Essays by Gene Shelburne Volume 4 COVID19 Several months ago when we began putting together our first issues containing my virus columns, I predicted that after Volume 3 the virus pandemic would be history and, although we still had fifteen more columns in the hopper, we’d decide that enough was enough. Once again, I proved that we really are a non-prophet outfit. As we prepare this fourth volume of virus columns for publication, virus stats in the sunshine states are mushrooming, hospitals are overflowing, and Baptists can’t even buy a happy hour drink in Texas. (I’m counting on our loyal Baptist readers’ sense of humor.) Obviously, the challenges of COVID-19 are “Be still turning our lives upside down. More than ever we need to strong and trust in the Lord to get us through this disaster. —Gene Shelburne, Senior Editor take heart All you who hope in the Lord.”
THE CHRISTIAN APPEAL (UPS 107-240) August 2020, Vol. 69, No. 2. Owned and published monthly by CHRISTIAN APPEAL PUBLISHERS, INC., 2310 Anna Street, Amarillo, Texas 79106. Senior editor, Gene Shelburne. Managing editor, Curtis Shelburne. Consulting editor, Psalm 31 David Langford. Subscriptions: Free, thanks to our donors, to all who request the magazine. Free monthly bundles to churches, Bible study groups, and ministries. Send all orders to Christian Appeal Publishers, Inc., 2310 Anna Street, Amarillo, Texas 79106. (Offer subject to issue and print-run availability.) Postmaster: Send address changes to 2310 * Anna Street, Amarillo, Texas 79106. Periodical postage paid at Amarillo, Texas. © 2020 by Christian Appeal Publishers, Inc. iStock.com/Victor Cap iStock.com/Victor COVER PHOTO: iStock.com/Alxney Pnferov PAGE 2 PHOTO: iStock.com/BlackJack3D
VISIT OUR WEB SITE at www.christianappeal.com. CHRISTIAN APPEAL 3 COVID19 COVID19 Virus Humor Blessings in Disguise
In the cacophony of moans and many Baptists do you know who cel- When I was a pre-school runt, a heap. During seven months in bed, groans and howls about the lifestyle ebrate Lent? Maybe that’s part of the nobody had ever heard of Ebola or my legs had lost the strength to stand disruptions caused by the virus, some humor intended. At least, they found SARS or HIV or COVID-19. The two up and I had forgotten how to walk. sensible folks among us are opting something to laugh about. scourges that terrified most Americans Although I was five years old, like a for a wiser way to deal with this tidal One stuck-at-home guy texted, back then—especially those who were baby I had to learn again how to crawl wave of frustrations. Instead of wailing “Found a lady sitting on my couch parents of young children—were polio and then how to toddle. or protesting, they’re laughing. yesterday. Apparently she’s my wife. and rheumatic fever. On our middle- Soon I was able to stand upright For example, did you see the Face- She seems nice.” And lots of jokes, class block in Corpus Christi, Texas, again, but some of the damage of those book poster that proclaimed, “It’s like such as the fictitious offer of “corona- I was the second kid who came down suppine months (such as my curled being 16 again. Gas is cheap and I’m virus discounts” on flights to China, with rheumatic fever. toes) has never gone away. And in my grounded.” Maybe that one wouldn’t have been inspired by the disruption of I was too young at the time to know growing up years, every time I tried a be funny to you if you weren’t born in travel worldwide. all the ways my illness devastated my new sport or took on a physical job, I time to see gasoline selling for $1.30 a A website called Cartoon Collections parents, but I now can see that for them had to undergo medical exams to make gallon. Or if all your retirement funds has gathered almost a thousand pub- it had to be a frightening disaster, and it sure that I was not about to aggravate are invested in oil. lished cartoons with virus as their focus. hit them right when they were also hav- some residual heart damage caused by One fellow who has chosen to A lot of them drove home serious truths ing to adapt to all the social and eco- my earlier sickness. chuckle instead of whining about the with dark humor, but I laughed at the one nomic changes that rocked our nation Why am I dumping this now-ancient virus mess is named Michael Knight. that showed the four former Presidents during World War II. They never let saga on you? To tell you that few things This 29-year-old musician tells us, on Mt. Rushmore with virus masks. And me detect the anxiety that ravaged their in my life have blessed me more than “They said a mask and gloves were the cartoon of the guy locked in wooden souls because I was so sick. that early nightmare. In the years that fol- enough to go to the grocery store. They stocks with an “I Coughed in Public” My main memory of those troubled lowed, I reached for goals and strained lied. Everyone else had clothes on.” sign hanging around his neck beamed times was being bedfast for seven for excellence I might never have aspired During the coronavirus lockdown, me back to Williamsburg, Virginia, over months and being restricted to an experi- to if I had not been trying to prove that how many quips have you seen or two decades ago when two of our grand- mental diet prescribed by a naturopath my illness had not impaired me. Mom heard about TP? Or virus masks? Or kids were intimidated by the stocks in my parents somehow got connected with kept warning me to not to overdo, not social distancing? Or hand washing? that colonial village square. We laughed though he practiced in Christoval, hun- realizing that the specter of disability Or home schooling? Things we didn’t at them then, and now I did again when dreds of miles from our home. Did that ignited in me a need to try harder. joke about before the pandemic hit that virus cartoon reminded me of that diet help? Who knows? But, as we’re Let me predict that virus-inflicted us. Amazon is even marketing a book long-ago fun time. learning during the coronavirus plague, fears and wounds and changes may titled “101 Coronavirus Jokes: Laughing “Laughter relaxes our brains,” one people will try almost anything when actually turn out to be blessings in dis- Your Way Through Troubled Times.” psychologist insists as she advises us even the experts don’t know the answers. guise. They may force us to improve in At the peak of the epidemic, right to keep humor alive in our lives during One day that I’ll never forget is ways we never would have envisioned before Easter, a big-city Baptist these stressful days. “Always be joy- the one when my mother told me with in kinder times. “When troubles of any church up north posted this slogan ful,” the apostle Paul instructs us. That a smile, “You can get out of the bed kind come your way, consider it an on their front-yard sign: “HAD NOT excludes frowns and scowls and fur- today. And you can stay up for two opportunity,” James 1:16 instructs us. PLANNED ON GIVING UP QUITE rowed brows, doesn’t it? Even while hours.” Whoopee! I thought. But when Maybe the damage done by this virus THIS MUCH FOR LENT.” How the virus persists. CA my feet hit the floor, I crumpled into pandemic will teach us why. CA
4 CHRISTIAN APPEAL 5 COVID19 COVID19 “Do Not Be Afraid” Never Again the Same
Just in case we didn’t have enough of medical anxieties. Add these to my It’s amazing, isn’t it, how totally past two centuries—has there ever been to worry about during this COVID-19 childhood education about copper- several weeks of virus shutdown have a time like right now when every student disaster, today’s news headlines a late- heads and rattlesnakes and scorpions changed the way we see a lot of things in the land is being schooled at home. breaking story about a beekeeper in and other critters common to our Texas and the way we do them. I’ve never been a fan of online education Spain. Somehow this fellow had man- world. Then top off all of this with a Take Sunday mornings, for at any level, but during these virus days, aged to escape his nation’s exception- decade of terror fed by daily Cold War instance. They had been the same that’s all there is, and it seems quite likely ally deadly coronavirus outbreak, only warnings that our world might end any almost every week for the 80-plus that because of this present shift, far more to be killed by a “murder hornet” that day in an atomic blast. years of my life. Then came the virus. education in the days to come will be stung him on his eyebrow. Just a few And that’s just the tip of the ice- Not having gathered with God’s people digital and off-campus. days ago authorities warned us that berg. As a kid, I sampled mumps and to sing hymns and pray prayers and Working at home also may become somebody imported these deadly giant measles and chicken pox and flu. Now open God’s word for more than three the new norm. After being forced to try Asian hornets into our country. So hardly a year passes without a new months now, I find myself falling into a it for several months, companies such as now, while we’re dodging virus patho- wave of diseases. TB was one threat new behavior pattern I never dreamed Twitter have discovered that both they gens, we have to watch out for these we feared during the days of my youth. I’d adapt to. Sunday morning at home and their employees may be better off killer wasps as well. Then AIDS and SARS and Ebola and in my casual clothes, mid-morning using home as their offices. Reduced Before we panic about these new- a host of other plagues got loose in the cereal after sleeping late on the Lord’s transportation costs or child-care est threats, though, let’s be sure to put land. And, if that’s not enough to keep day, no exertion or concentration on expenses bless the workers, and reduced them into valid perspective. My mem- us hunkered down, factor in the dam- my part to provide a weekly worship office overhead pads company profits. So ory may not be complete (old men’s age done by cigarettes and asbestos experience for others. Incredible. the virus seems likely to change the way seldom are), but I think it’s true that and pesticides and smog. In a recent issue of Touchstone, a lot of us earn our pay and do business. the only things I had to be afraid of Lump all our daily fears together James Kushiner points out that in Most of us could easily come up with when I was two was getting run over and the current virus scares should these virus-convoluted Sundays, we a long list of changes the virus pandemic by a car if I failed to look both ways lose some of their intimidation. Every Christians actually have become more has forced upon us. And, while we keep before I crossed the street or getting morning we step out of bed into a like the first-century Christians. At saying that we can’t wait to get back to eaten alive by the neighbor’s German world fraught with dangers and bris- least in one way. They didn’t own a normal, the truth is that many of the new Shepherd watchdog. Otherwise, life tling with threats. Always have, always single church building. When we’re ways we’re learning may become the was carefree. will. And most of us learn to cope locked out of ours, maybe we’re new norm. I doubt my wife will ever buy But then in those WWII days down quite well in spite of this cornucopia becoming more like them. At least groceries the way she did before the virus by the Gulf Coast we went into black- of fears. Add coronavirus to that list in this way, now we actually are a hit. What about you? out mode to stymie rocket launches and soon we’ll be functioning normally New Testament church, just as our The truth is that all of us need to from German subs. And while watch- even with this latest menace. forefathers boasted. learn new and better ways to do lots of ing for attacks from the ocean, we had The world Jesus came into was far Some professor up in Yankee- things. Jesus came to teach us to drink to take special precautions to dodge more dangerous than ours. Cures for land recently trumpeted a call for all “new wine.” He came to change our polio germs. Then Brother Brown in most diseases were still centuries away, states to outlaw home schooling. His dirty, worn-out clothes for fresh, clean our little church died of a brain tumor, and life expectancy was less than half judgment probably is flawed, but his ones. “Repent (change your ways),” so even before I started to school I ours today. Still, Jesus tells us over and timing definitely was lousy. Never was his first message. The virus may got introduced to a whole new level over, “Do not be afraid.” CA before in America—at least, not in the help us do that. CA
6 CHRISTIAN APPEAL 7 COVID19 COVID19 The Latest Virus Count Sick, But Without Symptoms
Numbers don’t lie, the proverb increased testing increases the number Not everybody who has caught chirped the most comforting promises. assures us. But sometimes they can of virus cases reported. coronavirus acts like it. Early in the One ripoff artist told us nightly on TV, hide the truth. Reports that as many as 70 percent pandemic, medical authorities published “I may not make you rich, but I promise Late in April, national news of the inmates in some federal prisons a long list of symptoms to watch for: not to make you poor.” Some of my included a upbeat report from Vermont. had caught the virus caused most states coughing, sneezing, headaches, fever, dear friends lost lifelong savings to this Officials in the Green Mountain State to ramp up testing for inmates and staff loss of taste or smell, chills, trouble scoundrel, who appeared so trustworthy were rejoicing that for the first time in all their penal facilities. The result breathing . . . The list went on and and honest and financially wise before since the coronavirus outbreak, no new may be safer prisons, but an inevitable on. And I found myself thinking that he donned his prison garb. It’s hard to cases had been reported on a single by-product will be a rise in the total anybody with even a mild allergy or a tell who’s sick (or dumb, or misled, or day. After six weeks of drastic mea- number of reported cases. Again, common cold would be mistaken for dishonest) just by looking. sures to confine the spread of COVID-19, instead of meaning that the virus has a COVID-19 carrier. On a normal day I had to learn this truth the hard at last they seemed to be getting a lid grown worse, the latest data means that somebody might think I had it. way. Early in my ministry, one of my on the epidemic in their state. Good testing has expanded. Then, as virus testing became more deacons I trusted most was cheating on news indeed. But it didn’t mean that Years ago a missionary who was universal, the medical experts discov- his sweet wife and finally wound up in Vermont was virus-free. back home on furlough came to report ered that a lot of people who have the jail. But when I worked alongside this As we soon learned locally, though, at our church. “Because of our work,” virus have no symptoms. Earlier we had man, I bragged on him. He was asymp- statistics that measure the virus spread he assured us, “there are now twelve been testing only people who had the tomatic. I’ve lost count of the fellow- can be quite misleading. With the Christians in Australia.” His tally symptoms. But now that we’re testing pastors I worked with and admired, count of new virus cases spiraling, our obviously did not include the Baptists, every person in meat plants or nursing only to find out that they were sleep- non-metro area here in the Texas pan- Methodists, Catholics, or any other homes or prisons, hundreds of tests are ing with their sheep or dipping into handle made news as a virus hotspot “Christians” who did not accept his coming back positive from folks who their church’s coffers. At the time they in the U.S. As many folks here began views. He didn’t mean to mislead us, have no symptoms at all. appeared to be totally decent, commit- to panic, health officials explained that but I found his data false and offensive. This should not surprise us. Most ted, capable servants of the Lord. Like the rapidly rising count of virus cases The TV journalists who spend so of us are not experts in bacterial con- so many virus victims today, they were did not mean the disease was spreading much time citing virus stats don’t mean tagion, but in this modern world so asymptomatic. faster and farther. The spike in new to distort the truth, but too often it still rife with scam artists most of us have Could this be why Jesus warns all cases was the result of an unprecedented gets lost in what parades as “news” if learned to look beyond the obvious. of his followers to be “wise as serpents, number of virus tests administered by the reporter or the audience fail to see The deal that appears to save us the harmless as doves”? I don’t think he the state at local meat processing plants. the total picture. Instead of inform- most money, the guru who supposedly means for us to become ogres void of Similar data-based scares now are ing us, the little slice we do see may has all the answers, the smiling invest- trust in our associates. What he wants is being seen in many areas. After the obscure the truth. ment expert who promises to double for us to be like smart parents who love report that the virus had killed thou- With so many virus numbers being our retirement funds far too often turns their offspring without limit but still sands in nursing homes in New York, tossed around, most of us need the out to be a charlatan whose sole intent know not to believe everything their the states of Maryland and New Jersey advice God gave to his prophet Ezekiel. is to clean us out. Does the name Bernie teenager tells them. The Bible tells us led the nation in requiring coronavirus “Pay attention,” God told him. “Look Madoff ring a bell? that Jesus “trusted no man, because he tests for all nursing home residents and carefully with your eyes and listen Our sleaziest, now-best-known local knew what was in man.” The moral test staff. Again the result was predictable: closely with your ears.” CA swindlers smiled most broadly and will show that all of us test positive. CA
8 CHRISTIAN APPEAL 9 COVID19 COVID19 Zoom-bombing Churches Lose It or Love It
Some people in today’s world are had published links that allowed any- Early in the COVID-19 crisis—long go to school because they have to. really sick. And not with coronavirus. body to sign in. before we had any idea how totally the Until they are told they can’t. Until They’re sick in their souls. People like Why would anyone target churches virus pandemic would change our daily schools across the land are shut- the pedophiles who are hacking into with porn? Possibly because churches lives, my wise friend Tom Williams tered. Then by far the majority of church service videos to “Zoom-bomb” were such easy targets. Large corpora- wrote, “It’s a life principle that you students began to yearn for the scho- worshipers with atrocious child porn. tions spend fortunes on cybersecurity, don’t appreciate what you have until it lastic experiences they had wanted The first report I saw was from a but these targeted churches, most of is lost.” to escape. Now they miss their church in Waco, Texas. During their them new to the virtual worship world, Tom had no way to know that classmates, their best teachers, their online worship service, the main mes- had little or none. These attacks, hospital patients and nursing home sports events—everything lumped sage of the day was suddenly blanked however, may have been triggered by residents would be left devastatingly into what we call “school.” To learn out by a shocking display of sick sex something far more vile than that. It’s lonely because virus restrictions to love it, they had to lose it. involving a juvenile victim. This con- highly possible that the main reasons would bar any of their family from I could go on citing illustrations gregation’s pastor told reporters that for them may be ideological. These entering medical facilities. Always of things we have missed acutely their church was not the first one in child porn hackers may view churches before this, we just took the loving because they have been forbidden or their town to have their Zoom meeting as their enemy. After all, who opposes words and hugs of loved ones for constrained: breakfast at McDonalds, hacked by these sickos. pedophilia and pornography more granted. Who would ever have pre- symphony concerts, live city council When this Waco story made world- intensely than those of us who honor dicted that here in America we might meetings, going to work, vacation wide headlines, a raft of other churches Jesus? So pouring a bucket of filth on be forced to die alone? trips, handshakes, funeral services for revealed that their virtual worship or hundreds of unsuspecting Christians All of our lives all of us in Bible- friends . . . streamed Bible studies had also been may give these invaders a thrill. belt communities have seen Sunday Tom got it right. We seldom appre- violated by the sudden insertion of The Waco pastor said that what church as an immutable, permanent ciate what we have until it’s gone. appalling child porn on their members’ happened to the child in the uninvited part of life. In recent times a majority We’re like the two men in Luke’s screens. Similar incidents now have video was so “shocking and distress- of our neighbors have come to view last chapter, the pair who shared their been documented in Billings, Mon- ing” that she could hardly function those weekly services as optional at shock and grief as they meandered tana, in Oakland and San Francisco, after seeing it. Hard-core porn is not best and, for many, as something to toward Emmaus. All their hopes had and even in the UK. something most decent, wholesome stay away from. For a lot of folks, been kindled by dreams of the future One of the offended churches has people have ever seen. We have no though, this suddenly changed when kingdom of the new Messiah, but to sued Zoom, blaming this relatively idea how evil and sick it can be. So, we were told that church doors were their astonishment, they had watched new company for failing to provide right when all of us are learning new locked, that public assemblies now him die. “We had hoped,” they adequate online security. Zoom has details daily about the sickness called were illegal. Only when we lost them mourned. It never had occurred to them taken quick measures to make their COVID-19, these targeted believers did Bible study and worship appear that Jesus might not sit on a throne and program harder to hack, but their are also learning now about another precious to us again. lead victorious armies against Rome. agents also explain that the real prob- sickness that has menaced our world Having begun every school day Only when he was dead did they realize lem here may be the public, open-to-all about as long as there have been for forty years in a public high how crucial that dream had become for nature of the churches’ notices inviting humans to be infected by it. school classroom, I know that a few them. But—if you know their story— all people to participate in their virtual Make no mistake. This sickness can exceptional students do look forward you know that their eyes were opened. worship. Most of the hacked churches kill you. “The wages of sin is death.” CA to their classes. But the majority I suspect that ours will be, too. CA
10 CHRISTIAN APPEAL 11 COVID19 COVID19 A Lesson We Can Learn Coming Clean
“Is your mother okay?” I asked in this virus by finger-pointing,” they “We were wrong,” the Centers nurse. A good one. She worked beside an email to one of my former students. acknowledged. for Disease Control told the nation. surgeons and helped run operating From downstate he replied that she is Instead of criticizing their sick From the first days of the coronavirus rooms in major hospitals, so she was fine, as far as he knows. But I wondered employees, those bosses were stating outbreak, these top medical experts hyper-conscious of the protocols for if he really knows. My student was born a reality. People growing up in Afri- repeatedly warned us to sterilize any sanitizing and sterilizing people and in Africa in Burundi. Before he was old can or Amazon forest villages do not surfaces anybody else might have buildings and instruments. So during enough to go to school, his family fled grow up in homes where they learn touched. In stores across the land, this pandemic she was doing far more to a refugee camp in Rwanda to escape and practice the medical and sanita- Lysol spray and handwipes vanished than most to obey the CDC mandates the Hutsi-Tutsi genocide. Before he was tion regimens common in middle-class as frightened citizens heeded the for germ-swabbing. ten, his father saved the family from an America. Add to that the fact that my CDC’s instructions about how to avoid Instead of being critical of CDC for attack that wiped out that camp. After student’s mother speaks almost no catching COVID-19. the major mistake they made, I praise several years of deadly danger, they English, so she and others like her “Swab all surfaces with bacteria- them for having the guts to admit it pub- wound up in our Texas town, part of our may not comprehend their company’s killing chemicals,” our nation’s top licly. When was the last time you heard huge refugee community. instructions about how to avoid the health protectors told us. Door knobs, bureaucrats in a top government agency My concern for this young man’s virus. To recognize this is not to be table tops, handrails, FedEx pack- confess that they fouled up? Instead, mother was based on the local news prejudiced. Instead, it is an expression ages, checkout counters, takeout food coverups usually are the name of the reports we see every night. Failing of concern about the vulnerability of containers . . . The list was endless. If game. The few news reports we hear health keeps her husband from work- thousands of workers like her. anybody touched it, sterilize it. Washing today about anything besides the virus ing, so this lady supports their family Here in the Texas panhandle our hands long and often wasn’t enough. tell us about efforts to uncover coverups by working at a large meat-packing virus numbers spiked right when they We also had to wash anything a hand by every federal agency from the FBI to plant. State-conducted virus tests at were flattening or declining elsewhere. might have touched. IRS or DOD. What a refreshing depar- that plant have come back positive The reason is simple. We supply a high Then came that incredible news ture from the norm: government officials for a shocking number of employees. percentage of the meat consumed by report. “We were wrong,” CDC told all admitting, “We were wrong.” In my email to her son, I was trying the rest of our nation, and literally thou- of us. And they explained that careful All Christians are taught this at the to find out if she might be one of the sands of the meat plant workers have studies of this new virus now showed first-grade level of our faith. “If we con- infected workers. caught the virus. They run a huge risk that while it can be passed from person fess our sins,” John wrote, then Jesus Early in the COVID-19 outbreak, so that the rest of us can eat well. to person, COVID-19 is seldom if ever will cleanse us with his blood. “Confess owners of another meat-packing com- One positive effect of the coronavi- caught by touching a surface a virus- your sins to each other,” James advised pany in a mid-western state explained rus pandemic may be that it causes us carrier has touched. All the rigamarole his readers. If you do, he promised, then that their high number of virus cases to become more aware of how many of sterile washing was unnecessary. It you’ll be healed of the damage those could be explained because so many of people—not just in meat plants—risk was based on hooey. sins have done to you. Few things are their employees are immigrants. Naive life and limb daily so that you and I My hat is off to all the stores and healthier than a man telling his wife, “I’m news reporters heard this as racist and can eat, sleep, drink, drive, and other- schools and transit authorities and sorry,” or a three-year-old telling her bigoted, and said so. Company execu- wise go about our normal lives. The churches that spent hours of manpower parents, “I lied,” as she owns up to some tives explained that they are grateful virus may bless us if it teaches us to and a fortune on supplies to wash off misdeed. All of us who come to God for their foreign workers and were not say, “Thank you, Lord,” for all the virus germs. Include my lady in that through Christ begin by saying along with being critical of them. “We can’t fight people we mindlessly depend on. CA group. In her working days, she was a the CDC, “We were wrong.” CA
12 CHRISTIAN APPEAL 13 COVID19 COVID19 Some Laugh, Some Cry “Everything Is Meaningless”
Have you noticed that what seems easily identifiable sound, I can imagine Although Bible scholars can’t agree If we didn’t learn it from this hilarious to most of us often is horrify- the judge’s reaction. Can’t you? on who he was, the writer of Ecclesi- seldom studied Bible book, all of us ing to the person we’re laughing at? Some of the virus humor is on pur- astes was a powerful persuader. Before should be waking up to this basic life- We guffaw while they gulp. During the pose, of course. One of my brothers he got past his second verse, he had truth as the virus pandemic sweeps virus pandemic, we’ve been entertained emailed the rest of us the link to the already convinced his most thought- across our world. This “wind” has with several examples of this—some of hilarious and timely video “Monk in ful readers to put down the book— swept away almost every facet of life them downright humiliating to the chief Quarantine” starring Tony Shalhoub, not to waste their time reading his that we mistakenly thought to be per- performer in the unintended comedy. reprising his famously germophobic TV manuscript. “Utterly meaningless,” he manent. Who could have predicted that Can you imagine how panicked and series character Adrian Monk. How ranted. “Everything is utterly meaning- schools around the world would shut chagrined that television news anchor would Monk handle the present COVID- less!” “Okay,” a lot of the students of down? What tenured worker imagined must have been? Like so many others 19 mess? At the end of the funny video, this “Teacher” have agreed. “So why even for a moment that their office or during the coronavirus shutdown, his Shalhoub reveals that, early in the pan- waste time reading this?” store or plant would suddenly close— TV station was broadcasting the news demic, he and his wife really did catch the I’m not a Hebrew scholar, but a that without warning they would have from his bedroom. While he was updat- virus and both recovered. Shalhoub (and fellow who is recently shined some to work from home, or maybe not ing their audience on local events, his Monk) chose to laugh at this not-so-funny new light on this for me. He explained work at all? Jobs and schools vanished secret lover stupidly wandered into the experience. We got to laugh with him. that the word translated “meaning- like a breeze. Here one minute, gone video behind him. All of his viewers Most popular comic strips get drawn less” in the NIV, or “vanity” in the the next. Even the most permanent got a clear view of her—all of her—sans several weeks before they are pub- KJV, doesn’t mean absurd or sense- parts of our world turned out to be a clothing. While the world laughed at this lished, so they’re a lot like my present less or without benefit, as we usually vapor that, as James tells us, “appeared exposure, I doubt he found it very funny. virus columns. Right now as in The use those terms. He says the Hebrew for a little while and then vanished Not nearly so embarrassing but still Christian Appeal we are publishing word used here often refers to vapor away.” I wonder if he had been reading professionally devastating were the on-the- these columns, several weeks (even or fog or mist—something temporary. Ecclesiastes right before he said that. air screams heard while a Florida reporter months) have passed since I penned Something that soon evaporates and Almost all of us have our own was broadcasting the news from her them. My point is that virus jests in vanishes. And this Bible writer is tell- personal lists of what we miss most home. Evidently her two-year-old threw a Dagwood/Zits/Dennis the Menace ing us that everything in this world is of all now that COVID-19 has taken tantrum while the microphone was open. can’t be next-day laughs, but that won’t like that. Nothing lasts. away life as we knew it. Hopefully, All of her hearers who have raised kids keep them from being funny. All of us Later in his short book this famous instead of just sitting around moan- saw the humor in that, but I’m pretty sure likely will be chuckling about some of Old Testament Teacher describes vari- ing about what we’ve lost, we are that nobody in her house did. this virus mess years from now. And ous activities or aspects of life as “a following the path of the Ecclesiastes Then there was the U.S. Supreme that’s healthy. We’re blessed if we can chasing after the wind.” Nine times he Teacher. Instead of basing his hopes Court justice who amused the nation by see what is ridiculous or ludicrous even uses that phrase. We understand this and happiness and personal worth on going to the john while the audio of a when we’re uncertain or scared. metaphor, and it correlates perfectly ephemeral things that are sure to van- court discussion was being aired. The The wise man noted in Proverbs 14 with the early reference to fog or mist. ish, he learned to trust in the Eternal, sudden sound of a commode flushing that right when hearts are heavy and How long does a gust of wind stay in to “fear God and keep his command- delighted those who happened to be troubled, people use laughter to hide one place? That’s what everything ments” (12:13). The coronavius will listening. When the offending justice their pain. During these virus-threatened in this world is like, Ecclesiastes is turn out to be a blessing if it teaches us was told that the nation had heard that days, I hope it works for you. CA telling us. this lesson. CA
14 CHRISTIAN APPEAL 15 COVID19 COVID19 Finding a Better Way Not for Sissies
I’ve attended enough school gradu- virtually (digitally, online), and cer- “Growing old is not for sissies,” an be too bad because its main target will ations to last a lifetime. Not only four emonies that have always taken three over-used proverb wails. It may be trite, be the elderly. “Slowly, ever so slowly, of my own (none of which I really hours-plus per school now only took but it’s also true. And the virus spread respect for the aged has faded,” he enjoyed), but my lady and I have so three hours for all four high schools. has punctuated it with exclamation laments. During the virus crisis—dur- many kids and grandkids that in the So, one more time, the virus pan- marks. From the beginning of the coro- ing it, not because of it—half a dozen last five decades we’ve seldom missed demic has forced us to find a new and navirus pandemic we have been warned states have passed new laws legalizing a spring without having to sit through possibly better way to do something that those of us in the over-65 gang are euthanasia or assisted suicide. Obvi- at least one of these usually boring that (in my opinion, at least) has the most vulnerable. Latest reports from ously most of the people affected by needed improvement for decades. ceremonies. Italy (a coronavirus hotspot) tell us that these laws will be old. In a time when, Don’t get me wrong. I could not Have you noticed how easy it is for the average age of those who died from be prouder of my offspring and their us to get stuck in a rut and to keep on as Kushiner says, “killing children in the progeny for their academic excellence. plodding down some less-than-efficient the virus was 80, and 96 percent of them womb” and “culling the herd of unde- But, with the exception of grandson path because it’s somehow easier to had pre-existing health problems. As in sirables” are considered by many to be Nick’s medical school graduation, work harder and to produce less than it similar reports from our own land, noth- wise, progressive social strategies, it is every commencement exercise I can is to change how we do it? ing was said about how many of the increasingly dangerous to grow old. remember forced us to sit and listen Why are we humans so resistant victims would have died before long, Moses emphasized two rules for to the droning of hundreds of names to change? Our habits often put a lid virus or no virus. his people when the Hebrew nation when we only wanted to hear one. And on our productivity. Our routines that Not only do gray-haired citizens who was in its earliest days. “Fear God,” with each passing year it seems that started off streamlining our labor can catch COVID-19 face greater danger was obviously the top requirement, but the air horn tooting and hooligan hol- keep us from trying improved pro- than youthful victims, but in places like in Leviticus 19:32, “Show respect for lering by the graduates’ uncouth kin cedures. And it usually takes a life New York and New Jersey the virus rules the elderly,” is ranked right beside it. have grown worse. Because I love my crisis—something like the COVID-19 greatly increased their risk. Hospital beds The Bible describes a godless, ruthless grandchildren, I have endured these onset—to jar us out of our comfort were freed up by consigning older virus nation as one “that shows no respect scholastic demonstrations of igno- zones and make us come up with better patients to nursing homes, and literally for the old” (Deuteronomy 28:50). Some rance, but I’ve never enjoyed them. I ways. Most of us are like the guys who thousands of innocent residents in those of the policies for dealing with our cur- always exit the arenas wondering why fussed at Jesus and insisted, “The old care facilities were exposed and died. rent virus dangers and the more candid is better.” That might be true for wine all these highly educated school lead- I’d like to think this carnage was not the confessions of the reasoning behind them ers can’t figure out a more uplifting, and music, but most of us don’t say intent of those who crafted the rules that may show us how quickly the U.S. is efficient way to hand out diplomas. that in a pharmacy or on an airplane or This year they did. Thanks to the at a computer keyboard. transformed nursing homes into mortuar- morphing into that kind of nation. coronavirus shutdown, none of our Although we resist it, the name of ies. Better that they were ignorant than If you are a faithful follower of local high schools could assemble the game for Christians is change. “If evil. But in today’s non-Christian, secular Christ, look at what your church is thousands of parents to hoop and hol- anyone is in Christ, he is a new cre- culture, who knows for sure? doing to extend special love and care to ler in the civic center. Nobody had to ation,” the Scriptures tell us. “The old Touchstone magazine’s editor your older members during these dif- sit and listen to hundreds of names of has passed away; behold, the new has James Kushiner tells us in his blog that ficult days. And thank the Lord that you students they don’t know. Instead, the come” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Nobody he hears more and more comments to can take part in that ministry even after presentation of diplomas was done who comes to Jesus stays the same. CA the effect that the virus’ impact won’t the virus crisis is history. CA
16 CHRISTIAN APPEAL 17 COVID19 Saying Goodbye Alone
Whoever dreamed that any of us coffins. Early in the coronavirus out- would bury a father or a mate or a break, I read about some New York eace I sibling without a funeral? Early in the mortuaries that had to bring in refrig- “P virus shutdown I stood beside graves erated trucks to handle the overflow with four families who were saying of bodies. But I’m unaware of any leave with you; goodbye to loved ones without the shared coffins. usual host of friends and relatives In 1961 when my brother and his there to comfort them. Most of them wife began their 20 years of mission my peace said at the time that they hoped to work in Malawi, anti-malaria drugs hold services to pay proper tribute to were available. But I read recently I give to you . . . the departed whenever virus restric- that, before those drugs, the earliest tions eased enough to allow it. missionaries knew when they set foot In the past week I’ve talked at in Malawi that their average expected Do not let your length to two families who intend to survival would be two years. Malaria hold elaborate funerals for special was sure to kill them, but they went family members in the months ahead. anyway. One burial site holds the hearts be troubled . . . ” But who knows when? And I know bodies of several of those godly men from past experience that the longer who did not let death keep them the delay, the less likely it will be that from telling others about Jesus. It’s these memorial services help these unlikely that any of their stateside good people deal with their grief. So relatives got to help bury them. So private, unattendable burials are not Jesus* far, however, we have not developed a different way to express and calm our as new as we virus-restricted modern John 14 sorrow. folks might think. Besides the four people I recently Death is seldom easy to deal helped to bury, half a dozen longtime with—virus or no virus, and all of us friends have died, and during this cope with it in different ways. Funeral virus disruption I couldn’t hug their traditions vary according to the ethnic kin or share their tears. Not only is group or religion or geographic area COVID-19 killing us. It’s also mak- we belong to, but even traditions we ing it harder for us to deal with death. think we disdain may actually help us This is a first-ever experience for to work through our times of loss and all of us now, but not for humanity. sorrow. And even something as dis- Back in the 1920s (when my parents rupting as the present pandemic will would have been kids), a typhoid never take away the greatest grief-aid of all: our faith in the One who con- epidemic and cholera outbreak killed iStock.com/BlackJack3D so many that the dead had to share quered death. CA
18 CHRISTIAN APPEAL 19 Last Chance! PAST CHRISTIAN APPEAL ISSUES—FREE!
We are about to downsize our over- flowing stock of past issues of The Christian Appeal. Recently we sent bound copies of more than fifty years to several key historical collections. But now we need to clear out our stor- age area. The issues for decades past will soon be available only digitally on our website. Between now and October 31, 2020, we will send any available past issues in any quantity desired to anyone who requests them. Order them via e-mail (geneshel@aol. com) or by snail-mail at 2310 Anna Street, Amarillo, TX 79106.