Dana Loesch called-out critics on social media Monday, informing the public that “smart people” can distinguish the difference between supporting masks while opposing mask mandates.

“Smart people know the difference between supporting masks but opposing mask mandates, supporting vaccines and opposing vaccine mandates. Dull people do not,” posted Loesch on Twitter.

Smart people know the difference between supporting masks but opposing maek mandates, supporting vaccines and opposing vaccine mandates. Dull people do not.

— Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) August 30, 2021

“Incompetence, chaos, foolishness on the part of this administration everywhere you look. Everyone seems to understand this, except the administration itself,” said Loesch over the weekend. “Has there been one admission so far from anybody?”

“What you have is back pats and high-fives. They even take moments to highlight what a great job they’ve done,” she added.

Watch @jrpsaki spin the Kabul crisis as "a success."

Even @RepAdamSchiffsays the evacuation goal is unattainable, @DLoesch reports.

Plus, watch @JoeBiden try to read off his teleprompter as the Administration gaslights Americans. pic.twitter.com/2ti4sHa6SS

— The First (@TheFirstonTV) August 30, 2021

August 30, 2021 at 12:55PM - The First
LOESCH: ‘Smart People Know the Difference Between Supporting Masks But Opposing Mandates’
Read the full story by clicking this headline, at The First TV

The Afghanistan evacuation is scheduled to end on Tuesday. One of the big question marks that has loomed over the airlift is the number of Americans who need to be rescued and whether it will be possible to remove them before the August 31 deadline agreed upon by the United States and the Taliban.

The evacuation effort has been hampered by the fact that no one seems to know exactly how many Americans were in need of rescue. When the airlift started a few weeks ago, estimates ran as high as 15,000. It now appears that those estimates were almost certainly on the high side.

On Friday, US State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters that at least 5,100 US citizens had been evacuated and that about 500 were trying to leave. By Saturday, that number was down to 350 Americans who are “nearly or already out of the country,” per a CNBC report from a State Department briefing and the number may have been further whittled down by flights on Sunday.

There is ample capacity on the evacuation flights to remove 350 people. The question is whether they can get to the airport. Over the weekend, the US embassy issued warnings to Americans to stay away from the airport. These warnings were similar to the one issued before the tragic suicide bombing that killed 13 American military members last week.

Over the past few days, the CIA and the US military have been conducting rescue missions to bring Americans and Afghan allies inside the airport perimeter. Additionally, a group of retired special operations veterans dubbed “Task Force Pineapple” has worked with the US embassy and the military to rescue as many as 500 Afghans and their families. (Task Force Pineapple is reminiscent of H. Ross Perot’s private rescue mission in 1979 Iran to bring out several of his employees that were imprisoned by the Shah’s secret police. Like the Perot mission, it would probably make a good movie.) These government and private operations have likely helped to reduce the number of Americans trapped in the city.

The more difficult job may be in tracking down the 280 or so “self-identified” Americans who are not planning to leave Afghanistan or who have not been contacted. CNBC reports that the State Department has tried to reach Americans believed to be in the country by calls, emails, texts, and WhatsApp messages.

The Americans who will remain behind present a problem. Many Americans simply won’t believe that anyone would stay in Afghanistan voluntarily. The very idea that some Americans may not want to leave is already being considered to be an attempt to cover up the Biden Administration’s inability to bring everyone home. In reality, some Americans hold dual citizenship with Afghanistan and don’t want to leave.

It is almost certainly true that some Americans who want to leave have been unable to do so, but at this point, casual observers have no way of distinguishing between those who want to stay and those who are trapped. Whether they stay voluntarily or from coercion, any Americans who aren’t sympathetic to the Taliban and are captured by the Taliban or ISIS-K are likely to be used as bargaining chips, killed for propaganda purposes, or simply disappeared. In the 1980s, it was common for Islamic terrorists to kidnap Westerners and hold them for years.

It’s easy to sit on the sidelines and call on President Biden to stay in Afghanistan until every American is accounted for. It’s easy, but it’s not realistic.

We don’t know – and we don’t know if the government knows – the status of all of the remaining Americans. It is possible that some of the Americans remaining in-country are already dead or in captivity. Given the country’s rapid fall, Americans could have been killed in crossfires between the Taliban and government forces, captured or assassinated by ISIS-K, or murdered by bandits. We may never find out the ultimate fate of every American who is unaccounted for.

Thus far, the Taliban has been mostly cooperative in allowing the evacuations to continue. The suicide bombing last week was carried out by ISIS-K rather than the Taliban, although there have been reports of Taliban fighters interfering with access to the airport. For the most part, there seems to have been an uneasy truce between Coalition forces and the Taliban.

That may change after August 31. Hamid Karzai International Airport sits very close to the city of Kabul. The urban area offers ample cover for Taliban militants to attack aircraft that are arriving or departing. It would tragically pointless to get refugees onto an outbound flight only to have the airplane shot down. It may well require leveling a large part of the city to create a safe zone for aircraft to stage out of the airport.

I don’t want to engage in victim-blaming or say that Americans who ignored months of warnings to leave the country had it coming, but the reality is that our options are limited. There was an inherent risk in going to a country that was at war and where the US was known to be pulling out. If the United States was in control of the country and could bend the Taliban to our will, we wouldn’t be leaving in the first place.

Do we want to stay in Afghanistan for another 20 years looking for signs of Americans who have been swallowed up by the mountains? It’s tempting to say yes. As an occasional international traveler, I’d certainly want the full force of the US government searching for me if I disappeared abroad and I was opposed to the withdrawal anyway. Despite my personal preferences, I think it’s almost certain that the US will have to leave close to the August 31 deadline, with or without the last few Americans.

But that does not mean that the search has to end. American special operations and CIA operators are well-experienced in Afghanistan and there may still be intelligence sources that are willing to talk to us.

If more Americans are located after the evacuation ends, it might be possible to mount rescue missions that are not tied to Kabul’s international airport. Helicopters could remove refugees from landing zones in the desert if necessary, although the numbers that could be taken out this way would be far less than the throngs that we have seen flown out of HKIA on Air Force transports and airliners.

Afghanistan’s high terrain and the long distances involved would make this difficult, but Army helicopters such as the CH-46 Chinook and Air Force and Marine CH-53 Super Stallions and CV-22 Osprey tiltrotors have proven equal to the task. (Doug Stanton memorably described the Chinook flights over the mountains in the early days of the war in “The Horse Soldiers,” the inspiration for the movie, “12 Strong.”)

When the end of the month comes, I don’t know how many Americans will remain in Afghanistan, but there is a strong possibility that some who want to leave will be left behind. Recent reports indicate that some of the California schoolchildren who traveled to Afghanistan over the summer to visit family have still not been able to leave. The numbers of those trapped Americans look to be much smaller now than was thought possible two weeks ago, but the prospect is still tragic.

There have been other cases of Americans trapped by coups or wars, but the remnant left in Afghanistan could be the largest number of Americans who have fallen into captivity since the Iranian hostage crisis of 1979 when 66 Americans were kidnapped by Iranian radicals. That’s assuming the Americans in Afghanistan are taken prisoner and don’t just blend into the population and continue their lives. Interestingly, about 70 Americans are reported to have stayed behind during the fall of South Vietnam so staying the prospect of staying in Afghanistan voluntarily is not unprecedented.

President Biden and the US and allied militaries should move heaven and earth to get every Westerner and as many Afghan allies of the country as possible before the airlift ends. We cannot assume that we’ll be able to continue beyond August 31 even if we want to.

For that reason, the military should make ferrying stranded Americans from behind Taliban lines to the airport for evacuation a high priority. The government should be focusing on finding alternative points for Americans and other evacuees to rendezvous for pickup and transportation to HKIA.

There will be years to sort the blame for the debacle we have witnessed over the past few weeks. Right now, the most urgent matter is to collect and remove as many people as possible before the curtain falls on the evacuation.

At this point, the best that we can hope for is that all Americans who want to get out of Afghanistan will find their way to the airport before the last flight out. For those who choose to remain behind, there will be little that the government can do to protect them.

Regardless of how the current situation came to be, it is going to be President Biden who shoulders the responsibility for their fates. The buck stops at the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office.

Follow David Thornton on Twitter (@captainkudzu) and Facebook

The First TV contributor network is a place for vibrant thought and ideas. Opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of The First or The First TV. We want to foster dialogue, create conversation, and debate ideas. See something you like or don’t like? Reach out to the author or to us at [email protected]. 

August 30, 2021 at 12:16PM - David Thornton
What About the Americans Still in Afghanistan? | David Thornton
Read the full story by clicking this headline, at The First TV

From BillOReilly.com:

This column will take no prisoners.  Nor will it evacuate anyone.  No, what I am writing needs to be said and I will say it.

President Biden is not able to effectively run the United States of America.  He is directly responsible for the death and destruction in Afghanistan as well as thousands of poor migrants being brutalized in Mexico at this very moment.

These are humanitarian disasters on a massive scale.

Mr. Biden is a diminished man living in a world of delusion.  And now the entire world knows it.

No one really understands who, exactly, is running the Executive Branch of the U.S. government.  It is certainly not Joe Biden. But the President hired his staff and the cabinet members and the woke Generals, who are embarrassing the military and putting them in grave danger.

The corrupt corporate media is also responsible for the incredible mess Biden has caused in seven months.  Its destructive hatred of President Trump has led us to this point.  The press did everything it could, including peddling rank falsehoods, to demean and destroy Mr. Trump.  The result: perhaps the most incompetent leader in American history today works in the Oval Office.

Even now, anti-Trump fanatics like Juan Williams and Matthew Dowd spew incomprehensible gibberish about what a great job old Joe is doing.

The Democratic Party is also responsible for the madness that’s on vivid display. Speaker Nancy Pelosi will not answer questions about Afghanistan. Why should she?  The Congresswoman can’t even explain why her own San Francisco district is overrun with criminality and social chaos.  

In addition, every single American who voted for Joe Biden is indirectly responsible for America’s dramatic decline.  And it’s not just overseas or at the border.  Inflation is galloping, the individual work ethic is being destroyed – right along with important American traditions like due process and self-reliance.

Yes, most people who voted for Biden did so to get rid of Trump.  But casting a ballot on emotion almost always leads to disaster.  And that’s what we are now facing as a nation.

Like many Americans, I cringe when the President of the United States has to answer questions or read the teleprompter.  I’ve been around long enough to know when a person is not able to do a job.  There is no debate about this – Joe Biden cannot run the country and the damage he is doing is incalculable.

As for a comeback, come on, man (as Biden might say)!  Biology is a definite science.  Every person ages.  All of us are slaves to time.

Joe Biden’s time has passed.  He is not capable of complicated decision-making. He and his band of enablers are not going to improve.

That’s the truth.  I’m glad I told it.

August 30, 2021 at 11:13AM - The First
O’REILLY: It’s Time for Straight Talk About Joe Biden
Read the full story by clicking this headline, at The First TV

I got a confession to make: I hate the masks.  I absolutely hate them. 

Now, I wear them when I have to.  And fortunately, for most of the past several months, that has only been in medical facilities.  My place of employment dropped the mask requirement in April as did most of the stores that I visit.  In any case, I was never convinced that they did much good anyway. 

I got another confession to make: I didn’t like the idea of getting the vaccine either.  In my mind its development was rushed, and I didn’t think there was anything it could do for me that natural immunity couldn’t.  And since I had the Rona in April of 2020, I had that immunity.  Even though I did eventually get the shot for the peace of mind of several of my family members, I stand by those opinions.

Despite my hatred for these two things, I have never begrudged anyone the freedom to embrace them.  They are welcome to receive and celebrate the vaccine and they are welcome to wear masks whenever they want

So why am I bringing these things up?  To pat myself on the back?  No.  Not this time.  Besides, you’ve all certainly heard similar feelings from friends and family that you have.  Probably there are more than a few of you who share these sentiments yourselves.  So my thoughts in this regard are nothing special or noteworthy. 

I bring this up because I have been seeing a disturbing trend in many churches.  Like society at large, many in the church are staking out positions on masks and vaccines.  They are entrenching themselves in those positions and then exchanging fire with those on the other side.

On the one hand, there are some who preach that getting vaccines and wearing masks represent adherence to the scriptures. 

One line of reasoning that I’ve read several times is that by wearing masks and getting the vaccine we fulfill Christ’s command to love our neighbor as ourselves.  This command is most famously found in the Gospel of Matthew 22:39 but is found in several other passages as well (eight passages in total, actually).  This command is usually found coupled with the command to love God with everything you have.  These two commands are regarded as being the most important in the Bible because in them, all others are encapsulated. 

The rationalization here is that getting the vaccine can help prevent you from getting Covid.  Thus, you won’t become a vehicle for transmission and those around you (i.e. your neighbors) will be the beneficiaries.  If you do somehow get it, then the mask prevents you from spreading it to others.  So, if you love your neighbor and want to keep them safe, get the shot, wear a mask.

On the flip side, there are Christians that have taken up the anti-vaxer cause and stand resolutely against wearing masks.  In this group you will find (sigh) conspiracy theorists.  They have seen nothing but a steady stream of lies issue forth from our elected officials and are not prepared to stake their health on the say so of these same people. 

But at the same time there are some who have advanced the argument that getting the vaccine is somehow lacking a faith in God.  After all, God is our keeper and provider and protector and if we take the step of getting vaccinated, we somehow take that away from Him. 

Admittedly, I have a bit of a harder time understanding this argument than I do that of the vaccine proponents who think that it is how you can love your neighbor.  But this argument is out there nonetheless, and it is accompanied by a myriad of horror stories.

In recent days I’ve read stories of preachers who demanded that church members who have received the vaccine need to repent of sin.  I’ve read stories of churches that have fired their Pastor for getting the vaccine.  I’ve read stories of churches that have split over the issue.

To be fair, I’ve read just as many horror stories on the other side as well.  Stories of bullying, belittling, and dehumanizing of those opposed to vaccines and masks.

There is a story set during the Civil War of a man who lived in Kentucky.  As many might already know, Kentucky was considered a border state that could have gone either way when the war started.  While it eventually would decide to stick with the Union, there were many who’s sympathies lied with the south.  The man in our story, seeing this, decided he didn’t want to take one side over the other because in either case he would end up fighting his friends and family.  So, he ended up wearing a blue jacket and grey pants as a way to show his neutrality. 

What happened to this man?  He ended up getting shot in the chest by southern troops and shot in the leg by northern troops.

I am going to run the risk that this man did by not taking a stand.  The argument of whether or not to take the shot and whether or not to wear a mask is not one that should have a bearing on our Christianity.

In both cases, the arguments offered can be turned on their heads.  For instance, getting the vaccine does not necessarily equate a lack of faith in God.  Rather, it could be an acknowledgement that God has many ways of taking care of us, including giving us vaccines through the hard work and intelligence of medical professionals. 

On the other side, loving your neighbor as yourself may mean you need to refrain from bullying them and dehumanizing them and engaging in name calling because they don’t see things the same way you do.  It may mean respecting their decision, even if you disagree with it.

In the end, this debate over the vaccines seeping into our churches amounts to a giant distraction.  Yes, a distraction.  Believe it or not, vaccines and masks are not a central theme of the Bible.  The main themes of the Bible are the creation, the fall, and the redemption of the human race. 

It discusses how we were each created in God’s image.  How, through sin, we are fallen from that original created condition.  And how, through a lengthy plan that spanned many generations, we are redeemed to God through the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross.

This is the Gospel of God and it is most succinctly found 1 Corinthians 15:3-4.  “For what I received I pass on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures.”

This particular passage was written by the Apostle Paul and there is something very important to notice about it.  This is what it says is of first importance.  That is the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which is His death, burial, and resurrection for our benefit.  This is the first and most important message that the Church can bring to the world.  When the Church engages in brow beating and verbal warfare about whether or not we should wear a mask or get the vaccine, what is it not doing?  It is not engaging in spreading the message that is, according to Paul, the most important one it can bring.

There are many Bible scholars who read these two short verses and conclude that this is, in fact, the earliest known Christian Creed.  This is important because the apostle Paul ministered and wrote in the 50’s-60’s AD.  This is twenty to thirty years after the crucifixion of Christ.  A common criticism of Christianity is that the New Testament narratives of Christ are unreliable because they were written decades after his death.  Therefore, any claims of his divinity are unreliable.  Therefore, any claims about his death and resurrection are unreliable.

Paul’s letters, however, go a long way to closing that gap and rendering those criticisms moot since his writing is even earlier than the four gospels and his writing attests to the same message.  However, they do not go all the way.  There is still a gap.

These verses, being an early creed, helps to close the gap even more, almost completely in fact.  According to Paul, this creed did not originate with him, but predated his time of writing.  Thus, the book of 1 Corinthians which is about two decades removed from the time of Christ, contains a quote that is even closer.  And that quote is a direct attestation that the original message of Christianity is the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ.  This is, and always has been, the Church’s number one message. 

Any message that distracts from this is a direct slap in the face to Christ and the Great Commission.  It can be a well-intentioned message like “mask up and get the shot for every one’s benefit.”  Or it can be a message of opposing perceived tyranny and having faith in God to take care of you. 

Each of these can be fine messages when used in the right context.  Neither of them will have the power to save the individual soul, regardless of context.  That power lies only in the pure Gospel of Christ.  And the church in America today is on a merry-go-round of distraction from that message.  The battle over masks and vaccines, when it comes from the pulpit and divides the Church, is only the latest example of that.

You can follow Tom on Twitter @SearlTom.

The First TV contributor network is a place for vibrant thought and ideas. Opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of The First or The First TV. We want to foster dialogue, create conversation, and debate ideas. See something you like or don’t like? Reach out to the author or to us at [email protected].

August 30, 2021 at 09:54AM - Tom Searl
The Church and the Great Question of Vaccines | Tom Searl
Read the full story by clicking this headline, at The First TV

Dana Loesch called-out the Biden administration’s flat-out refusal to acknowledge any mistakes in their Afghanistan withdrawal strategy this week; saying officials are only interested in “back pats and high-fives.”

“Incompetence, chaos, foolishness on the part of this administration everywhere you look. Everyone seems to understand this, except the administration itself,” said Loesch. “Has there been one admission so far from anybody?”

“What you have is back pats and high-fives. They even take moments to highlight what a great job they’ve done,” she added.

Watch @jrpsaki spin the Kabul crisis as "a success."

Even @RepAdamSchiffsays the evacuation goal is unattainable, @DLoesch reports.

Plus, watch @JoeBiden try to read off his teleprompter as the Administration gaslights Americans. pic.twitter.com/2ti4sHa6SS

— The First (@TheFirstonTV) August 30, 2021

August 30, 2021 at 09:49AM - The First
LOESCH: ‘Incompetence, Chaos, Foolishness’ on Full Display in the Biden Administration
Read the full story by clicking this headline, at The First TV

Hurricane Ida smashed into Louisiana as a Category 4 storm over the weekend, killing at least one person and cutting the power to the entire city of New Orleans and the surrounding region.

“Electric utilities reported that slightly more than 1 million homes and businesses were without power in Louisiana and another 100,000 in Mississippi. Entergy New Orleans, the main power utility in the city, with nearly 200,000 customers, said the entire city lost electricity early Sunday evening because of ‘catastrophic damage’ to its transmission system. It said power wouldn’t be restored Sunday night,” reports NBC News.

HURRICANE IDA LATEST: https://t.co/5bgjP2ycdU

• All of New Orleans has lost power

• 670,000+ power customers affected across Louisiana

• Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards describes it as "one of the strongest storms to make landfall here in modern times." pic.twitter.com/A9f4n4c7Ni

— NBC News (@NBCNews) August 30, 2021

BREAKING: All of New Orleans loses power as Hurricane Ida lashes the region, city government says. https://t.co/K8B33EHKHb

— The Associated Press (@AP) August 30, 2021

Read the full report here.

August 30, 2021 at 08:19AM - The First
NOLA GOES DARK: Hurricane Ida Knocks Out Power to New Orleans, Surrounding Area
Read the full story by clicking this headline, at The First TV

In the last few weeks, I have been privileged to cling to incredible stories of divine healing. One involves a friend of mine with a kind of cancer from which the doctors said nobody in their records has ever recovered. This friend is, a year after his “expiration date,” cancer-free, and the doctors are gobsmacked, though my friend, a Christian, has an explanation. Another Christian friend was in an end-stage coma for liver failure around 15 years ago, and is now living a very full and healthful life, eight years past the average survival window for liver transplant recipients.

I have more stories that would build your faith, of miraculous healings, the confluence of extremely unlikely events, and the bravery, boldness and skill of doctors. I personally know of zero stories where those who were miraculously healed received healing while actively refusing medical treatment.

In the three Synoptic Gospels, Matthew 8:4, Mark 1:44, and Luke 5:14, Jesus tells a man with leprosy “See that you don’t tell anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.” Moses wrote of a skin condition called “tzaraat.” It was considered more than just uncleanness or a physical affliction.

Diagnosis and treatment of this condition was as much spiritual as hygienic. Rabbis had been interpreting Leviticus chapters 13 and 14 for millennia. The story of Naaman in 2 Kings chapter 5, the lepers who plundered the Arameans in 2 Kings 7, and Kings Azariah and Uziah all dealt with tzaraat.

Jesus was certainly familiar with all those Scriptures, and when he made the leper clean, he sent the man to the priest for examination. Jesus told the man to tell no one because he wanted the priest to declare the man clean, spiritually and physically, without being biased by stories of the miracle.

After a three-week battle with COVID-19, Florida radio host Marc Bernier succumbed. He was an outspoken critic of vaccine mandates, and himself a refusenik, for his own reasons. George Conway marked the event, ghoulishly.

The author of this tweet died tonight, as a result of covid-19. https://t.co/usgw0Xzx9W

— George Conway (@gtconway3d) August 29, 2021

A friend of Bernier’s, Justin Gates, had an on-air exchange in December about vaccination.

Bernier responded: “I’m not taking it.”

Gates: “Come on!”

Bernier: “Are you kidding me? Mr. Anti-Vax? Jeepers.”

Gates: Ever?

Bernier: “No.”

Bernier held an anti-vaccine position out of personal belief, which was consistently applied, according to his friend Mel Stack. He was not out there on the radio making hay out of a political harvest of fear. It was his personal decision to forego the vaccine, and he paid for his choice with his life.

I personally know many people, from the various groups I associate with, who for their own reasons have become refuseniks. I’m sure this is no different for you. I don’t walk around with a “Get the Shot” T-shirt, or an armband, or asking everyone I meet if they’ve gotten their jab, hectoring those who haven’t. I do have a lot of sympathy for those I know who have chosen not to be vaccinated, especially those who have particularly complex cases, or are in the hospital fighting for their lives.

When the unvaccinated are in the hospital suffering from COVID-19—or in the grave having lost the battle—it is not the place to make your point about getting vaccinated. It’s far too late for the stricken, and it’s far too brutal for their loved ones and friends.

Instead, we Christians who have chosen to be vaccinated should focus on the Scriptural command to love. We are not priests diagnosing tzaraat. We are not declaring sin over an individual soul that God didn’t choose to miraculously heal. What kind of pride and self-righteousness is it to assume the role of judge of someone’s soul based on receiving an injection?

Certainly, there is room—later—for regret, and actual guilt for people who, irresponsibly, spread coronavirus by becoming vectors for infection, for themselves and others. But to believe that somehow, those who got sick deserved what they got is a grotesque, and anti-Biblical, position.

There are Christians who were vaccinated but still got infected with the Delta variant. There are some who were vaccinated, got COVID-19, became gravely ill, and died. Yes, that’s more rare than the unvaccinated crowding hospital beds, but it does happen. If the unvaccinated are to be blamed for their own sickness, and the sickness of others, who do we blame when someone did everything right, but still died? 

God?

The same God who is supposed to protect us when we pray Psalm 91? The same God who performs medical miracles?

Many Christians believe that God will protect them from COVID-19, and justify their belief with stories that the disease, and the vaccines, were sent by evil people with the intention of accumulating power, enslaving those of faith (along with everyone else), and moving the world to a post-Christian future, one where people of faith are removed from the public square, ridiculed and stripped of authority.

Many see COVID-19 as the Jews saw tzaraat, and they see taking the vaccine as evidence of a failure of faith in God to cleanse it. To these people, this vaccine, unlike the ones we received as children for mumps, measles, polio and other dread diseases, is one that God did not bless.

I respect people’s liberty of opinion. I think taking the vaccine—or any medicine—into one’s body is a deeply personal decision.

The COVID-19 vaccines are not a simple flu mist. They carry, for most people, a significant suitcase full of side effects. I took the Janssen/J&J vaccine in April, and for the better part of a day, felt like a truck hit me. I don’t think I necessarily needed the vaccine, having had COVID-19 in October 2020. My body already possesses antibodies and protection for that disease—how much the vaccine enhanced the natural protection is debatable. 

I do know, however, the number of “double breakthrough” infections is vanishingly small, so I calculated the risk as acceptable for me. I didn’t see a statistically significant percentage of people getting seriously ill from the vaccines to fear taking one.

But the goalposts have moved so many times in the last 18 months that people are legitimately afraid of everything, and they must put their faith in something. You may say it’s easier to put your faith in God with the vaccines than in God without the vaccines, but our (mis)information machine on the news and social media hasn’t presented that option. The options have been to place your faith in the vaccines, or place your faith in God: A false choice that millions have not yet recognized as error.

When Christians like Dan Darling are fired for encouraging vaccination, and skeptics like Alex Berenson are suspended from Twitter for suggesting the vaccines aren’t effective, people are left with the impression that there’s no middle ground. The message has been “Get vaccinated, or die” on one side; and “Trust God or perish” on the other.

The Nazi @jack and @Twitter suspended this actual credible journalist, who posted probable scientific fact, because they are suppressing the truth on behalf of big pharma and their moneymaking grift…this is Orwellian… https://t.co/vqOqmBUcNW

— Tony Shaffer (@T_S_P_O_O_K_Y) August 29, 2021

I’ve written about Berenson before. He’s got the pedigree of a legitimate reporter, one who is extremely skeptical of the “big pharma” message. He’s legitimately wrong about the vaccines, but he’s not wrong that the goalposts have been set that the vaccines are somehow magically effective, and that failure to get vaccinated is being cast as equivalent to a national sin.

Every nation, Australia being the latest, that set a zero-COVID target has had that goalpost destroyed. Americans were sold (including, and notably with gusto, by “Operation Warp Speed” Donald Trump) on the vaccines being safe, effective, available, and the answer to all our problems. The problem was packaged, over-simplified, and shoved down our throats, all while any skepticism, no matter how mild, of that view, was regarded as fringe lunacy.

One example: ivermectin is used as a dewormer for horses and cattle. It’s also a drug approved by the FDA for human use. The FDA warns that ivermectin should not be used to treat COVID-19. In the warning, the agency focuses on the drug’s use in animals, and notes that it’s approved for specific treatments for parasites in humans. Certainly, nobody should take their health into their own hands with medicines they don’t understand. Don’t take horse medicine even if you can get it without a prescription. That message is clear and needed.

But the reaction goes well beyond that message, and in fact has probably encouraged vaccine skeptics to explore self-experimentation. Objection to the reporting of, or the mere mention of, the scientific exploration of using ivermectin to treat COVID-19, even in patients who are on their death beds and without any other options, who have shown some responsiveness to the treatment, is bordering on fanatical.

Matt Taibbi wrote:

The drug has as a result ended up caught between two political movements — one populist, which believes officials are prone to lying and can’t be trusted, and one anti-populist, which associates theories about unapproved cures with political theories of stolen elections and other crazes. The former movement is sure the pharmaceutical companies are suppressing the drug because it’s been off-patent since 1996 and would imperil billions in revenues for vaccines and $3000-a-pop drugs like remdesivir if proven effective. The latter movement assumes ivermectin advocates are political grifters, cynically riding mistrust of the drug for votes, for headlines, and to undermine the authority of experts.

Caught in between are ordinary people and doctors like Bruce Yaffe, a New York physician known for a political discussion group he’s been holding since 1979. Yaffe (disclaimer: I first met Bruce decades ago) came across ivermectin as many physicians in the last year did, spotting the small Australian study showing that the drug seemed to inhibit the virus in vitro. He treated one patient, seemed to get results, and over the course of the next year treated a few dozen more, seeing enough good results that he felt more studies were at least warranted. “I don’t want to make any claims,” Yaffe says, “but I’ve been frustrated… I’ve been lobbying for someone to do a more aggressive study.”

Any mention of ivermectin, aside from the official position of the FDA, on YouTube or Facebook will draw the censor’s heavy hand.

When an entire segment of the population is already feeling persecuted, silenced, and having its fears marginalized, it’s no wonder that their knee-jerk response will be one of heel-digging and wagon-circling, especially among many Evangelical Christians who equate resistance to persecution with faith.

Now in the light of a massive wave of Delta COVID-19 infections, as the reality of their precarious decision is finally weighing upon many refuseniks, those who once tried to reason with them are frustrated and bitter in their reproach. It reminds me of Martin Luther’s later writing on Jews, after many years of trying to befriend the Jewish community, then being rebuffed. Ghoulish pronouncements and I-told-you-so’s, even among many Christians, will not heal the breach in trust.

David French quoted Martin Luther, who lived during a plague, saying “If God should wish to take me, he will surely find me and I have done what he has expected of me and so I am not responsible for either my own death or the death of others.” One cannot hide from God’s sovereignty. What God demands will certainly be taken. What God gives freely, nobody can snatch away.

In Matthew 5, Jesus taught that we should turn the other cheek:

44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that?

If God should require anyone’s life this night, or at any time, whether by COVID-19, vaccinated or unvaccinated, that life is His to claim when He chooses. We are fools to consider that we can subvert God’s will by medicine. But should He choose to heal one who foolishly refuses a vaccine, that is also His affair, and not ours.

Any Christian who listens to another—a preacher, teacher, or even a trusted friend—tell them not to accept the vaccine, and does not check with the Lord for themselves, is being foolish. The question is actually a test of one’s life in faith—as one cannot be saved by another’s faith, one also cannot put blind faith in another’s message from God applicable to one’s own very life and soul.

Christians must ask God for these answers, who will give an answer by the Holy Spirit who lives in each believer, who is in Christ. If a Christian has lived a life only of religious observance, and has never heard a heart-check or message from the Lord in their own heart, then how can they know the vaccine is bad for them? How can that person have any assurance God will save them by not taking medicine versus by the medicine itself?

It needs to be asked: If a Christian professes to hear God giving words for themselves and others, does that person’s life line up with a Godly example? Having a secret sinful life, or fleecing the flock for money or influence guarantees the message will be compromised. (Read the story of Balaam, Balak, and the donkey.) And those people will be responsible for the deaths their intransigence causes.

But who are the rest of us to presume that someone with a personal objection to the vaccine is not hearing from God, or does not have the spiritual maturity, or the piousness of spirit to receive such a truth for themselves? Are we the judge of their actions and motives? 

I am not saying that a known charlatan or person of dubious character is to be believed at face value. I am saying that someone like Marc Bernier (and I have no idea of his faith or even if he was a believer) cannot be presumed to be some kind of heretic or crackpot simply because he died from a disease that has a working vaccine. Dancing on his grave in presumption is also a terrible sin.

The goalposts of perception were always wrong, and the real goalposts are that more people will die of COVID-19 before this is over. Some will be due to their own poor choice; some will be in spite of their good choice. None of us have an expiration date stamped on the bottom of our feet. The sun rises, and the rain falls, on the just and the unjust.

Sometimes the just will get fired for suggesting wisdom. Sometimes a person who, by all rights and the vaccine’s power, should not die, dies. We cannot know God’s perfect will in these circumstances, except by our own walk and our own talk with God.

They will get COVID-19 or be spared; they will live or die, but we as Christians are to love them all as God loves them. As for the living and the dead, let God sort them out.

Follow Steve on Twitter @stevengberman.

The First TV contributor network is a place for vibrant thought and ideas. Opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of The First or The First TV. We want to foster dialogue, create conversation, and debate ideas. See something you like or don’t like? Reach out to the author or to us at [email protected]. 

August 30, 2021 at 05:41AM - Steve Berman
The False Choice of Faith vs. Vaccines | Steve Berman
Read the full story by clicking this headline, at The First TV

The big bombshell on Twitter Saturday morning was the firing of Daniel Darling, who, until Friday, was the senior vice president of communications for the National Religious Broadcasters. Mr. Darling’s sin, as reported by the Religion News Service, was refusing to recant his endorsements of the COVID-19 vaccines.

Now, wait a tick, you might say. What’s wrong with that? Millions of religious people have been vaccinated and, more importantly, vaccinations are not mentioned in the Bible, nor are they forbidden by Christian theological doctrines. Plus, Christians pioneered the concept of vaccines as a way to alleviate human suffering.

Well, yeah. But that was before the Coronavirus pandemic and the mass hysteria that seems to have infected a large part of the church. Nowadays, it is no longer hip among the Christian right to be pro-vaccine and it may even be hazardous to your job security if the reports of Darling’s dismissal are accurate.

In a statement Friday, @dandarling said he was "sad and disappointed" his time at NRB had come to an end.

Darling had spoken out about how his faith factored into his decision to get the COVID-19 vaccine and why he believed the vaccine was trustworthy.https://t.co/Ps3ceuVGoy

— Christianity Today (@CTmagazine) August 28, 2021

While the National Religious Broadcasters Association has not commented publicly, a source authorized to speak on Darling’s behalf said that the religious writer and broadcaster was fired because he promoted Coronavirus vaccinations on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” It wasn’t immediately clear whether the bigger sin was promoting the vaccines or appearing on MSNBC.

On the segment, which appeared on August 2, Darling told Joe Scarborough, “I believe in this vaccine because I don’t want to see anyone else die of COVID. Our family has lost too many close friends and relatives to COVID, including an uncle, a beloved church member, and our piano teacher.”

Darling also said that he was proud to be vaccinated. He made similar comments in a USA Today opinion piece on August 1.

Per the report, leaders at the NRB met with Darling this week and told him that his statements violated the NRB’s stance of neutrality on Coronavirus vaccines. He was reportedly given the option of signing a statement that admitted insubordination or being fired.

There’s a lot to unpack here. First, I’m going to acknowledge that the NRB is a private religious organization and has the right to set its own standards. They have the right to hire and fire who they please.

But there are moral, ethical, and religious problems with the NRB’s actions even if Darling’s firing passes the legal test. The most obvious one is that Christians should not be neutral about COVID-19 vaccines. They should wholeheartedly endorse them as a gift from God.

The vaccines, which have been proven to be very safe over more than 5 billion doses, are effective at reducing the spread of COVID-19 and of minimizing the severity of those who become sick through breakthrough infections. In other words, they alleviate human suffering and help to heal the sick, which is a fulfillment of Jesus’s commandments to his followers.

Second, Darling’s firing is a violation of its own commitment to fighting censorship of religious broadcasters. On August 13, the NRB Twitter account said, “We are committed to fighting for the right of Christian communicators to speak freely and truthfully without fear of censorship.”

We are committed to fighting for the right of Christian communicators to speak freely and truthfully without fear of censorship. https://t.co/7DchOjxjSm

— NRB (@NRBassociation) August 13, 2021

Unless, of course, free speech angers the many evangelical Christians who believe that vaccines are the Mark of the Beast or some such nonsense. A religious broadcasting organization might do better to educate its followers about why getting vaccinated doesn’t mean that you are condemned to hell, as a Twitter friend’s mom was recently told by her pastor.

Christians also need to be educated on vaccines because they have driven a lot of the spread of COVID-19 in the US. As I’ve described several times in the past, a great many COVID clusters have been centered on churches that refused to suspend in-person services and/or use mitigation strategies. My own church was the center of a recent outbreak in which one woman died and another lost her baby. The majority of the infected were not vaccinated.

I could understand firing Darling if he violated Christian teaching. For instance, if he was ensnared in a sex scandal like Jerry Falwell, Jr. or was alleged to have covered up sexual abuse like several leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention. But there is no Biblical directive or Christian doctrine against vaccines.

Rather than working to heal the sick, too many Christians have been working to spread the virus around their communities. In my opinion, the NRB should help to convince Christians that the way to fulfill Christ’s commandment to love your neighbor (not like that Rev. Falwell!) is to stop infecting their communities with a life-threatening disease.

Since some Christians reject vaccines because they believe that they contain elements of aborted babies, the NRB should also point out that pro-life ethicists have “blessed” the use of all three Coronavirus vaccines that are in common use in the United States.

The firing of Daniel Darling is a troubling indication of the too-cozy relationship between the evangelical church and the Republican Party. Darling’s case reminds me of the furor from December 2019 when Mark Galli wrote an article for Christianity Today arguing that Donald Trump should be removed from office. Galli was eventually forced out after then-President Trump blasted the magazine and a furor erupted among readers.

The ousters of Darling and Galli are examples of political cancel culture run amok in the church. This is particularly galling from a religion and a party that claim to be pro-life, but the anti-vaxxer movement has led to hundreds of thousands of deaths and even more severe illnesses in this country alone. As one wag posted on the internet recently in satire of the anti-abortion bumper sticker, “COVID-19 stops a beating heart.”

Christians who are figuratively martyred by the right-wing Christian establishment are in good company, however. Honoring the Bible and God’s teaching doesn’t always guarantee success in this world as Jesus himself warned us. The prophet Hosea preached for more than 60 years without success. The important thing is to remain faithful.

Christians used to acknowledge that both parties were imperfect and fallible. That is less and less the case as the view on the right has become more and more that no Christian can be a Democrat as well as the corollary that “real Christians” must vote Republican. (Interestingly, I know Christians on the left who also think that no Christian can be a Republican. Both of these views are wrong.)

The Bible tells us that this world is not our home. If we are equating Christianity with our particular brand of politics and in the process helping a virus ravage our communities and our country, then we are doing Christianity wrong. It’s time to start over and focus on the basics.

___

As a footnote, I’d like to thank my editors at The First TV for allowing me to pass along my views on this and other topics. If you’ve followed me long, you know that I’m not the typical writer that you’ll find on right-wing sites. I’m a conservative in the traditional sense and I don’t fit well into the new Trump Republican Party. In fact, I’m not a part of any party anymore and don’t fit into any neat, political boxes.

Freedom of speech involves protecting the speech that you disagree with, not just what you want to hear. I appreciate that The First TV recognizes this.

Follow David Thornton on Twitter (@captainkudzu) and Facebook

The First TV contributor network is a place for vibrant thought and ideas. Opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of The First or The First TV. We want to foster dialogue, create conversation, and debate ideas. See something you like or don’t like? Reach out to the author or to us at [email protected]. 

August 29, 2021 at 04:06PM - David Thornton
Cancel Culture Leads to Firing of Christian Broadcaster | David Thornton
Read the full story by clicking this headline, at The First TV

In August of 2005, I was set to begin my second and final year of graduate school. Days before the semester began I received a call from one of my professors. The department needed someone to teach a Small Group Communication course. Was I interested? I was certainly interested in a little more cash flow. I had not given much thought to collegiate teaching, but I dove in headfirst and took the class. About a week into that semester, on August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina battered my home state of Louisiana, and Louisiana has, in some ways, never been the same since. 

My university did what many others in the northern part of the state did at that time: we shifted dramatically, overnight, suspending classes and turning colosseums and other nooks and crannies on campus into shelters for those fleeing the coast. In the weeks that followed Katrina, I learned lessons as a teacher I carry with me to this day. Countless people who fled Katrina never returned home. They had no home to which to return. They had nothing. Universities accepted students who had no papers, no transcripts they could present. Some had no ID. We were told to take them at their word, and we would sort out the details later. I had two Katrina refugees add my Small Group Communication course, and while I hope I taught them a few things, I learned a lot from them that semester. 

On the heels of Hurricane Katrina was Hurricane Rita, a Category Five hurricane described by some at the time as the most intense hurricane ever observed in the Gulf of Mexico. In all my years of living in Louisiana, Rita was the hurricane I recall doing the most damage in the northern part of the state where I live until, on August 27, 2020, Hurricane Laura barreled through my state leaving many without power for over a week. 

Storms weaken. They shift. They dissipate. You don’t live in Louisiana long before you realize there is no reason to panic every time a storm forms in the Gulf, but this final weekend in August has proven to be a particularly dicey time for Louisiana, and we again find ourselves in the path of what appears to be a large and potentially dangerous storm named Ida. We all know the drill. You watch and wait until the forecast persists and demands you begin preparing for the worst. Gas stations are buzzing with people filling their cars and filling extra tanks. My social media is filled with news reports and the thoughts, prayers, and warnings of concerned friends; the familiar words and phrases fill my screens: catastrophic, scary eye, storm surge, dangerous wind gusts. 

This past week I resumed teaching high school English, British literature to be exact. At one point while discussing their summer read, Lord of the Flies, I segued into a scene in one of the Jurassic Park sequels that features a dead man still attached to the parasail he had strapped on his back when he died in an incident that was, of course, dinosaur-related. I was trying to explain to students the imagery William Golding had in mind when he penned “the beast” on the island. The beast is actually a deceased airman who abandoned his plane. His decaying body is occasionally animated by the parachute attached to his body, a specter that obviously frightens the young boys on the island.

At a later date this year, I will delve more deeply into why I love the Jurassic Park films. I am sure my students cannot wait. I often refer to these films in my teaching and my writing. Jurassic Park is the product of the work of many geniuses: Michael Crichton, Steven Spielberg, and the esteemed composer of the score, John Williams. The music always makes me cry. It is perfect. It says without words what I feel as I watch: creation is wonderful and mysterious, dinosaurs, like their Creator, are marvelous and fearsome, and man, as we know from Frankenstein and the inimitable Dr. Ian Malcolm, is a fool to insert himself in the role of Creator God. 

What do these films about dinosaurs have to do with Lord of the Flies? my students no doubt briefly wondered. What do they have to do with hurricanes? Like dinosaurs, hurricanes remind us we are so small and powerless. Creator God made the heavens and the earth, and He controls the wind and the waves. It is one thing to recite verses, to tell children God controls the wind and the waves; it is quite another thing to sit in my home in Louisiana as the wind and the waves churn and swell as millions wait anxiously for the arrival of yet another end-of-August monster we can in no way control. 

I recently wrote about the toll COVID has taken on my home state and my prayer that we will see a light at the end of this dark tunnel. That we again, as we did last August, find ourselves juggling COVID and the approach of a dangerous hurricane is the subject of some funny memes on social media as well as the motivating factor behind many prayers being raised. 

My heart is heavy for my home state and for all in the path of this storm. I’ve been asked more than once why I live in Louisiana. There are certainly other states with more appealing climates and economies (and Governors). The simple answer is: It is my home. My family is here. My history is here. My LSU Tigers are here. We swat mosquitoes, float bayous, boil crawfish, dodge hurricanes, swelter in the humidity, and cross our fingers and toes when the Tigers go for it on fourth and short. I love Louisiana. She could use your prayers if you are so inclined. 

Follow Anna Zeigler (@ajzeigler) on Twitter.

The First TV contributor network is a place for vibrant thought and ideas. Opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of The First or The First TV. We want to foster dialogue, create conversation, and debate ideas. See something you like or don’t like? Reach out to the author or to us at [email protected]. 

August 28, 2021 at 01:48PM - Anna Zeigler
Here We Geaux Again | Anna Zeigler
Read the full story by clicking this headline, at The First TV

From BillOReilly.com

It is all caving in on Joe Biden. The flagrant ineptitude of his administration is the direct cause of at least 13 American military killed yesterday in Afghanistan. If anyone denies that, they are deceivers.

So, the President owns the death and ongoing horror no matter how hard he tries to blame Donald Trump.  The question is – what does Mr. Biden do now? He has to hit the terrorists without sustaining more US casualties, does he not?

Expect it.

No matter what he does, President Biden is damaged, most likely beyond fixing. He has caused human misery on the border and now overseas. Hard to come back from that.

Hope you enjoy the site. We provide a unique service here. We tell the truth, always.

August 27, 2021 at 12:33PM - The First
O’REILLY: Joe Biden is Damaged Beyond Fixing
Read the full story by clicking this headline, at The First TV