Reason First: Do You Believe in COVID-19?

Many people would claim the unknown and the unknowable as their source of strength and refuge. But would these same people be able to say that you can pray away charges? Pastor Rodney Howard-Browne of Tampa Bay, Florida held a service at his church in defiance of the law and rationality. He kept a congregation of folks under one roof, going against the laws of lawful assembly and safety and health. For these acts, Howard-Browne received the cold bracelets of justice.

What is it with folks who ascribe to the supernatural? Do they think that they are endowed with enough sense to wash the germs away but still need a little extra help from beyond to give them solace? Howard-Browne is a mystic who puts faith before facts. He should be given the strongest sentence that the law will allow.

To use other people’s emotions and tie them up in a package deal of wanting to be safe with disinfectants and handwashing while leaning on the Everlasting Arms is alarming. Howard-Browne should be ashamed of himself. Not only did he display unselfishness, idiocy, and recklessness, he put the lives of his own congregation in danger. Not just his incompetence but his subjectivism led him to be charged with these crimes. For failing to recognize reality, this male chose to do what is wrong, what is unjust. There really is no controversy because there is no argument. Howard-Browne found himself in the wrong and there’s no way around that. No tears or supplications can undo what this pastor has done. He has gone out of his way to violate the law and is being punished for it.

Some factions say that he should be forgiven for his deeds and some even say that he should be commended for them. This is as close to controversial as you’re going to get. Those that cry fire and brimstone against the people who oppose Howard-Browne should check their premises. That is, they ought to evaluate or reevaluate the basis for their assertions. For Howard-Browne, he will forever go down as an irrationalist who must live in infamy.

COVID-19 doesn’t care what place you put your knees on a weekend. It doesn’t care how many words you say aloud or in silence to the unknown and unknowable. This coronavirus does not discriminate against anyone. It is a deadly virus that seeks to feed upon people and steal their lives.

Only reason and science can aid in the fight against this virus and all that ails existence. The CEOs, businessmen and women, medical staff and first responders should be applauded for applying their thought to a dire situation. Howard-Browne could never understand what Jeff Bezos or Mark Zuckerberg has done for tens of millions of Americans and billions of people around the world. They held no services putting other lives in danger. They used their selfishness to line their own pockets while trading with scores of individuals on the semi-free market.

Howard-Browne used selflessness and potential self destruction and destruction of others to hold a meeting against the mind. He knew what he was doing and that that was wrong. Yet, he did it anyway. This is the hallmark of a whim-worshipper. Instead of employing rationality, this male bypassed that effort and put his own life and the lives of his congregation in jeopardy. He should be able to realize the failures in thinking that he committed.

But to those heroes out there, the ones who are running businesses with less employees, building new devices and testing new chemicals and drugs, they should grab the headlines, not peddlers of alleged salvation.