“Playing Better Defense”-- Against COVID-19

Some have called planet Earth the “Blue Jewel” because of the way in which its lovely blue and white appearance from outer space sparkles in the midst of the blackness all around it.  Although there is some disagreement about how it occurred, planet Earth appears to be perfectly suited to support life as we know it.  The anthropic principle maintains that if Earth did not have its precise combination of physical, chemical, magnetic, and cosmic relationships, life as we know it could not exist.

In spite of its amazing, life-supporting, “Blue Jewel” status, planet Earth is also a very dangerous place to live.  Human mortality rate in the long haul is 100%.  Everyone eventually dies.  Each of us have known family members or friends whose lives were seemingly “prematurely” ended.  Pathogens like COVID-19 very often do not directly cause death but instead add stress to the body, mind, and spirit of those who are “at-risk” due to age, genetic, or health reasons.  Because of this, “cause of death” is often difficult to assign to one factor.

Thankfully, there is much more good news for us than bad during these uncertain days of the pandemic.  For people who understand the more enduring principles of human life, there is a good alternative to succumbing to confusion, worry, and fear of “the virus.”  The alternative is to “play better defense.”  We need to ask ourselves, “Are we ‘playing the best defense we can play’ against the COVID-19 threat?”

To me, “playing the best defense” begins with the understanding that our bodies are the amazing result of intelligent design.  According to the Bible, Jehovah God is the Intelligent Designer (See Creation’s Complexity Can Be Convicting).  God gave the first humans the moral authority to exercise dominion and stewardship over creation (Genesis 1: 27-28; 2: 15).  God’s assignment to Adam (Genesis 2: 16-20) is still ours.  Like Adam, we accomplish stewardship through the obedient exercise of our God-given gifts of reasoning, inquiry, and creativity.  This principle of stewardship features a complementary relationship, or con-service, between God’s creating and sustaining role and our responsible role as wise managers of what belongs to God, including our bodies (See Fundamentals of Conservation, Part 3 "Serving with Our Neighbor)."

Stewardship of Our Bodies
In the context of our stewardship of creation and our own health, let’s examine the basis for “playing the best defense” against the COVID-19 threat.  “Health” in its broad definition is best maintained through wise stewardship of the physical environment of Earth.  Then, within a healthy environment we enhance our own personal health by maintaining our daily rhythms of work and rest, eating of nutritious foods, and recreation through activities that promote physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being.  God’s part in this design and plan is evident when we consider three types of defense against viruses and other pathogens.  We’ll classify these as innate immunity, acquired (adaptive) immunity, and “spiritual defenses.”  All three categories function interdependently but we will consider each separately.  My discussion of these will be brief and certainly open to correction by readers who have much more knowledge of human anatomy and physiology, psychology, and theology than I.

Innate Immunity
Innate immunity is generally associated with physical barriers (e.g. skin, body openings and tracts into the interior of the body) and secretions (e.g. mucous, saliva, tears, sweat, oil, wax, and gastric acid) that provide protection both exterior and within passageways and internal organs of our bodies.

Our skin is an organ composed of three layers of tissue and provides the principal physical barrier against pathogens.  The epidermis provides the outer protective layer and determines skin color.  Beneath the epidermis is the dermis which contains sweat glands for evaporative cooling, oil glands for waterproofing, and hair follicles.  Finally, subcutaneous tissue consists of fat, connective tissue, and blood vessels.  Our part in maintaining our health is to keep our skin clean and to protect it from excessive dryness, burning, cuts and abrasions.  And, we must see that our skin is medically treated when it is damaged. 

Our skin covering is interrupted by specialized openings for visual, auditory, respiratory, digestive, and reproductive functions—i.e. eyes, mouth, nasal passage, ear canal, anus, and genitals.  Each of these openings have complex mechanisms to protect our bodies from entry of debris and pathogens.  For example, our nasal passages contain nasal hairs which collect dust particles and control moisture.  Our respiratory tract is lined with ciliated epithelium which physically directs particles away from our lungs.  In addition to its function in physical and enzymatic digestion of food, our saliva contains both antibacterial and antiviral agents, and promotes wound healing.  Our eyes produce secretions that have antiseptic and antibiotic properties.  For more details on the human eye, see “Tears for Good Reasons—At Least for Now.”  

Our innate immune system also includes various types of blood cells, including large white blood cells (lymphocytes) known as macrophages.  These cells circulate in the blood and “ingest” viruses, bacteria, worn out body cells, debris, and inflamed body cells that could go rogue and cause cancer.  Macrophages also secrete small protein molecules called cytokines which facilitate the entry of lymphocytes known as “natural killer cells” (NK cells) into tumor cells and viral infected cells, thus facilitating destruction. 

Unfortunately, when our innate immune system is compromised due to age or poor health, it may overreact to Coronavirus invasion, causing a so-called cytokine storm.  COVID-19 deaths often result when the virus causes a cytokine storm leading to widespread attacks by NK cells that inflame the respiratory system.  Again, as with our skin, it is our stewardship responsibility to maintain each of these components if we wish to “play a better external defense” against disease.

Innate Immunity and Masks
Masks or respirators with varying degrees of sophistication have been used for many years in a variety of settings to prevent entry of dust, pollen, pathogens, or toxic aerosols and gases.  There have been confusing signals from the Coronavirus Task Team and a general lack of clear evidence that wearing masks is effective in preventing the spread of COVID-19.  (See “COVID-19 Transmission – “Unmasking” Science.”

According to a WHO Guidance Report, “…the use of a medical mask can prevent the spread of infectious droplets from an infected person to someone else and potential contamination of the environment by these droplets.”  However, according to a Nature Medicine report, “surgical masks can efficaciously reduce the emission of influenza virus particles into the environment in respiratory droplets, but not in aerosols.”  The report also stated that “Among the samples collected without a face mask, we found that the majority of participants with influenza virus and coronavirus infection did not shed detectable virus in respiratory droplets or aerosols…” An updated WHO Report this month (July) calls for further studies on “what role aerosols might play in transmission.”

Our brief summary of innate immune defenses ought to impress upon you just how complicated, overlapping, and potentially effective these defenses are.  While there is much attention and controversy focused on the social implications of wearing a mask and social distancing, let us not forget our individual stewardship responsibility to maintain our innate immune system through proper hygiene, nutrition, rest, and outdoor exposures.   The same principle applies to our acquired or adaptive immune system.

VIDEO CLIPS:
Nutrition and Your Immune System

How Coronavirus Confuses the Immune System

Acquired Immunity
Our acquired immune system is fully integrated with our innate immunity, especially since both systems rely on lymphocytes within the bloodstream.  But while all of us are born with the components of the innate immune system, lymphocytes of the acquired immune system are designed to respond in specific ways towart specific pathogen we encounter during our life.  The response involves white blood cells known as B Cells and T-cells.  The B Cells secrete antibodies when triggered by the presence of an antigen, a foreign protein of a pathogen; whereas, T cells produce and “wear” antibodies on their surfaces to bind the antigens of pathogens.   

If we are exposed to Coronavirus, a healthy defense response would involve production of antibodies that should be able to defeat the virus.  The hope is that we can develop a vaccine which would contain a weakened form of the Coronavirus antigen(s) to trigger antibody production and thus “acquired immunity.” The Life Science website gives additional details on B and T cell immunity and how they relate to acquiring natural immunity and also, the chances of manufacturing an effective vaccine.

Our brief introduction to acquired immunity again reveals the importance of maintaining our health.  Among factors that can weaken our immune system are prolonged grief, stress, alcohol, and smoking.  Nutritional deficiencies include low vitamin D and insufficient intake of fruits and vegetables.  Lack of sleep, exercise, and exposure to the outdoors also weaken immunity.  The result of poor health habits are health conditions that weaken our immune system.  Besides aging, these include obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, coronary heart disease, respiratory condition, and cerebrovascular disease.  Given the high frequency of people who practice poor health habits and who experience emotional as well as physical problems, is it possible that our third and final type of defense against pathogens and disease has been underestimated?

“Spiritual Defense” against Disease
It is scientifically established that emotional stress weakens the human immune system and can lead to greater susceptibility to infections and disease.  According to a publication of the American Psychological Association, “Stress Weakens the Immune System.”  We have already discussed the role of a healthy spiritual life in helping us to “play a better defense” against viruses and other pathogens.  In the article, “Coronavirus Resistance: Biological and Spiritual,” we presented evidence from Scripture and from science to support the belief that a person of strong, practicing faith in God can find joy and peace emotionally and spiritually in place of fear, hopelessness, and despair.

COVID-19 Meets the Human Immune System
This article has outlined the amazing design and function of the human body’s defenses against pathogen infections.  We have only scratched the surface of subject of how the human immune system defends against viruses.  However, if our immune systems are as effective as they are claimed to be, then the proof should be in how well humans can resist infection, disease, and death from pathogens like COVID-19.   Let’s test this hypothesis against the current mortality and percentage of recovery from virus infection.

The data table represents total population in selected states, number of tests, positive tests, deaths, mortality, and percent recovery.  Of particular interest to demonstrate effectiveness of the human immune system against COVID-19 is the relatively small number of positive cases compared to the number of tests; the relatively small number of deaths compared to the number of positive cases; and, the relatively small percentage if infected people who died compared to the percent recovering.  In each of these pairings, the degree to which first number (or percentage) is smaller than the second is a testimony not only to our health care system and access to generally good nutrition, sanitation, and living conditions but also to a generally very effective immune system. 

In many states, especially where elderly people with COVID-19 were not moved into crowded nursing homes, percent recovery is up to 99%!  These data suggest that we have an amazing immune system which is largely effective in providing resistance to COVID-19 infection, and where infection does occur, effective in overcoming the infection and resulting in a high percentage of recovery.  The upshot is that our most certain and ultimate protection from COVID-19 resides in making good choices to maintain our health in body, mind, and spirit.

What Are Your Thoughts and Questions?
There are many “invitations” in this article for you to respond with your comments and questions.  I’m especially interested in what you are doing to maintain your nutritional and spiritual health. Please use the “Comment” link below.  Also, may I encourage you to “Subscribe to Oikonomia” by responding to my invitation in the right sidebar above?   Thank you!

COVID-19 Transmission: “Unmasking” Science

I’d like to think that most Americans still believe that truth exists, that truth can be known, and that we make the best decisions when we have truthful information.  Science, especially “good science,” is one way of finding and publishing correct truth claims.  However, in the era of COVID-19, it seems there are many “middle people” operating between what science discovers and what the average person reads or hears in the news.  For example, there are scientific studies of the efficacy of masks in preventing spread of viruses.  Then, there are news reports recommending whether or not we ought to wear masks.  What is the truth about masks?  

You are no doubt aware of the mixed signals regarding whether or not we should wear masks that have come from the Coronavirus Task Team members, especially Dr. Anthony Fauci.  This confusion could be an indication that political bias and efforts to influence policy may be creating static in the signals between the actual scientific findings on mask wearing and the recommendations we receive through media sources.

The purpose of this article is not to convince you of whether or not to wear a mask. Instead, as I tried to do with an April article, (See COVID-19 Policies & Outcomes: Learning Online), my purpose here is to simply reference several scientific studies to show how researchers report their findings, make conclusions, and offer recommendations based on their results.  In other words, I want to take us back to the primary sources, the journal articles from the scientific laboratories.  These are the sources of information from which newspaper and TV journalists obtain their information.  Resultant newsprint or media newscasts which most of us receive are considered secondary sources, and perhaps tertiary sources, any of which are subject to accidental or deliberate errors.

What follows are references to two primary (scientific journal) sources which report recent studies of the effectiveness of masks in intercepting COVID-19 and other viruses.  I am also including one secondary source compiled by the World Health Organization (WHO) based primary sources.  Each title is accompanied with the link so you can obtain the article in PDF format to read for yourself.  I have given each source a handy label which I can use to refer to each article as follows:

1)  Vietnam Study (2015)
MacIntyre CR, Seale H, Dung TC, et al.  A cluster randomised trial of cloth masks compared with medical masks in healthcare workers. BMJ Open 2015;5: e006577. doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2014-006577
Locate Article:  HERE

2)  WHO Guidance Report
Advice on the use of masks in the context of COVID-19  -- WHO in April, 2020

Locate Article (automatic download of PDF): HERE

3)  Nature Medicine study:
Leung, N.H.L., D. K. W. Chu, et al. Respiratory virus shedding in exhaled breath and efficacy of face masks.  Nature Medicine 26: 676–680, May 2020
Locate Article:  HERE

Vietnam Study
The “Vietnam study” involved 1,607 hospital health care workers (age 18 or older) employed full-time in selected high-risk wards among 14 different hospitals.  The objective of this study was “to compare the efficacy of cotton cloth masks to medical masks in hospital healthcare workers.”  Their conclusions are as follows:

Caution against Cloth Masks:  “This study is the first randomized critical trial of cloth masks, and the results caution against the use of cloth masks. This is an important finding to inform occupational health and safety. Moisture retention, reuse of cloth masks and poor filtration may result in increased risk of infection. Further research is needed to inform the widespread use of cloth masks globally.  However, as a precautionary measure, cloth masks should not be recommended for health care workers, particularly in high-risk situations, and guidelines need to be updated.”

The results of the “Vietnam study” were summarized in the adjacent graphic presented by the Laura Ingraham Angle on Fox News.  This news channel is a secondary source that is seen by millions of viewers.  The Fox News summary accurately presents the conclusions of the study.  However, reading the journal article reveals several complicating factors that are typically missed in news reporting.  The following excerpt from the journal article addresses some of the limitations of the study:

A limitation of this study is that we did not measure compliance with hand hygiene, and the results reflect self-reported compliance, which may be subject to recall or other types of bias. Another limitation of this study is the lack of a no-mask control group and the high use of masks in the controls, which makes interpretation of the results more difficult. In addition, the quality of paper and cloth masks varies widely around the world, so the results may not be generalisable to all settings (MacIntyre C.R. et al, p. 7).

What can we take away from the “Vietnam Study?”  First, the “Vietnam Study” appears to demonstrate “good science.”  The researchers were objective, conducted experiments and analyzed data with care, tried to avoid bias, were careful not to overstate conclusions, and invited scrutiny and critical analysis by peers and readers.

Second, primary journal sources often contain admissions of limitations that may or may not affect the conclusions; and, usually suggest the need for additional scientific research.  However, news reporting based on these primary sources often do not include these details.  Therefore, I encourage readers to check out the “Vietnam Study” article itself to gain more of a sense of how science is conducted and reported. 

Finally, the “Vietnam Study” provides much reason for us to question the efficacy of cotton cloth masks in preventing transmission of virus, and suggests that “moisture retention, reuse of cloth masks and poor filtration may result in increased risk of infection.”  We ought to be asking, “Is it possible that by wearing a mask I am increasing my risk of infection?”  How will this scientific study affect your choices, and the current policies of our state governors regarding masks?

WHO Guidance Report
Unlike the “Vietnam Study,” the “WHO Interim Guidance Report” is a secondary source with recommendations based on primary research reports.  This secondary source by definition represents interpretations and recommendations made by at least some people who were not directly involved in primary research and reporting.  However, if the interpretations and recommendations are accurate, the secondary source can reveal patterns and trends based on multiple research results including the “Vietnam Study” by MacIntyre CR, Seale H, Dung TC, et al.  cited above. 

The “WHO Guidance Report” offers the following summation concerning the efficacy of wearing masks to prevent spread of COVID-19:
When infected people wear masks:  “Studies of influenza, influenza-like illness, and human coronaviruses provide evidence that the use of a medical mask can prevent the spread of infectious droplets from an infected person to someone else and potential contamination of the environment by these droplets.”

When uninfected people wear masks:  “There is limited evidence that wearing a medical mask by healthy individuals in the households or among contacts of a sick patient, or among attendees of mass gatherings may be beneficial as a preventive measure. However, there is currently no evidence that wearing a mask (whether medical or other types) by healthy persons in the wider community setting, including universal community masking, can prevent them from infection with respiratory viruses, including COVID-19 (WHO Interim Guidance Report, p. 1).”

This April, 2020 recommendation by WHO was consistent with the recommendation at the time from Dr. Anthony Fauci who informed Americans that “There’s no reason to be walking around with a mask.  When you’re are in the middle of an outbreak, wearing a mask might make people feel a bit better, and it might even block a droplet, but it’s not providing the perfect protection that people think that it is.” 

Facebook now flags the April interview with Dr. Fauci as “false information.  Dr. Fauci later recommended wearing of masks and explained that his turn-around was based on his concern that if everyone wore a mask, healthcare workers would be left in short supply.  However, another April study, this one published in Nature Medicine, seems to confirm Dr. Fauci’s original recommendation against the need for wearing masks.  Is it possible that Dr. Fauci was scientifically correct in his April recommendation?  Let’s have a closer look at the “Nature Medicine Study.”

Nature Medicine Study
This report, published online April 3, 2020, is a primary source from a reputable journal.  The study was conducted from March, 2013 through May, 2016 in a general outpatient clinic of a private hospital in Hong Kong.  Researchers “screened 3,363 individuals in two study phases, ultimately enrolling 246 individuals who provided exhaled breath samples.  Among these 246 participants, 122 (50%) participants were randomized to not wearing a face mask during the first exhaled breath collection and 124 (50%) participants were randomized to wearing a face mask. Overall, 49 (20%) voluntarily provided a second exhaled breath collection of the alternate type.”

Results of the “Nature Medicine Study” were summarized as follows:
Virus Transmission in Air:  “Our results indicate that aerosol transmission is a potential mode of transmission for coronaviruses as well as influenza viruses and rhinoviruses.”
Efficacy of Masks:  “Our findings indicate that surgical masks can efficaciously reduce the emission of influenza virus particles into the environment in respiratory droplets, but not in aerosols.”
Very Little Virus Shedding:  “Among the samples collected without a face mask, we found that the majority of participants with influenza virus and coronavirus infection did not shed detectable virus in respiratory droplets or aerosols…”

The “Nature Medicine Study” affirms that coronaviruses can be transmitted in respiratory droplets (size greater than 5 micrometers) and in aerosols (size = less than 5 micrometers).  Surgical face masks (# 62356, Kimberly-Clark) reduced transmission of virus in respiratory droplets but not virus transmission in the smaller aerosols.  This result should be unsettling to infected people who depend on mask wearing to reduce transmission to others, and even to noninfected people who depend on masks to avoid infection.  However, there is some good news from this study; namely, the indication that the majority of those infected with coronavirus did not shed virus in either droplets or aerosols!

Summary Considerations
In summary, I have reviewed two primary literature sources and one secondary source.  All of them provide significant findings that should be taken into consideration when policy makers and we as individuals decide on whether or not to wear a mask; and, for what purpose, or what kind of mask, or how to avoid increasing risk of infection as a mask-wearer.  Perhaps most telling to us is whether we have been surprised by any of the results reported in these three studies.  I suggest that the degree to which we are surprised reflects the degree to which we have depended solely on broadcast media (secondary sources) as most Americans do.  

Unless we have a media source that does the hard work of extracting results from primary scientific sources, and reports it objectively without political bias, we will not be able to do as many say we should do-- “just follow the science.”  In the case of mask wearing, as I have discussed here, there appears to be “good science” and at least some good journalism, suggesting that we do well not to put too much trust in cotton cloth masks even if there are dozens of websites that tell us how to make cloth masks.  Furthermore, depending how we use the mask we could even increase our risk of infection.  Nor is there clear evidence that masks are stopping aerosol transmission of virus as much as the fact that virus shedding by infected individuals may be much less than we imagine.

What Do You Think About It?

As always, I welcome your opinions, corrections, questions.  Just use the “Comments” link below.  And, if you would like another COVID-19 related topic to research “back into the science,” consider hydroxychloroquine which as been shown to be efficacious against COVID-19 if prescribed appropriately but which has been opposed vehemently by many in the liberal media.   See Hydroxychloroquine: “Good Science” Challenges Politicized Science and a recent interview with Dr. Harvey Risch, Yale epidemiologist.  Why aren’t we following the science?”

Choices for Troubled Times - 2. My Responsibility Matters

Like many Americans, I’m trying to distinguish between those who protest to call attention to injustices against Black Americans, and those who have crept in for the purpose of inciting division, resentment, hate, violence, and destruction of property.  I also want to distinguish legitimate accusations of racism and White supremacy from accusations based upon an individual or a group’s feeling that they have been offended or oppressed.  An individual’s perception that a person or group has acted in an offensive manner is not in itself evidence that an offense has actually occurred (Statement on Social Justice & the Gospel).

In the midst of the current divisiveness and turmoil, I must recognize the unity or "oneness" in Christ that God has offered to all persons by His selfless sacrifice on the Cross as the Apostle Paul outlines in Ephesians 4: 1-6 which in turn, is based on the Scripture in Ephesians 2 and 3.  There, we learn of the "mystery" that as Gentiles (every ethnicity outside of the Jews) we were once “dead in our sin” (Ephesians 2).  But now all of us who are in Christ share in Eternal Life with Him by a faith.  This Life is equally available to any individual who repents and accepts Christ’s sacrifice for their sin.  I already have written in some detail about the biblical basis for unity of all mankind in “Choices for Troubled Times - 1. A Perfect Union”).

As I pondered these points, it was helpful to receive an article from a former student with whom I have been privileged to dialog about these matters.  What follows is my response to him, slightly edited for brevity:

LETTER TO A FORMER STUDENT:
Thank you for referring me to the article, “My Letter to a Young White Friend,” by Alfred Turnipseed, who identifies as an African American Orthodox Christian.  I have been reading and thinking about his and other writings and have been reflecting at length on the assertions about ethnic injustice.  Mr. Turnipseed bases his letter upon the principle of equal dignity for all in a biblical framework.  Furthermore, he acknowledges the unity that all believers share as children of God, “joint-heirs” with Christ through faith in Him.  However, in the first paragraph of his article, Mr. Turnipseed expresses what he sees as a “fragmented unity” when he asserts that it is a “natural next step for us to broach the topic of the very particular predicament that only some of us must endure.”  I want to consider this “natural next step” carefully in view of biblical truth.

Blame versus Individual Responsibility

I want to understand the trouble and the burden of those who are unjustly treated.  Truly, they bear a real burden.   This burden often becomes more imposing when a Black life is affected by the long history of injustices of the past.  But we must realize that neither today’s victim nor today’s alleged perpetrator can change the past.  Each of us are responsible only for the present.  Each of us must decide between accepting individual responsibility to work toward better relationships with our neighbor through the love of God, or to adopt a tribalism that fuels hatred and blame between social groups.

God’s Word provides us with an objective and unequivocal justification for respecting both the sanctity and the equal dignity of all humankind.  For those of us who accept this truth through faith in God, the challenge is for us as individuals to understand how these truths can be implemented in our daily lives.  Major portions of the recorded teachings of Christ and the writings of the Apostles instruct each member of the body of Christ on how to practice the two Great Commandments—to love God, and to love our neighbor (Mark 12: 30-31).  Obedience to these commandments remains the responsibility of individuals, not groups or institutions.  The emphasis of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is upon individual responsibility before a holy and just God.  

Justice for “Each Bad Apple” Not “The Whole Barrel”
Having taken the “natural step” toward acknowledging that there is a subgroup within all of humanity that must endure racial injustice, Mr. Turnipseed assumes the role of defending them.  Unfortunately, he exercises his role by communicating to his White friend what I believe is a judgmental spirit ignited by his acquaintance with individuals and situations within his immediate sphere of experience.  Mr. Turnipseed then extrapolates his judgments to include the motives and values of others he knows from their writings, passions, and actions; and then, he expands to whole groups (e.g. people who “call themselves Christians,” those “resting in white privilege,” “the police force,” “unfairness of the criminal justice system,” “workers vs. capitalists (as if they are necessarily separable), etc.).  His generalizations lead to assertions like, “when the police murder, they do so “under the veil of the law.”

When individual unjust or unlawful incidents involving one or a few police officers are used to justify blanket statements that implicate whole groups of people, the accusations can become very inflammatory.  It is inaccurate, unfair, and unjust to use a murderous act by one or a couple of policemen either to incite whole crowds of people to chant slogans like “defund the police” or to rail against “White supremacy.”

Biblical Approaches to Challenging Authority
Certainly, there are “bad apples” on police forces, but rather than crying “White supremacy,” why not use the freedoms we have in the world’s greatest nation to address injustices with a spirit of good will even in the face of opposition from those individuals and groups that are filled with hate toward ethnic minorities?  Christians at the time of the early church did not rail or join mass protests against Roman injustices toward different “classes” or ethnic groups.  Instead, they advanced the cause of Christ under the banner of love which overcame such injustices.  Romans 13 and 1 Peter 2: 11-17 provide clear instruction in how Christ-followers are to respect those in authority.  The practice of using Christians as prey for lions for the purpose of entertainment in Roman culture was brought to an end by just such a nonviolent action.

The non-violent approach used in protests led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1950’s and 1960’s resulted in major advances in civil rights through passage of bi-partisan legislation.  In contrast, the Black Lives Matter movement doesn’t appear to have a constructive goal or plan.  They also appear to lack an understanding of and thankfulness for just how much American society has progressed toward equal justice under the law for all ethnic groups.  Indeed, those who cry “White supremacy” need to be careful lest they be exposed as misguided, “White-privileged” advocates who are nothing more than “noisy gongs” because they do not have a true, unconditional love-driven compassion for struggling individuals who need to be lifted up by acts of the love of Christ.

In some cases of injustice, the Bible allows that it may be necessary for citizens to appeal respectfully to higher authority.  In Acts 25: 1-12, the Apostle Paul provides an example of how Christians can legitimately make a respectful appeal to higher authority, in Paul’s case, to Caesar himself.  In America, while peaceful protests have been legitimate means of drawing attention to serious concerns, we are blessed with a representative government and excellent channels of communication via internet and phone to register our opinions and grievances.

Reconciliation through Love and Forgiveness
Above all, it is the responsibility of Christ-followers to exercise the virtues of love and forgiveness.  Writing in a culture filled with injustice toward minorities, the Apostle Peter encourages us to …keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4: 8). 

A wonderful portrayal of the loving, compassionate, forgiving Spirit of Christ was shown in 2015 by members of Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, SC.  There, a man who came in as if to join their Bible study and prayer time, instead opened fire in a murderous rampage that led to the deaths of nine Christ-followers and injuries to three others.  While our nation watched, families of these victims freely offered their forgiveness to the murderer in the name of Jesus Christ.  Instead of allowing their grief from their horrendous losses of loved ones to spill over into hate, violence, and destruction, they threw themselves at the foot of Christ’s Cross.  Their act of forgiveness toward the murderer was a loving tribute to the crucified Christ because it embodied His true intent when he spoke from His Cross, “Father forgive them for they know not what they are doing (Luke 23: 34).” What would happen in our divided America if more of God’s people of faith would practice forgiveness, that unique virtue made possible through a personal relationship with a Forgiving God and Savior, Jesus Christ?

Related to the Charleston, SC incident, two notable political leaders from South Carolina, U.S. Senator Tim Scott and former U.S. Congressman, Trey Gowdy, recently appeared in a fascinating interview on the Mike Huckabee Show.  These two men are long-time friends and have written a very practical book, Unified: How Our Unlikely Friendship Gives Us Hope for a Divided Country.  During the interview with Gov. Huckabee, while referring to the tragic shooting and the forgiveness that America witnessed, Rep. Gowdy admitted that he could not have done that. 

I’m not sure if I could have forgiven a man who murdered members of my family either.  But it is this kind of unconditional love that God offers me—and, offers to all of us regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, church affiliation, political party, etc.  I want this love to motivate me to fulfill my individual responsibilities to love my wife, my family, friends, and all whom God considers “your neighbor.”  Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another (1 John 4: 11).

How Would  You Respond?
I have written this article as a response to my friend and former student with the intention of sharing my current understanding of my personal responsibilities to my family, “my neighbor,” and to institutions—local community, church, and government.  I hope my friend and other readers will agree that I have done so in Christian love and with a humility that conveys that I am willing to learn from those who know more than I and who may disagree vehemently.  I welcome your “Comment” using the link below.

Choices for Troubled Times - 1. A Perfect Union

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.   – Preamble to the U.S. Constitution

The 4^th of July, 2020 finds America a very divided nation.  Some regard her as an imperfect union in pursuit of being that “more perfect union.” Others see America as an imperfect union that has failed and that ought to be dissolved and reconstructed according to a new blueprint.  Although both sides should agree that America is far from perfect, it seems that each side has a different approach toward facing the reality all humans are flawed and we live in a fallen world. 

Family Shapes Our Worldview
As a small boy, I looked up to my dad as an example worth following.  I soon learned that he was not a perfect man.  While I was reaching that conclusion, I also learned that dad recognized both his own imperfections and his need to yield to God whom he had come to know by faith as his Heavenly Father. Thankfully, dad taught me by his words, his example, and by the Word of God in the Bible that we both needed the grace, forgiveness, and transforming Spirit of God to direct our lives.  My mother complemented dad in guiding me.  And, what didn’t sink into my “head end,” she applied to my “bottom.”

I believe all children, if they are fortunate to have parents, must learn through disappointment and even pain that dad and mom are not perfect.  At the same time, children are even more fortunate if their imperfect parent or parents can point them to God the Father who is perfect.  Then, as they grow emotionally and spiritually, they will more likely be overcomers, because in spite of both the joy and the pain of this fallen, imperfect world, they are learning to trust in a perfect, loving, Heavenly Father.  It is God’s purpose that, within the sphere of authority known as “family,” loving parents lead children to put their faith and trust in Him.  Then, they can learn to view both their own struggles and this imperfect world from the reality of God’s perspective.

Confusion and Frustration of the Unequipped
Today’s world seems to offer more challenges to children and even adults than my childhood world of the 1950’s and 1960’s.  It was then that I first heard the expression, “God is Dead.”  Now, many believe He IS dead, or at least very distant and uncaring.  Adolescents and adults now march in the streets.  Some participate out of a genuine desire to improve our “imperfect union.”  Other demonstrators have their vision clouded by bitterness and disappointed with their lives, family, and country.  Many of these have not grown up in a home where they could learn to face the reality of an imperfect world while being loved and pointed to God by their parents.  They soon look to others for love and purpose in life—someone to help them make sense of the world—a proper worldview.  As such, they are easily persuaded to join a cause that promises to build a new and perfect world from the world they reject.

Both God’s revelation in the Bible and the records of history testify to the futility of human attempts to form a perfect world.  Powerful empires have risen and fallen throughout history like the timeless rhythm of the ocean tides.  In Psalm 11: 3, the psalmist David asks, If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?  David’s answer, The LORD (“I AM”) is in His holy temple; the LORD’s throne is in heaven; His eyes see, His eyelids test the children of man.

God’s Amazing, Mysterious Plan
God is NOT dead, nor is He uncaring about His creation.  Instead, God has been revealing His eternal plan, partly through what the Scriptures call “mysteries.”  One of these mysteries reveals how God has provided a path to perfect unity among all of humankind.

The Apostle Paul wrote that, God made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him [Christ] with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth (Ephesians 1: 9-10).  Theologians explain that this “mystery” is not something “mysterious” as in a popular mystery novel.  Rather, “mystery” in Scripture means something that cannot be known or understood by human reasoning apart from the revelation by Almighty God. 

The mystery to which Paul refers is also distinct from the one he described in Romans 11: 25.  In that one, God reveals that the nation Israel will have hard hearts… until the full number of Gentiles [non-Jews] comes to Christ.  This mystery clarifies the earlier promise of God to Abraham 2,000 years ago that he would become the father of many nations (Genesis 17: 1-5).  God’s blessing through Israel would eventually extend beyond the Jewish nation to include all nations and ethnicities. 

But the mystery Paul reveals in Ephesians 3: 1-7 and Galatians 3: 26-29 is more wonderful because it goes much deeper to describe the blessed unity within humanity that Christ offers.  Writing to born again Christ-followers, Paul explains (emphasis mine):

For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus.  And all who have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes.  There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus.  And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and God’s promise to Abraham belongs to you. (Galatians 3: 26-29).

Here, God reveals the mystery that all who profess faith in Christ and receive His forgiveness for their sin are united with Christ spiritually as descendants of Abraham whose merit was based on faith, not good works (Romans 4).  What’s more, if we are heirs with Christ, we are not only citizens of one holy nation (1 Peter 2: 9) regardless of our ethnicity, we are brothers and sisters of one family, joint heirs with Christ (Romans 8: 17)!

If it were not enough that Christ-followers are citizens on one nation and members of one family, we read in Galatians 4: 5-6 we also receive the adoption as sons. Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”  What an intimate relationship God offers to Caucasians, Blacks, Hispanic Americans, Chinese, and all other ethnicities!   All of us as brothers and sisters in Christ can affectionately call out to God, “Abba! Father!”  or “Daddy Daddy!”

Character Development in God’s Family
Although God has adopted His children into a marvelous unity through Christ, He nevertheless gives us the free will and the responsibility to make this unity our own personally.  First, unless we have been made alive as new creations by faith in Christ, we are neither fellow heirs with Christ nor heirs of anything spiritually.  Earlier, in Ephesians 2, Paul had written that without faith in Christ, we were “dead” (v. 1), “sons of disobedience” (v. 2), “separate from Christ…without hope and without God” (v. 12), “far away” (v. 17), and “strangers and aliens” (v. 19).  But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in our trespasses.  It is by grace you have been saved…through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God… (Galatians 2: 4-5, 8).

Second, God knows that even Christ-followers must practice spiritual disciplines and reject the tendencies of the old nature which can make war within us (Romans 7: 15-25).  If we have individually surrendered our wills to Christ and are spiritually born again, we must rely on the power of His Holy Spirit to remain in Him (obey Him) so that we can bear fruit that is befitting members of the family of God with Christ as our brother (John 15: 1-17).  Just as the human family is where children can form a sound worldview, so the church is the assembly of believers within which we learn how to show Christ to each other and learn to witness of His Life to the world.  Addressing the church at Ephesus, Paul wrote (emphasis mine),

As a prisoner in the Lord, then, I urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling you have received: with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, and with diligence to preserve the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.  There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all (Ephesians 4: 1-6).

The church, God’s “called out ones,” are called to witness to a troubled world what it means to be completely united in the marvelous ways Paul lists in this passage.  What makes this so beautiful is that God has made it possible through Christ for any person among all of the diversity of the human species to become a brother or sister with Christ!  But, don’t be mistaken, unity in the face of diversity represented by different ethnicity, gender, vocation, socioeconomic group, political persuasion, etc.  requires discipline.  And so, the Scriptures instruct Christ-followers-- with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, and with diligence to preserve the unity of the Spirit (Ephesians 4: 2-3).  Christ has provided the unity—we are to preserve it by the way we relate to our brothers and sisters in Christ regardless of color, gender, material wealth, etc.

Promising Hope for America and World
Personally, I have been very encouraged by the Scripture above from Ephesians 4: 1-6).  I thank God for convicting me of my need to surrender my will to Christ many years ago, and to receive the Eternal Life of Christ within me, giving me the disposition to want to love and please God through the gift of His righteousness.  But it has been a decades-long, imperfect process in order to grow as a member of the family of God with Jesus Christ as my brother.  Daily, I must commune with Him in prayer and “feed on His Word,” the bread of my spiritual life, without which I go hungry and become selfish.  i must also devote time to worship and serve with my spiritual family members in the life of our church.

One way to please God is to love my neighbor (Mark 12: 31).  The study of unity in the family of God described in this article has encouraged me to want to be a good neighbor to all those who cross my path—both unbelievers and Christ-followers.  Party politics and other human-centered activities, as important as they are, will be no more effective than the content of my character and that of others involved.  If God’s children want to make a difference, we must practice the Apostle Paul’s teaching and exercise humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love (Ephesians 4: 2).  The resulting unity of spirit which is best learned in our families and among God’s called-out ones, the church, must also be applied in our communities and in our workplaces. 

 Truly, the only hope of America and the world lies with each dedicated Christ-follower choosing to apply these principles as an expression of God’s love working in us.  In subsequent articles in this series, I hope to discuss some of the personal qualities that result when a Christ-follower purposefully seeks to follow Christ and walk as He walked.