I was excited to receive notification last
week that my gym had developed a smart phone app for me to download. I
downloaded the app and discovered that my gym was not yet open for business,
but planned to open on July 5. Imagine how excited I was to use the app to make
an appointment to work out with a select few today at 11:00 AM.
As I stood in line, maintaining social
distancing from others also in line, it was apparent that the front door was
locked, prohibiting entrance into the facility before 11:00 o’clock sharp. I
stood in line with my mask on and noticed the sign on the front door insisting
that those working out wear both mask and latex gloves while exercising inside.
I imagined that this was for the purpose of maintaining a rather sterile
environment for the protection of others. I had no latex gloves with me and expected,
correctly it turned out, that my gym would provide the latex gloves.
The door was then opened, and entrance was
allowed for each person who could display on a cell phone the proper “no
contact app display” proving my identity and my reservation to work out. I passed
through the door and stood at the welcome desk, asking for latex gloves. The
attendant ran to the back office and brought out a box of latex gloves that fit
the hands of every woman who wanted to work out and that fit the hands of the
men with great difficulty.
As I put on my latex gloves while walking
upstairs to the weight room it dawned on me that the very act of putting on the
latex gloves rendered the latex gloves no longer sterile. It is impossible to
put on latex gloves without touching the latex gloves on the outside. Wearing
latex gloves benefits the wearer but no one else. Thus, when one works out by
touching the barbells, the kettle balls, the dumbbells, and the various
exercise machines, every surface a customer touches is immediately
contaminated. The next time I come into the gym, reusing the latex gloves they
gave me, my gloves will be even more contaminated. Of course, they know that.
It doesn’t matter. The whole point of gloves and mask to exercise is to calm
the fears of the uninformed, the misinformed, and the frightened.
As I began to work out, I noticed
especially the young men in the facility. The big guys, the muscular guys, the
fit fellows, immediately took their masks off and mostly took their latex
gloves off. They ignored the warning over the loudspeaker. Thus, the guys who
were serious weightlifters were not about to encumber themselves with stupid
and ineffective masks or latex gloves that interfered with a good grip. They
did not care about any Karens who might be in the room. I laughed as I observed
it all, and was particularly amused by the very conscientious (and not very
muscular) mask wearers and latex glove wearers.
Notice my picture with masks on and latex
gloves on. Don’t I look positively ridiculous? What a stupid way to approach
vigorous exercise, by interfering with your breathing and encumbering a good
grip.
The owner of this facility cannot be a
moron. He cannot be an idiot. There is no possible way he would have reopened
this facility without consulting sterilization experts and, more importantly,
attorneys. This whole exercise in sterilization futility is not for the purpose
of minimizing the likelihood of CCP Virus spreading, but to minimize the gym’s
liability exposure when someone who has recently been to the gym catches the CCP
Virus from an immediate family member. You can’t sue family, but you can blame
the fitness center. That is what this is all about.
It’s the same with restaurants and churches.
You cannot go into a restaurant without having a mask on. The establishment will
not allow any patron to enter without a mask of any kind. Methinks a
cheesecloth mask would be acceptable to most eateries. However, once you go in
and sit down at your table, removing the mask is not only optional, it is
necessary. Who can drink a beverage or eat food while wearing a mask? So why is
a mask required to enter the restaurant? Purely for the purpose of reassuring
the uninformed, the misinformed, and the timid.
This causes me to reflect upon church services
yesterday. Our church has been conducting services throughout the pandemic
lockdown because I am a Baptist pastor and we are a Baptist church. Baptists
believe (or claim to believe) in soul liberty. Soul liberty prohibits me from
denying other Christians the right to exercise their God-given liberty to
gather for worship. Thus, Baptist pastors who close their auditoriums because
of a government edict and deny their individual congregants the opportunity to
exercise their God-given liberties as free moral agents, are not really acting
much like Baptists at all.
I am also reminded of the thoughts that frequently
ran through my mind throughout this pandemic lockdown, which affected most
churches but which did not affect the church I pastor at all. Where were the
leaders among the Baptists during the mandatory lockdown? Where were those with
the courage of a lion, who annually conduct leadership seminars that young and
gullible Baptist preachers pay money to attend, when the government was
demanding that they shutter their auditoriums, and they meekly and timidly
complied with those unscriptural, illegal, and obviously unconstitutional
demands?
Where in the Bible does it say that someone
wearing a white smock, with a stethoscope draped around his neck, is an
authority figure whose demands and commands must be obeyed? Where in the Bible
does it say that someone occupying a position of authority in government,
whether he wears a uniform or not, is an authority figure whose demands and
commands must be obeyed even when he directly violates the U.S. Constitution?
And where did the legacy of Baptist civil disobedience in the face of
outrageous infringements upon our God-given duties and privileges to worship
and serve God fly off to when this CCP Virus pandemic came along?
Someone might express a concern that going
to church during a pandemic might be dangerous. However, throughout most of
Christian history over these last 2000 years it has been dangerous for God’s
people to gather for worship, with the danger being far more violent than a sub
microscopic virus. Courage is required to live the Christian life. Liberty is
granted by God to His children so that we might individually exercise wisdom
and caution in proportion to the danger, to our age, and to our individual
susceptibilities to illness. But this notion of an entire nation’s population
being locked down before we get sick is positively ludicrous.
I know a few Baptist pastors who have
exercised wisdom by not calling attention to themselves, while continuing to
conduct their church services. I applaud them. I say bravo. Those men remind me
of the Baptist pastors of days gone by, the kinds of men that Patrick Henry
used to defend in courts of law in the Commonwealth of Virginia for their
defiance of government mandates that they restrict the exercise of their
religious liberties.
I have no problem with the privately owned
business requiring masks and latex gloves. I know that masks and latex gloves
accomplish virtually nothing, besides calming the misinformed, the uninformed,
and the timid. But, for God’s sake, and for Christ’s sake, I call upon Baptist
pastors everywhere to ignore the leadership advice of those big boys who have
been silent for the last 90 days, and start paying more attention to the
conduct of men like the apostle Paul and the apostle Peter.
