WWUTT 1275 Q&A To Mask or Not to Mask? That is the Question

Masking, Christian Liberty, and the Context of 2 Corinthians 3

Does the Bible say anything about wearing masks? What about Christian liberty issues? What if your church requires you to wear a mask? What if the government says you have to wear one to go to church?

These questions and others when we understand the text.

This is when we understand the text celebrating five years of podcasting. As we study the Bible each day to help encourage your time in the word. For more resources, check out our website at www .utt .com.

And once again, it's Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky. You're welcome. Welcome to week 23 of two weeks to slow the spread. Yes. We're in this together, everybody. We're gonna make it. Yes. Everybody doing okay out there? I hope so. Actually kind of scary some of the things that are going on and we're gonna talk about that today.

I feel like I've got some severe case of cabin fever going on, like I fight it. They have more places open now. Yeah, in our community. In our area, but they require so many masks and I'm like, I'm not putting the kids through that.

For children, all of them keeping the masks on, breathing through them, doing all that stuff. I don't know how they're gonna do that at schools when they do the in-person schools. I just, I feel bad for them.

I'm praying for them. Right, well, there's some good news coming out of this. USA Today, so you're even talking about a secular source, did a survey and 60 of American parents are considering homeschooling their kids this school year instead of sending them to school.

That's, yeah, I hear a lot of feedback about it. The parents just not feeling like it's safe. People think that the masks are safe, but they're also not safe whenever you're sick and you're wearing a mask.

Because you're, I mean, you know.

And that's something we're gonna talk about today here. They're actually not safe at all. We're gonna look at some of that information and hearing some of the stories about it as well. But beginning with Psalm 90, Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.

So as you're forced to shelter in place, the Lord is our dwelling place. Before the mountains were brought forth or ever you had formed the earth and the world from everlasting to everlasting, you are God.

May we continue to place our trust and our hope in him for none of these things that are taking place are beyond his reach or beyond his control. And of course, we're dealing with the shelter in place orders and mask orders and you can't go to church and different sorts of things that are happening depending on where you live here in the country.

But there are things to a much crazier degree happening in other parts of the world. Definitely. And we don't want to forget our brothers and sisters struggling in many other ways. I don't know if you've been keeping up with the kind of stuff that's going on in Lebanon right now, but we need to keep our brothers and sisters there in prayer.

You're talking about over 300 ,000 people are left homeless as a result of that blast that happened last week. That's crazy. When the storage of the ammonium nitrate there in that harbor ignited and there was that massive blast.

I think we've all seen the various videos from various angles of the fire and then the explosion that resulted from that. So we want to pray for the missionaries that are on the ground there, the different governments that are working to try to help with the recovery efforts.

Things just went from bad to worse when the entire governing cabinet there in Lebanon resigned. So they're on the verge of becoming a failed state. Oh man. If the government, the governing order doesn't get their ducks in a row.

I haven't heard all that. Yeah, so a really rough thing going on in Lebanon. So we cannot forget what's going on. I think all of us are perfectly fine with shelter in place and mask orders considering the things that are happening in Lebanon.

A great way to keep up with some of this stuff is to listen to the world and everything in it. This is probably my number one go-to podcast right now for international news. I would say I'm listening to it more than the briefing with Albert Mueller now.

So check that out. It is put together by, if you're familiar with World Magazine, they have the podcast half an hour long. Now I'd been listening to it on RefNet anyway, but then it was just kind of like, well, sometimes I miss it on RefNet, so I just got to subscribe.

Yeah, just pull it up. Yep, listen to it on a pretty regular basis now. And they also do, what was the one that you and the kids would watch in the morning? World News at three.

Yeah, World News in three. Yeah. Which is like three or four minutes.

Yeah, it's real short, but family friendly. Definitely. Kids can watch. Brian Basham hosts that one, and his wife Megan is on the World and Everything in it. So apparently news is in the blood in that family.

Today we're actually gonna be talking about masks, and that has to do with the first couple of questions we're gonna get to here in just a moment. I wanna come back to Lou and Evelyn from Poland. Remember reading from them last week?

We answered a homeschool question from them. You did some research into. I did a little bit, yeah. Into the Monarch curriculum, I believe it was. So Pastor Gabe and Becky, thank you for all the information that you provided for us on the podcast about Monarch and homeschooling in general.

It is greatly appreciated. Just wanted to clarify that we were not the couple that had written before about the Bob Jones curriculum. Ah, okay. That was a different couple. I remember that later. The previous email was regarding discernment and Pentecostals.

Thank you for clearing that up as well. So appreciate you listening in Poland. And all of our international listeners, don't forget to tell somebody about when we understand the text. Yes. That's how the word gets out about us, is you sharing it on Facebook or telling a friend about it or something.

We've never paid for advertising. That's what I was gonna say, yeah.

We don't pay for advertising, so it's all by word of mouth. That's right. I mean, we pay for a booth at G3 occasionally.

And that has actually increased listenership. Yeah, it has. Every time we've been to G3, when we look at like the statistics on our podcast, it's gone up a little bit. So we can see that we've gained some listeners from the people that we met and interacted with there at G3, which isn't gonna be until October of next year now.

But we've got Yeah, Lord willing, amen to that. But we've got the Cruciform Conference coming up, and that you can find out more details about by going to, well, just go to Facebook and look up Cruciform Conference, because I think that's where they send everybody.

Coming up in October, and you can register through their Facebook page. I'm gonna be speaking there. Michelle Leslie, whose name comes up on our podcast pretty regularly. Justin Peters will be there. Jeff Johnson.

Other names I can't remember off the top of my head. A bunch of people you're excited about.

Lots of great names, that's right. Yeah, I don't remember who all's gonna be there. I just remember dates. It's at the end of October. Becky's terrible with names. I am.

But she's good with dates. I'm getting there. Working on it. So speaking of dates, two weeks ago, we were celebrating five years of podcasting. Last week, we were talking about five years, or 10 years of marriage, five years of marriage.

10 years of marriage. And this coming, well, it's tomorrow for me, is gonna be 10 years of pastoral ministry. I was ordained on August the 15th of 2010. I've been in ministry since I was seven, when I had my first radio show on a Christian radio station.

That's true. Yeah, but as far as pastoral ministry goes, this is 10 years for me. And it's been wonderful. Thanks for being a part of it every step of the way, babe. You're welcome. This was your idea.

Yeah.

For those of you who know that story. And a shout out to your dad for happy birthday. Yeah, happy birthday to him.

I can't remember if he turns 69 or 70 tomorrow, because I can't remember if he was born in 50 or 51. But it's one of those two. I don't, I'm not that good at these. You don't remember? I even talked to him on the phone yesterday and I forgot to ask him what year this was for him.

So 69 or 70, he's hitting one of those two tomorrow.

Well, it depends. Is he as old as your Uncle Mark? Oh, I don't know that. I don't know how old Uncle Mark is. He turned 70. Well, I don't know.

Hi, Uncle Mark, happy birthday. No, that was about a month ago. Oh, okay. Like I said, Becky keeps up with dates. I'm working on it. I'm the one that keeps up with the names here. If you would like to submit a question, we respond to those questions on the Friday edition of the broadcast, and you can email us when we understand the text at gmail .com.

2 Corinthians 3 and 4 Do Not Teach Masking in Church

This first question here comes from Chris, and he says, Pastor Gabe, could you make a what video about 2 Corinthians 3, 18 and 4, 6, and whether they are relevant to inform our decision regarding wearing face masks at church.

The context begins in 2 Corinthians 3, verse seven. If you have some initial thoughts, please share them with me. And I told Chris, I don't know that I've got the chance to get to a video on this. I'm about to actually do a series on race.

So if the mask question's still relevant when I'm done with that, then maybe I'll get to it. But yeah, 2 Corinthians chapter three, let's start reading in verse seven. And we'll kind of establish our context here.

And then we'll talk about this, how this relates to face masks. Where does this even come from? Okay. So 2 Corinthians 3, seven. Now, if the ministry of death carved in letters on stone came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses' face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end, will not the ministry of the spirit have even more glory?

For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory. Indeed, in this case, what once had glory has come to have no glory at all because of the glory that surpasses it.

For if what was being brought to an end came with glory, much more will what is permanent have glory. What are we talking about here?

The glory on Moses' face as he's dying. No, not as he's dying. No, it was As he's passing away. Well, yeah. It does. It does.

You're right. It means that I was listening. It means that the old covenant is passing away related to the law. Oh, okay. So when Moses was in the presence of God on the mountain, receiving the law, that glory

Oh, this is then. Yeah, I know. I did, I kind of started in verse seven. Yeah, okay.

Okay, so he came down from the mountain.

He was coming down off the mountain with the stone tablets. Okay, and that's that part. Previously in verse three, it says, "'You show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink, but with the spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts.

Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God, not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything is coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter, I'm sorry, but of the spirit, for the letter kills, but the spirit gives life.'".

And so then we start talking about Moses coming down off Mount Sinai with the 10 commandments. Okay. And while he was in the presence of God to receive the law, even that was of such glory that when he came down off of the mountain, his face was glowing and the Israelites couldn't even look at him.

Right. So now we are ministers of a new covenant that's even greater than the old. That covenant was passing away. Even as Moses was coming off the mountain, that covenant was passing away because we're coming to the fulfillment, which is in Christ Jesus, who fulfills that covenant.

And now through the spirit, we have the law of God written on our hearts, not on stone tablets outside of us, but written on our hearts. Right. Okay? Okay. So that's the context. That's what we're talking about here.

If what was being brought to an end came with glory, much more will what is permanent, that which is in the spirit have glory.

Okay. So like what's eternal. Right.

Exactly. Yeah. There's more glory in what is eternal than that which was temporary. Right. Because the law is not going to be in heaven. Right. We're not following a law in heaven. Right. Because we'll be perfect.

Right. We won't have to have the law. Yes. Okay. So even now we are not under the law, but under grace, because we're under the new covenant, which is an even greater glory. So anyway, going on. Verse 12.

Since we have such a hope, we are very bold, not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end, but their minds were hardened.

For to this day, when they read the old covenant, the same veil remains unlifted because only through Christ is it taken away. Yes. To this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts. But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed.

Now the Lord is the spirit and where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.

For this comes from the Lord, who is the spirit. Okay. So there's our context. Okay. That's pretty much all of 2 Corinthians chapter three. Okay. Now Chris was asking about verse 18. Could you make a what video about 2 Corinthians 3 .18 and whether they are relevant to inform our decision regarding wearing face masks at church.

So what was verse 18? Verse 18 was. The veil. And we all with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord, who is the spirit.

The last verse there in chapter three. Chris also mentioned chapter four, verse six. And there it says, for God who said let light shine out of darkness has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

That one doesn't seem to be so clear regarding anything about masks. In fact, you may be listening to this going, well, none of that is clear regarding face masks. What does that have to do with face masks?

This is where this comes from. So this was kind of the hoopla that was started on Twitter over this whole thing. A pastor by the name of TJ Tims, lead pastor of Emanuel Church in Nashville. He said the following, which was retweeted by several evangelical ministers as a legitimate reason for why we need to be wearing masks in church.

He said, if Jesus can veil his glory and become a servant for us, then it's a privilege to veil our noses and mouths in order to serve others. You got it? No. So then at the Mount of Transfiguration with Peter, James, and John, Jesus up on the mountain, that veil was removed and his glory was revealed to Peter, James, and John.

Right. So Jesus becoming God in human flesh is apparently a theological argument for why we need to veil our mouths and noses when we go to church. Because if Jesus can veil himself, we need to veil ourselves.

But if you're gonna use 2 Corinthians 3 to argue for that, I could use 2 Corinthians 3 to argue for why you don't need a mask. To this day, whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their hearts. So you're wearing a mask because you have a hardened heart.

But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. We're coming together as a church to praise God. Take your veil off. So yeah, if you wanna use this text, Isogetically, and what I just did there was Isogetical too.

I'm not saying this text means take your mask off. Right. But if you wanna use it to say you have to wear a mask, I can use the same text to say, nope. It actually tells you not to.

Yep. That's what Isogetical does.

Yeah, that's what Isogesis does, exactly. If you can take your meaning and impose it on the text, well, I can take my meaning and impose it on the text. Exactly. So that's where all of that goes. And really, that's about as far as I need to go in answering that question.

So Chris, I hope that that helps you out and maybe gives you a fair answer that you can offer to somebody else whenever they try to give you some sort of biblical rationale for why we need to be wearing masks with one another.

Wear a mask if you want to, don't wear a mask if you don't want to. The only solid biblical case that I think that I have read regarding to wear a mask or not to wear a mask was given by R. Scott Clark and it was in his Heidel blog.

This was back in, let's see, I think it was in July that he wrote this. I don't have a date on this, but it's called Of Masks and the Weaker Brothers. And so what he does is he uses the freedom principles, the Christian liberty principles that we have in Romans chapter 14 as to whether or not you should wear a mask.

And one of the things that the Apostle Paul says, and this is in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, he says, all things are lawful, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful, but not all things build up.

Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor. Eat whatever is sold in the meat market without raising any question on the ground of conscience. For the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof.

Now, Dr. Clark is using that text and of course the liberty principles in Romans chapter 14 to say that we who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak. And so if we know that by our liberty, we don't have to wear a mask, yet for the weakness of our neighbor, we should put on a mask so that we're not a hindrance to anybody, or even that as Christians, we come across as being unloving to those who are weaker in conscience because we're wearing a mask or we're not wearing a mask.

And so they, well, you don't love your neighbor because you're not wearing a mask. Right. Okay. But here's the thing about that. You could argue even this principle from both sides. I think that Dr. Clark makes a good biblical argument.

I think it's the best biblical argument that I've read for wearing a mask in this particular blog. But I still think you can argue it from both sides. What if the one wearing the mask is the one who is considered stronger and the one without the mask is the one that's considered weaker?

So wouldn't the one who is wearing the mask who considers himself strong in conscience be the one to take off his mask for the sake of the person who is not wearing the mask? Some people because of their health ailments can't wear a mask.

Right. I actually, I can't do the mask. Now I've been in places where I wear a bandana. Like if I have to go to the grocery store and they're requiring masks in order to come in and shop. I'm gonna go in because I need to buy milk and eggs.

I gotta get groceries for the family. And so I put the bandana on because it's much easier to breathe through than putting the cloth mask on. Putting the cloth mask on messes my voice up and you know how much I need my voice.

Yeah. I mean, even wearing it five or 10 minutes, it exhausts, no pun intended really, my vocal cords. Yeah. And I don't have the stamina to make it through the rest of my day doing some of the things that I have to do in my recording.

So I can't wear the cloth mask. Actually for the job that I do, it is not helpful. It's harmful to me. So I wear the bandana just so I don't have to answer any questions about that. And I don't feel like my breathing is being hindered by the bandana, unlike the cloth mask.

So look at this from the other angle. What if the person who is not wearing the mask is the weaker brother? Where the person wearing the mask is the stronger. So like I said, this is the best biblical case that I think that I've heard that Dr. Clark presents, but you could argue this the other way too.

You know? I get it. Okay, so to wear the mask or not to wear the mask, like I said, if you want to, wear it. If you don't want to, then don't. Be prepared that you're gonna get ridicule one way or the other.

Oh yes, definitely.

We are in the midst of mask wars right now. It is just absurd.

And everybody has their opinion and everybody is correct on their opinion. And you cannot convince them otherwise, really, because it's their opinion. Right, yeah.

And you can't tread on my feelings. Yeah, well, see another principle that's mentioned here in Romans chapter 14, welcome the one who is weak in the faith, but not to quarrel over opinions. Right.

So we're using. But my opinions are truth. Yeah, of course, right.

But we're using the principles of Romans 14 to say you should wear a mask. Right. I mean, and again, you could also use the principles of Romans 14 to not wear a mask. Don't quarrel over opinions. If a person is absolutely convinced that they should not be wearing the mask and you think that they're making that argument because they're weak in the faith,.

Don't quarrel over opinions. So basically what you are saying is right now in today's society, it should be evident on who is a Christian and who is not. Based on whether or not they wear a mask? No, based on whether or not they're quarreling.

Probably.

I wouldn't say that's absolutely the case because I mean, the quarreling person could just be in a state of stumbling. You know what I mean? Doesn't mean that they don't have faith. But the person who is constantly quarrelsome, yeah, maybe so.

Maybe they're revealing something about themselves and they need to examine themselves to see if they're really in the faith. Okay. As the apostle Paul puts it in 2 Corinthians 13.

So just to self-check time. Yeah. It's a time of self-reflecting and just to make sure that you are where you should be. Yeah, at the present,.

It's a condition that we probably won't be in in 2021. We hope. To be quite frank. Yeah, God willing. But consider that the apostle Paul's instructions to Timothy was not to quarrel over opinions. 2 Timothy 2, 23 have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies.

You know that they breed quarrels and the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome, but kind to everyone, able to teach and patiently enduring evil. To Titus, Paul said, speak evil of no one, avoid quarreling, be gentle and show perfect courtesy to all people.

And we have in James chapter four, where it says, what causes quarrels and fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? And so here you, the constant delving into quarrels is a result of responding from your flesh.

Definitely. Not a result of responding from the spirit of God, which the fruit of the spirit should be producing gentleness, self-control. Right. You know, these are among the fruit of the spirit that we have mentioned for us in Galatians chapter five.

So it's your constant quarreling over masks. First of all, it's a completely trivial issue. Right. Now everybody is making it an essential issue, Republican or Democrat, whether you're talking about political or you're talking about wearing masks in church.

Everybody is turning this into something major and essential. Listen to this. This was just from yesterday. This is Joe Biden, who of course is the leading candidate for president of the United States in the Democratic Party.

And he just this past week nominated Kamala Harris as his vice presidential running mate. So just yesterday, here's what Joe Biden said about wearing masks.

I've put out a comprehensive plan over the last three months on each of these things, but today I want to talk about one thing, very straightforward. Doesn't have anything to do with Democrats, Republicans or independents.

It has to do with a simple proposition. Every single American should be wearing a mask when they're outside for the next three months at a minimum. Every governor should mandate, every governor should mandate mandatory mask wearing.

The estimates by the experts are it will save over 40 ,000 lives in the next three months. 40 ,000 lives that people act responsibly. And it's not about your rights. It's about your responsibilities as an American.

So consider some of the things that he said here. So first of all, every single American should be wearing a mask when they are outside for the next three months at minimum. Where did he get that three months from?

November, hmm.

Because November is the end of the semester or something is what they were saying about schools. Because there is something about, the November was mentioned before and then it was questioned why November?

Is it because of the election? And they're like, because it's the end of the semester. Uh-huh, sure. And it's like, no, the end of the semester is in December. I don't know where you go to school at, but whatever.

The next three months from now.

Is gonna be mid-August to mid-November. That's three months. Wait until the election is over and then you can de-mask. I don't know, that just sounds funny to me. Outside though. Even when you're outside, yes.

Every single American should be wearing a mask when they are outside for the next three months.

I get it whenever you're at a riot and whenever you're in close proximity to people. When you're in a riot.

Well, you know what I mean? I think it's funny that you said that instead of when you go to a peaceful protest.

Oh yes, I'm sorry. I am not politically correct over here. Excuse me, a peaceful protest. You need to go to a peaceful protest.

One of those protests where the CNN reporter has flames and buildings burning down around him and he's going, but this is all peaceful back here.

Over here, they are just so peaceful. Nothing to see here, folks. Yes, I understand they're close, they're breathing on each other and that sort of thing. Okay, sure, wear a mask. Because you're basically inside at that point.

But out and about. Yeah, just walking around. We could be six feet apart still outside. Even further apart, really.

I just don't understand. So also in here, he says, the estimates by the experts are that it will save over 40 ,000 lives. I'm calling baloney on that. That's completely subjective. There's no way you can prove that.

And we're gonna talk about some of these mask results, like what the science actually says about this here in just a moment. Last statement, it's not about your rights. It's about your responsibility.

I'm having a hard time swallowing that one.

You can justify absolutely any order under that principle. It's not about your rights. It's about your responsibility. And I feel like even when it comes to the Christian liberty discussion, that many ministers are saying that same thing.

It's not about your freedom. It's about your responsibility. I'm sorry, I'm not buying that. You're sorry? Are you really? Becky hates that. I hate that. Saying I'm sorry, just like in a sarcastic manner.

That is nails on a chalkboard. You gotta mean it when you say I'm sorry. But yeah, same thing. Same principle there. You're just saying that can justify anything. It's not about your rights. It's about your responsibility.

Well, what about masks are actually safe? Are they effective when we're wearing them, whether we're outside or whether we are indoors? Is the media actually telling us everything that we need to know about masks?

Absolutely not. Some of you already know that at the beginning of this whole pandemic, I call it the COVID crisis. It's really more of a crisis. Yeah, I would agree with that. It has certainly caused a crisis.

It is not as widespread as we thought it was going to be as a pandemic. It is less than a fraction of what we thought it was gonna be from the very beginning. But at the start of this whole thing, you know that you had medical experts coming out, being interviewed on the news.

Fauci was one of them, Dr. Fauci. Even he, in interviews, was saying that the masks are not effective. It can catch particles from in the air. It can cause you to mess with your face more. And so they were already worried about the transmission of COVID through the eyes by scratching your eyes and things like that.

And that's still a concern. But that's one way that it gets into, it can potentially be getting into your body. You had Oh, that's why the goggles. That's why, yeah, Dr. Fauci then later said, hey, wear goggles, because then it prevents it from getting into your eyes.

I just say, if you're wearing the mask, you're wearing goggles, you're just blowing it right up into your eyes. Yeah, pretty much. That's all you're doing. And he said the N95 masks, which really were the only effective kind of mask, needed to be saved for the medical personnel anyway.

And they're still saying that. One of the world's leading epidemiologists I listened to at the start of this whole thing, and the question was asked of him, do the gloves and the masks work? And he said, no, probably not.

And I mean, this is a guy who studies infectious diseases. And to this day, he's still saying that. He's still saying that they're probably not effective. There's not been enough studies done on COVID -19 because this virus is so new.

It's a novel coronavirus. So therefore we don't have the kind of research that we can definitely point to it and say that it's not effective. But based on what we know about other diseases that act the same way, the masks and gloves are ineffective.

With that in mind, there was a study that came out in May, and it was published by the Center of Disease Control, the CDC, which according to everybody, the CDC is leading the charge on you must mask up and you have to do whatever the CDC says.

You even have, who was it? Susan Cadone of the ERLC saying that any pastor that would even question whether or not church meetings really violate CDC guidelines, chances are that pastor also likely disputes the seriousness of sexual abuse and domestic violence in the church.

Oh my goodness. That's absurd. That's slander. That is awful. To even question whether or not we can be wearing masks when we go to church and equating that with questioning a sexual assault victim. I know, it's awful.

But this is what the mask wars have turned us into. It's turned us into constantly accusing one another and suspecting each other of evil when 1 Timothy 6 explicitly tells teachers to avoid this kind of quarrel.

Oh my goodness. Anyone who does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and teaches a different doctrine instead of the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing.

He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction. Among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth.

So this goes back to what you were saying earlier of does this not reveal a person who probably isn't saved when they're willing to quarrel over things like that and even make those kinds of accusations of their brothers and sisters in the Lord that equating, well, you're not wearing a mask, maybe you would even doubt a person who says that they're a sexual assault victim.

That's terrible. That is incredible. So anyway, and oh, by the way, I did email the ERLC about that comment twice and never got a response. So they know about it, but never replied to my appeals for do something about comments like this that are coming from people even from within the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission.

Going back to the CDC study, this was published in May. It's the Emerging Infectious Disease Journal, volume 26, number five. And the article was entitled, Non-Pharmaceutical Measures for Pandemic Influenza in Non-Healthcare Settings, Personal Protective Environmental Measures.

So they're studying influenza and whether or not wearing masks will help to prevent the spread of influenza. Also in the study, it was like cleaning surfaces, distancing from one another, not going to certain places, all of this different kind of etiquette measures.