At the beginning of Donald Trump’s presidency, I wrote a post warning that he was a threat to the United States and the rest of the world. We are about to see matters turn from bad to worse.
Thanks to Trump’s followers in the halls of government throughout the United States, the Delta variant is on the verge of turning the coronavirus pandemic into a plague. The people who flocked to his rallies, voted for him and his endorsed candidates, and who continue to believe his lies, make up a large part of the unvaccinated population that is suffering the worst effects of COVID’s Delta variant.
Wendell Griffen
Fortunately, some of them are beginning to be vaccinated. Tragically, many of them refuse to be vaccinated, refuse to wear masks, refuse to practice social distancing, and refuse to believe they are endangering themselves, their loved ones, neighbors and the future of the United States.
We are repeating the errors the Bible vividly set out in Exodus. Hearts of Trump-following politicians, preachers and people who call themselves “family values voters” and “Christian conservatives” have become “hardened” so much that the best efforts of dedicated scientists, doctors, nurses, chaplains and other health care workers cannot stem the rising tide of infections, sickness, hospitalizations and deaths from COVID-19.
Hearts have been hardened so much that Trump-following state legislators — in my home state of Arkansas and elsewhere — who enacted laws that banned governmental mandates for wearing face masks, restricted the power of governors to declare public health emergencies and implement measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus transmission and infection, now appear determined to send millions of unvaccinated children into classrooms in the coming days.
In Arkansas and other states, educators and business owners are banned from requiring people to wear masks. Health officials have been stripped of power to take measures that would limit the risk of COVID transmission and infection.
The coronavirus pandemic is about to become a plague because the hearts of our pharaohs are hardened past the point of return.
“Health officials have been stripped of power to take measures that would limit the risk of COVID transmission and infection.”
A year ago, people yearned for vaccines as a remedy for the pandemic. Thanks to hard-hearted rulers in government, religion, the media and other circles, the good work done by scientists to develop effective vaccines has been squandered.
Now unvaccinated schoolchildren will not practice social distancing. They will not be required to wear face masks.
Unvaccinated and unmasked children will become infected with the more transmissible and more lethal Delta variant of coronavirus. They will become sickened. They will infect unvaccinated adults.
Many unvaccinated children and adults will require hospitalization. Many unvaccinated children and adults will require intubation on ventilators. There will not be enough hospital beds. There will not be enough ventilators.
The already exhausted doctors, nurses and other health care personnel will be overwhelmed by the number of sickened, hospitalized and frightened people who will fight to live while separated from their loved ones.
Many unvaccinated children, parents, grandparents, other relatives and their neighbors will die despite the best efforts and intentions of those health care workers. They will die despite the most fervent prayers and hopes of loved ones.
Vaccinated people will become infected, get sick and suffer less lethal consequences.
We will repeat Exodus because of hard-hearted pharaohs and foolish, stubborn and self-serving preachers, congregations and pundits.
“We will repeat Exodus because of hard-hearted pharaohs and foolish, stubborn and self-serving preachers, congregations and pundits.”
God is not mocked. We will repeat Exodus.
Pride goes before destruction, and an arrogant spirit goes before a great downfall. We will repeat Exodus.
Our people listened to preachers who were more loyal to Donald Trump and his cabal of pharaohs than to God and their neighbors. We will repeat Exodus.
Our pharaohs refused to heed the scientific, medical and public health Moses and Aaron voices of our time. We will repeat Exodus.
It is not too late to be vaccinated. Unvaccinated people should immediately take the vaccine and be careful after receiving their vaccines as the vaccines take full effect.
Vaccines are the equivalent of the blood that was placed on doorposts in the Exodus narrative. But too many people have followed Trump’s sociopathic idiocy to prevent what is about to happen in the United States.
It is too late to prevent what happened in Egypt from happening in the United States. It is too late to prevent the COVID-19 pandemic from worsening into a national plague.
In Exodus, the final plague struck children. The United States is doomed to repeat Exodus because Trump-loving rulers, priests, preachers and other people have “hardened” hearts.
Our best hope — for ourselves and the children — is that enough people will be vaccinated to become a remnant of plague survivors. However, we will first repeat Exodus.
Wendell Griffen is an Arkansas circuit judge and pastor of New Millennium Church in Little Rock, Ark.
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