. 

God, help us.