Where Does Truth Come From?

 As a physician and Christian, I have been frustrated over the last 2 years with the alarming anti-science response to the pandemic. Two years ago, I shared worst-case predictions of 2.2 million COVID-19-related deaths. I was optimistic that the American people would “flatten the curve” of COVID-19 cases, but the early seeds of doubt and misinformation were already being sown. Ironically, by the time vaccines were available, science had become an enemy. Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) since 1984 and trusted advisor to seven Presidents on HIV/AIDS and many global health issues, including the COVID-19 pandemic, became the hated face of science. The loss of trust in science has profound implications not only for the COVID-19 pandemic, but also for healthcare in general.

Francis Collins, a professing Christian who led the Human Genome Project and recently retired as director of the National Institutes of Health, noted that many white evangelicals have been “victimized by the misinformation and lies and conspiracies that are floating around, particularly on social media and some of it in cable news.” Moreover, he said people are dying as a result. “I am just basically heartbroken in a circumstance where, as an answer to prayer, vaccines have been developed that turned out to be much better than we dared to hope for.” Vaccination rates in the US remain stagnant at 65%. Only 47% of Angelina County are vaccinated, with a mere 17% having received a booster, compared with 28% nationwide.

 Some evangelical pastors, whose political power goals – idols, really – appear to be more important than biblical mandates to love our neighbor and care for the least of these, tolerated and often promoted misinformation as opposed to vaccination, often in sync with a deep mistrust of government (except that of former President Trump). This misplaced “faith” won out over science, with the result that far more of our fellow Americans died of COVID-19 than should have – an astounding one million of us so far.

 Denial of the seriousness of COVID-19, promotion of unproven treatments, and rejection of highly safe and effective vaccines are all more common in evangelical Christian circles. Refusing vaccination became the new creed for many – a mark of membership in a chimera Christian nationalism faith, where wearing a mask in church is considered a political statement and not a safety measure.

For those of us who are Christian and work in science-related fields, the chasm that exists – unnecessarily, I might add – between faith and science is perplexing. In 2015 in an article title Are Evangelicals Anti-Science? Sara Kropp Brown noted that “evangelicals are more than twice as likely as the general public (29 percent vs. 14 percent) to say that science and religion are in conflict and that they are on the side of religion” and that “evangelicals are twice as likely as other groups to look to church leaders for answers to their questions about science.” Pandemic politics are certain to have made those numbers worse.

Historically, there was no inherent conflict between science and religion. Scientists have often been men and women of deep faith, including geneticists, physicists, and mathematicians. Augustine of Hippo (354-420 AD) is often attributed with saying “All truth is God’s truth.” The actual quote from On Christian Doctrine (Book II) is right on target in today’s anti-science, anti-vax, misinformation climate:

Nay, but let every good and true Christian understand that wherever truth may be found, it belongs to his Master; and while he recognizes and acknowledges the truth, even in their religious literature, let him reject the figments of superstition, and let him grieve over and avoid men who, “when they knew God, glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things.” Romans 1:21-23

 But we cannot claim “truth” and twist circumstances (sins of commission and omission) to suit our needs. Commenting in Bez & Co, Daniel R. Jones notes, “If we focus wholly on fragmented “truths” without getting around to glorifying God, we’re only exercising our own pride.”

 Reformation theologian John Calvin, commenting on Titus 1:12, put it pretty bluntly: “All truth is from God; and consequently, if wicked men have said anything that is true and just, we ought not to reject it; for it has come from God.” Christians must recognize truth wherever it is found or we dishonor God, even if that truth comes from people you may think “wicked” from across the political aisle, another denomination, or a different race.

 Truth, along with fellow virtues of justice and love, are side casualties in the unnecessary war between science and faith. People of faith across the political spectrum are being manipulated by politicians only interested in power – not truth, and certainly not the gospel’s command to love our neighbor as ourselves. Let’s take vaccination as a moral truth example applied to Philippians 4:8 (parentheses mine):

 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true (vaccines work), whatever is noble (vaccines save lives), whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy (preventing millions of deaths worldwide)—think about such things.

 This pandemic wave may be dying down, but the truth battle goes on. Science and religion are not incompatible. If the church claims so, she loses credibility. “The culture war is literally killing people,” Collins said. Let’s hope the culture war doesn’t kill the church as well.

Health Literacy, a Pandemic, and the Church

One year ago, a winter wave of COVID-19 cases was starting to surge. The United States had already seen over 250,000 deaths.  The hope of a vaccine was just around the corner. Yet a COVID-19 vaccine misinformation campaign was already well underway.  Now we are approaching a staggering 1 million excess deaths due to COVID-19,  despite having multiple safe and effective vaccines. Why are so many not only not vaccinated against COVID-19,  but angrily opposed only to these particular vaccines against this specific illness?

Also in 2020 – and coincidental to the growing pandemic – UnitedHealth Group issued a report  on health literacy, which is the ability of people to access, understand and use information to promote good health. They noted that health literacy, like other social determinants of health  – social and physical environments, behaviors, access to healthcare, poverty, education, etc. – varies greatly across the country. Maps of health literacy  look similar to maps of county health rankings,  obesity,  heart disease,  poverty,  and education level  – generally worse across the Deep South.

In the paternalistic days of healthcare, health literacy was not even a concept. Patients relied on their physician to make healthcare decisions, trusting that he (almost all doctors were men) had their best interests at heart. Now we “shop” for healthcare as “consumers” in an increasingly transactional relationship. Big Pharma markets directly to the consumer through television, internet, social media, and streaming services. We Google for healthcare information. But are today’s consumer-patients any more educated or more capable of making informed healthcare decisions?

At a very basic level, health literacy must start with actual literacy. Twenty two percent of adults in my county can’t read a newspaper, which is written at around an 11th-grade level.  Add to that the fact that much healthcare information is even more difficult to read and understand, much less process critically. For example, I have otherwise educated patients who cannot tell me the names of the medications they are on and why they were prescribed.

And then along comes a pandemic, a fertile ground for a new, lethal combination of low health literacy and ubiquitous misinformation. A pre-pandemic systematic literature review on the spread of health-related misinformation on social media noted that accurate (often dull) scientific information is easily crowded out by sensationalized news.  The Internet of Everything  promised to help us live an efficient, informed life. Instead, it has produced a far darker reality of unquashable lies and misinformation that, in this perfect storm of pandemic and politics, has resulted in hundreds of thousands of avoidable deaths.  UnitedHealth Group’s report envisioned that increased health literacy might lead to 1 million fewer Medicare hospital visits each year and $25.4 billion in Medicare savings.  No small potatoes. They did not foresee this pandemic, where additional and avoidable COVID-19 hospitalization costs totaled $5.7 billion just from June to August 2021.  

Unfortunately, the evangelical church, of which I am a member, has been on the wrong side of the health literacy discussion, especially as it pertains to the COVID-19 vaccines.  I have written previously about the appalling attempt of many Evangelicals to claim religious exemptions.  Rather than a biblical love your neighbor message, the church – at least the Christian Right version of it – has promoted individual rights and selfishness as the greatest good. Rather than teaching the Beatitudes,  some in the church want to take over the state,  institute a theocracy and claim God’s blessing while doing it. Rather than preaching and being the Good Samaritan  to the pandemic ill, the Christian Right has chosen not only to walk on the other side of the road but to add to the toll of injured.

It is tragically ironic that the self-proclaimed pro-life Christian Right has raged against life-saving vaccination. Ted Cruz, the dominionist darling of the Christian Right,   vilified Big Bird for a “government propaganda” tweet about getting vaccinated.  The church – if it will preach the true pro-life gospel – can’t help but shine a light on this hypocrisy. For so many Evangelicals to fight against protecting and caring for others is not reflective of Christ’s teaching and, at a deeper level, heresy.

When it comes to solving the problem of low literacy and misinformation, avoiding social media and the commentary-based news media is a non-starter. Retracting misinformation is difficult, if not impossible. We have to learn to live with social media and understand that misinformation spreads faster and wider than factual information.  Health care providers must allocate time at every visit to assess what the patient does and does not know and to explain procedures, interventions, and medications in simple, clear language, avoiding jargon, verifying that the patient understands and can repeat back what they were told.  Most importantly, critical thinking should be treated as a core skill in education. We must educate people to be open-minded, to think beyond the noise, to observe and question, to be objective and look for biases, all with humility.

At the end of the day, too many in the Evangelical church allowed fear, misinformation and politics to replace compassion, service, and love. If the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us anything, it should be that loving our neighbors as ourselves is not a hollow commandment;  it saves lives.

Anger in the Time of Coronavirus

What an emotional roller coaster the last year and a half has been! The pandemic and the election have been a double whammy on our mental health. Religious leaders are seeing a lot more anxiety and depression in their congregations. FiveThirtyEight notes that hatred now dominates American politics. Though we are learning more about potential long-term physical consequences of COVID-19 infection, I fear anger may be most damaging and lasting side effect of the pandemic.

I’m generally not an angry person. But there is a pervasive anger I suspect most of us are experiencing. It catches us off guard. By the time we are aware of it, we are about the explode. The triggers may be different for each of us. For some (like me), it is the failure of the country to get behind the greatest vaccine development and distribution effort in the history of the world. For others, it may be the political fallout of a lost election, or the decline of the church, or systemic racism, or immigration. Our anger has been whipped into a frenzy by presidents and politicians, by news organizations and social media. Our collective and individual anger switches are on an ever-shortening fuse. This is not healthy. Anger is tearing us apart from without and within. 

For example, vaccine hesitancy is the lead story in much of the news right now. The phrase vaccine hesitancy is kind. It is a gentle way of referring to the ever-hardening decision by far too many to refuse to save lives – theirs and others. Honestly, hesitancy describes very few now and grossly mischaracterizes the selfish and vehement opposition of too many to getting vaccinated – kamikaze cultism, as this paper called it. Vaccination rates have plummeted. The Delta variant is on the rise as a result. In states with low vaccination rates, more than 99% of COVID-19 deaths over the past six months were among unvaccinated people. Virtually all current COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths in the United States are preventable.

We continue to give people the benefit of the doubt, hoping that the truly hesitant will step into the light, when the dark void of lies and misinformation has swallowed so many. Fear of the Delta variant may now be convincing some holdouts to get the jab. On the other hand, those falling on the straw man sword of freedom and personal responsibility will get to enjoy the consequences of their choices, which increasingly may mean wearing masks at work, regular nasal swab testing (isn’t that fun!), or even loss of employment. Some will die. Freedom to choose is a wonderful thing.

Does that sound cynical to you? Yes, I am cynical. And, as I said, angry even. As a cancer physician, I have determined that a healthier emotional reaction to the unvaccinated would be more like my compassionate-yet-uncompromising reaction to smokers, who often have a similar “personal rights” reaction to smoking restrictions (and who can be “addicted” not only to smoking, but also to the misinformation and rationalization that misplaces and overrides the very real health dangers that demand a broad societal response). One person I attempted to talk to about getting vaccinated said, “It is scary that we would capitulate to forced mandates. You agree with this one, but may not agree with the next. You may be very thankful later that people like me will stand in the gap regardless of the social stoning we are experiencing.” Yet very few of the anti-COVID-19 vaccine zealots are true libertarians. They are much more likely to view COVID-19 vaccine refusal as a statement of political identity and a test of party loyalty. And that social stoning? Self-inflicted wounds are an affront to the true coronavirus martyrs – those who lost their lives through the inaction of others. 

Don’t get me wrong – every COVID-19 death is tragic, regardless of the circumstances. My anger at the situation must not be seen as a lack of compassion for the person. Our healthcare system and the providers in it will do everything they can to care for those who are suffering and dying from COVID-19. 

The vaccine isn’t of the devil, folks, and it isn’t the mark of the beast, either. Ah, but anger is, including mine. When Jesus sent his apostles out to spread the gospel message – literally the good news – he didn’t tell them to get angry when the message was rejected. They were to shake the dust off their feet and move on. Some people laugh when I suggest it is a Christian duty to get vaccinated to help others, as if the Good Samaritan story has no modern pandemic equivalent. We should be protecting our neighbor, not infecting them. I’ve shaken off a lot of dust lately. Yet, I will continue to spread the good news that vaccines save lives.

Whether vaccines or elections, critical race theory or immigration, politics on the left or the right, we cannot let the sun go down on our anger. The antidote to anger is gratitude and love. It is hard to remain angry when you are counting your blessings and serving others. I’ve said it many times before, but the response of those claiming to be followers of Christ – and I count myself among those – should be to love our neighbor. 

Are you suffering from debilitating anger, anxiety, or depression? Seek help. The Burke Center is here for you. Reach out to them at https://myburke.org or by calling their 24-hour crisis hotline at 1-800-392-8343.