PRÉCIS ON THE BIRTH OF CHRISTIAN NARCISSISM: COVID-19 AND THE CHURCH’S REJECTION OF CHRIST’S SECOND COMMANDMENT

SCRIPTURE. “Let each of you esteem and look upon and be concerned for not [merely] his own interests, but also each for the interests of others.” – PHILIPPIANS 2:4, AMPC

KEY TERM: “OTHER.” ‘Heteros’ [ἕτερος]: “Another, a second; ‘one’s neighbor;’

different, strange; emphasizes dissimilarities; of another kind, form, line, or family; foreign; qualitatively different from its counterpart (comparison); not having the same nature [or origin]; one contrary or in opposition to [as with one’s enemy].”

QUOTATION. “One’s only rival is one’s own potentialities. One’s only failure is failing to live up to one’s own possibilities. In this sense, every man can be a king, and must therefore be treated like a king.” ― ABRAHAM MASLOW, Author & Father of Humanistic Psychology, Toward a Psychology of Being, 1962; edited

COMMENTARY. “‘Look not every man on his own things.’ — This verse similarly describes the positive effect of this ‘being of one mind’ as ‘consisting in power of understanding and sympathy towards the things of others’ — not merely the interests, but also the ideas and feelings of others. To ‘look upon’ here is something more than ‘to seek’ (as in Philippians 2:21). It expresses that insight into the thoughts, hopes, aspirations of others, which only ‘a self-forgetting love’ can give, as well as the care to consider their welfare and happiness. Yet by the word ‘also’ we see that St. Paul does not, in the spirit of some forms of Modern Transcendentalism, denounce all self-consciousness and self-love, as in a bad sense ‘selfish.’ For man is individual as well as social; he can subordinate ‘his own things’ to ‘the things of others,’ but cannot ignore them.” – CHARLES ELLICOTT, An Old and New Testament Commentary for English Readers, 1878, 1897; edited

DK. When the Covid-19 Plague exploded around the world and here in America, we saw things we had never witnessed before: Hospitals completely overwhelmed with patients dying in the halls on makeshift gurneys; dead bodies being stacked in refrigerator trucks parked in alleyways behind the hospital; families ripped apart by the rapid loss of loved ones; and exhausted medical workers pleading, begging Americans:

 “Please, get vaccinated!”

And yet, and yet: Christians nationwide under the leadership of despicable pastors and renegade, “conservative” media shock jocks increasingly galvanized a national campaign against government mandates to close businesses and churches until the plague subsided. Their battle cry? A quasi-Constitutional and fully anti-

Biblical:

“My rights, by God!”

And millions of Americans would die in their barbaric wake. The National Library of Medicine issued this salvo on October 2, 2021, in these regards.

“‘Understanding ‘COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy and Uptake’ is vital for informing public health interventions.’ Prior U.S. research has found that ‘Religious Conservatism is positively associated with Anti-Vaccine attitudes.’ ‘One of the strongest predictors of Anti-Vaccine attitudes in the U.S. is “Christian Nationalism” — a U.S. cultural ideology that wants civic life to be permeated by their particular form of Nationalist Christianity.’

However, there are no studies examining the relationship between Christian Nationalism and COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy and Uptake. Using a new nationally representative sample of U.S. adults, we find that ‘Christian Nationalism is one of the strongest predictors of COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy’ and is negatively associated with having received or planning to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. Since Christian Nationalists make up approximately 20 percent of the population, these findings could have important implications for achieving herd immunity.”

NARCISSUS. “In Greek mythology, Narcissus was a hunter from Thespiae in Boeotia who was known for his beauty which was noticed by all, regardless of gender. According to the best known version of the story, by Ovid, Narcissus rejected all advances, eventually falling in love with a reflection in a pool of water, tragically not realizing its similarity, entranced by it. In some versions he beat his breast purple in agony at being kept apart from this reflected love, and in his place sprouted a flower bearing his name. The character of Narcissus is the origin of the term ‘Narcissism,’ a self-centered personality style. This quality in extreme contributes to the definition of Narcissistic Personality Disorder, a psychiatric condition marked by grandiosity, excessive need for attention and admiration, and an inability to empathize.” – EDITORS, Wikipedia, Dec. 11, 2023; edited

As of December 2023, 1,190,000 Americans have died from the Virus. Currently, the CDC (that Christian Nationalists repudiate as part of a Grand Conspiracy to control and kill us), over 11,000 patients have been recently hospitalized by a dominant Covid variant called HV1, including subvariants of Omicron such as EG5, XBB 1.16.6, and XBB 1.16.11. I continue to hear from personal friends in this Fellowship who are suffering greatly from this new wave of Covid.

Into this Maelstrom of Christian Rebellion, JESUS SPEAKS: “‘and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul (life), and with all your mind (thought, understanding), and with all your strength.’ This is the second: ‘You shall [unselfishly] love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” – MARK 12:30-31, AMP

I am left with only ONE QUESTION: Under what sun in the entire Universe is the meaning of this not absolutely, inarguably, crystal clear as the Centerpiece of the Gospel and the Biblical Canon? Anybody, anybody at all. I thought not.

God help the American Church to rediscover her King, lest she be cast into Outer Darkness, where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth forever and ever.