Religion & Politics

One of the first deaths of a Virginian from coronavirus was a 66-year-old Christian "musical evangelist" who fell ill while on a trip to New Orleans with his wife. As the Friendly Atheist's Bo Gardiner points out, Landon Spradlin had previously shared opinions that the pandemic was the result of "mass hysteria" from the media.

"You are a holy, righteous God who reigns, and all the evil darts that the secularist journalists, etc., would like to use to poke at us would be thwarted."

Dave Kubal, who runs the pro-Trump prayer warrior group Intercessors for America, hosted congressional and Cabinet Bible study teacher Ralph Drollinger on a special prayer call Wednesday afternoon. During call, which took place amid congressional wrangling over legislation to mitigate the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic, Drollinger denounced efforts by members of Congress with an “evil secular mindset” to include what he called “evil pork” in the legislation.

President Donald Trump is barreling through with his plan to "open the country" despite the fact that coronavirus infections will likely not even have peaked by then. In a Fox News interview Tuesday afternoon the President praised himself for choosing Easter as the day he thinks Americans can return to work. Medical experts suggest if restrictions are relaxed too soon many more may contract COVID-19 and could die.

According to classic interpretations of the Jewish and Christian Bibles, a Canaanite deity named Moloch demanded the sacrifice of children. There is a long history of writing about this bloodthirsty god spanning the ancient world to John Milton’s Paradise Lost to Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl” to modern social commentators. One recurring point is that the depravity of Moloch was reflected in his insatiable lust for innocent flesh. 

The Coronavirus is changing America’s religious landscape as social distancing forces most religious communities to cancel in-person services and invent new online forms of worship. One might assume that Satanists would be unaffected by social distancing or even take a misanthropic delight in it. 

On March 18, 2020, at 7:09 in the morning, residents of Salt Lake City and the surrounding counties of northern Utah awoke to a 5.7 magnitude earthquake that struck 10 miles outside the city. Fortunately, there appears to have been no loss of life, although there was some property damage throughout the area. The iconic Salt Lake City Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints faced only minor damage. The 12-foot angel standing on the building’s highest tower was shaken to such an extent that the trumpet once positioned to its lips was dislodged and plummeted to the base of the spire. Coincidentally, the building had closed on December 29, 2019, for renovation and a seismic upgrade. 

In the Middle East, where the three main monotheistic faiths shape daily life, the coronavirus pandemic has seen religious leaders support constraints unthinkable just a few weeks ago.

Although Mainland China is no longer the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, President Donald Trump and his supporters in right-wing media continue to use rhetoric like “Chinese virus” and “Wuhan virus.” And Eugene Cho, an evangelical pastor based in Seattle, is calling him out for it.

Evangelist Alveda King told Fox News viewers on Sunday that the novel coronavirus is part of a "plot" to unleash "biological warfare" on the planet.

The leader of the free world urged people to pray as he continues to receive harsh criticism for his response to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.

The National Geographic revealed in a story on Friday that what the Museum of the Bible has claimed are fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls are a complete fraud.

On March 10, President Trump retweeted a post from conservative political activist Charlie Kirk, who referred to the coronavirus (COVID-19) as the “China Virus.“ Kirk also exclaimed in his tweet, “Now, more than ever, we need the wall…the US stands a chance if we can get control of our borders.” Trump retweeted this and added the comment, “Going up fast. We need the wall more than ever!”

Alabama is the latest state to reconsider its stance on yoga, as reported by The New York Times earlier this week (an article for which I was interviewed). The 1993 Alabama State Department of Education Administrative Code prohibits public school personnel from using “any techniques that involve the induction of hypnotic states, guided imagery, meditation or yoga,” and defines yoga as “a Hindu philosophy and method of religious training in which eastern meditation and contemplation are joined with physical exercises, allegedly to facilitate the development of body-mind-spirit.”