Four Reasons to Wear a Mask...Not

Conversations That Matter

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Welcome to the Conversations That Matter podcast. My name is John Harris. This is a super short episode on masks.

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I actually have not done, it's still coming, my big episode on masks. And I'm gonna argue these points more fully.

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I might add some more points. We're gonna talk about lockdowns as well. It's not just masks.

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I mean, there's a whole bunch of things kind of running together here. But, you know, here's the deal.

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There's some people who have sent me this article from the Gospel Coalition. At least one person sent this one to me. But some other people have asked me, would you comment on the masks,

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John? I mean, I'm being clobbered over here. People are telling me I gotta love my neighbor so I have to have a mask.

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And some people don't wanna wear a mask. Some people, I realize there's an array of opinions on this.

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And I'm just gonna straight up give you mine. I'm not gonna fool around. I don't like wearing masks.

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I don't think many people do. But I don't think it does a whole lot of good. In fact,

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I think on a macro level, it actually, the studies that I keep seeing seem to suggest that it actually makes it worse, especially the way people are using cloth masks over and over.

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And it can, I know my mom's had issues even with having styes in her eyes, those kinds of things.

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A lot of people are having that issue because the bacteria from your mouth now, the mask, depending on how you wear it, it's hard to get a seal over your nose so it's going right into your eyelid.

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And I just, I don't think that this crisis merits a, it is not the mask itself that's the problem, but the mandate that every single person must wear a mask in many states.

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They are required to wear a mask. Again, I have no problem with businesses making decisions for what happens on their private property.

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If they want to do that, that's fine. And I will comply with that. I don't want to get businesses in trouble. But I am not,

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I don't think this is a good thing for society at all. I think that it is an opportunity to make people do what government wants them to do and follow the leader so the next time they'll follow the leader.

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It sets a precedent. And there's just a, you know, there's a few things,

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I think, philosophical things underlying this whole, it's not just the mask, but everything else that's going with this, this drastic, these drastic measures taken against the possibility of contracting

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COVID, which has a phenomenally, you know, high success rate as far as living.

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I mean, the death rate is very low. And if you're in some demographics, like the demographic that I'm in, it's virtually, you know, you have hardly a risk.

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But yet we're changing our whole entire way of life. Traditions in our culture that have been a mainstay for years are going out the window.

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I'm talking about legal tradition. The understanding of the relationship of the state to other aspects of society, like the church, like business.

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So I don't think this is a good thing. And I think it reveals, though, something about us that we supremely value the self, that we really do look at dying physically as just the worst possible thing that could ever happen.

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And this is, I think, a big change. Christians did not always view things that way. And especially those affected by Christianity in the

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West, they didn't view things that way. They were actually things that were more important than even living.

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And some of those things actually are the ability to have a business, run a business, make a living, have the dignity of work, have your children have that dignity.

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And I do feel that way. I know people have been made fun of for this, but I do believe that there are some things worth dying for.

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And I don't think, I'm not threatened by COVID, but I do think that we have a responsibility to take care of our families.

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Working is one of those things. That's the way we do it. That's the way God's ordained for us to do it. Post -curse, post -fall, that's how we do it.

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And government doesn't have the right to step in and say you can't do that. And this is a wholesale, you can't do that.

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This is a wholesale, you must shut down your business. Make no mistake, this isn't cutting around the edges.

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There's certain things that are dangerous that the government wants to come in and regulate. We can talk about that. This is ultimate totalitarian power that the government is grabbing here in some of these places.

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And that is how I feel about it. I'm just telling you right now. And I think it's a self -worship that this body that you have, that's the most important thing.

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And using that fear of losing that. Crying out to the gods, government, right?

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To the gods to do anything possible. Move mountains, sell our souls to China if we need to.

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Just make sure that we survive this pandemic. And of course the government's doing all the wrong things just about.

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So I'm just giving you straight up what I think. And I don't have a problem if someone wants to wear a mask.

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Again, masks are not the issue. It's the principles behind it. It's the mandate. It's the idea that the government has the authority.

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And specifically governors without the backing of actual laws in the legislature, by executive order, have the constitutional right in their states to do this kind of thing.

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That's the problem. So here's the Gospel Coalition article. Four reasons to wear a mask even if you hate it.

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Even if you hate it by Brent McCracken. And I'm just gonna skip ahead to the reasons. I'm gonna read you the reasons.

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I'm not gonna read the whole thing here. You can kind of guess probably what it says. To love your neighbor. Loving your neighbor.

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So he actually says, I'm frustrated that the science on masks during COVID -19 has been inconsistent. It's maddening.

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The consensus is emerging that wearing a mask does slow the survival. What consensus? What are we talking about?

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I haven't seen a study yet that shows this. And of course, now that we're having, since this article, this second or third, whatever it is, wave, did the masks and lockdowns really help?

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For Christians calling to love your neighbors as yourself, wearing a mask in public, particularly indoor spaces, seems like a relatively easy way to practice.

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So it's so easy. That's what you hear. What's the big deal? Well, if it's not a big deal, then why are you making it a big deal?

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The big deal is accepting the totalitarian foot in the door. That's the big deal. Number two, to respect authority.

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Okay, so I should say why I reject to love your neighbor before I go on here. Question. Is it loving your neighbor to engage in a lie with them?

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If this is true, and this is hypothetical, I haven't argued this whole point yet, but is it loving your neighbor to engage in a lie, to give them a false hope that this cloth over their nose and mouth is going to protect them, when in fact, it probably won't.

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It may even make the chances of them contracting this virus worse.

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Is that a loving thing to do, to engage in that? Is it a loving thing to do to set the precedent for your neighbor, that the government has this authority, the governors, who are despotic, who aren't even passing laws to get this through, just have the authority willy -nilly to tell you how you can live your life, down to this minute detail.

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I mean, at least with seatbelt laws, I don't think those are the greatest idea.

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And I can give you an example, actually, from the other day when I had to unbuckle my seatbelt because I might've had to jump out real quick.

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I've been in a situation like that before. I don't think seatbelt laws, I mean, I had to break the law then temporarily, right?

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But it was for my own safety. I'm not even for that. But I could argue for that better than this.

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And one of the reasons is because they had the decency to pass laws. But this is a whole new precedent.

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And it's playing off fear and these emergency powers. And I just don't know that it's loving your neighbor to engage in a lie and to let the totalitarian foot in the door that is threatening your neighbor, threatening the same power that is telling you to put on a mask is telling your neighbor to shut down their business so they can't feed their family.

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Is it loving your neighbor to force them and to require the government to force everyone to wear a mask in your presence?

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Or could you just avoid them? Make sure you're the one that's making the sacrifice so as not to, maybe their conviction is actually more dangerous with the mask.

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There are studies that suggest that. So which one is it?

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I mean, this is kind of, I mean, I'm not knocking someone who wants to do this for loving your neighbor, but I'm saying these other questions have not been asked.

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It's just assumed that that's the loving your neighbor. Meanwhile, though, you have a situation in which civil liberties are being lost, businesses are being crushed, family livelihoods that have been there, sometimes businesses in the family for years and years are gone.

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You have a government that is taking on more of a welfare state mentality. That's becoming,

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I mean, the precedent we set with sending out those checks, that relief package, I mean, oh goodness, the people that are my age and younger are gonna think that the government can just print money now.

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I mean, there's so many things that we're changing, we're upending, that we just can't go back.

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And I do see them as all connected. You don't see in scripture the quarantining of healthy people.

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And this isn't something that's been done, not for this length of time and not with these consequences, not at this scale ever.

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And so the concern is the same concern I brought up with social justice advocates, where they will go to a principle in scripture like love or justice, and they smuggle in all this other stuff and they don't go to the specifics.

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What does it look like to love neighbor? Well, it means to tell the truth. That's one of the things it means.

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It means to value things other than just your neighbor's life. Your neighbor is more than just a physical being.

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There's other things going on there as well. And there's other considerations to be made.

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Civil liberties matter, the kind of world their children are gonna grow up in matters. That gets factored into loving neighbor.

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And then what does the scripture say specifically about how to deal with an illness? And it's quarantining the people who are, and it's not in every illness, but in certain illnesses, it's quarantining people who are sick, not the entire healthy population.

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So going to Matthew 22, 39 to try to prove that loving your neighbor means wearing a mask.

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That's just, you know, okay, well, if that's your motive in doing it, then okay, but I would encourage you to think through this more.

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There's a lot of other things going on. And there's a reason this has become such a seismic, the battle lines have been drawn around this seismic crack, so to speak, this fault line.

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So it's much more than the masks. To respect authorities, that's the other reason you should wear masks. To respect authorities,

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Romans 13, of course, and we've been over this so many times. Again, I think I've already answered this one, kind of.

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You know, is it, what about unlawful authority? If the biggest bully comes into town and tells you to jump off a bridge, obviously, that's the one your parents always say when you go, well, hey, if Tommy told you to jump off a bridge, would you do it?

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Well, no, of course not, just because might doesn't make right. And, you know, what other things, what if the authorities told you that you need to make sure that you wear sunscreen?

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Because you get skin cancer and it costs the public health system money and, you know, who knows?

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It just takes resources away from other people and, you know, you could actually die if you let it go too far.

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And what about your children? And, you know, loving neighbor means you've got to put on sunscreen and wear a hat and authorities are requiring this because of the damage the sun can cause.

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I mean, you could, look, there's so many things. What's the government gonna require next? You know, is it gonna be your mom, you know, go put on a jacket when you go outside?

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You must, if the temperature falls between a certain level, you must have a jacket on. Here's the thing that I think adults in this country used to understand, there was cost, risk assessment.

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You do a cost -benefit analysis, but you do some risk assessment and you figure out, okay,

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I'm an adult, I can make a decision on this. It was within my lifetime that I saw a lot of states start doing the seatbelt thing and requiring bike helmets and stuff.

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And do they save a lot? They probably do. Like I said, I can think of examples where I was glad that I could get my seatbelt off real quick but is this in the purview of the government to force this kind of thing?

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Or is this something that adults can do themselves? Is this something that we're capable of?

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We're setting ourselves up for the nanny state on everything if we make this something that's mandated.

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So to respect authorities, I mean, I don't think there's a legitimate authority here. Not that I've seen, not according to the

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American legal system, not in the states that I've been in, there's no authority for the government to, the governor, to require everyone to wear a mask.

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And there's other things I could say. I could expand on that, I guess, a little bit. My thoughts aren't fully formed and I wanna hold off on, what if a law was passed by the legislature?

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That hasn't happened to my knowledge but that's something that I'll most likely answer in a later video.

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That's not where we are though right now. I'm just giving you the raw, here's where John's at, practically speaking, right this second.

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Number three, to honor the weak in our midst. Romans 14. Mask wearing has sadly become divisive in churches where masks are not mandatory.

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Some churchgoers will wear them, some won't. Predictably, the group will start assuming the worst about each other. Romans 14, 1

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Corinthians 8, Paul argues that in matters of freedom, it's important that the stronger Christians don't flaunt their freedom in ways that become stumbling blocks to the weak.

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So they're assigning, the mask wearer is the weaker brother in this case.

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I guess as a conscience issue. But that's okay, let them wear their masks. But if they enter a church and they're stronger brothers, the mask wearer naturally feels pressure to remove it.

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Well, that, the pressure honestly, guys, has worked in the opposite direction. You know, this is so interesting how they come about this.

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The pressure is to wear the mask most often. Not, everywhere I go in public, just about.

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The pressure, if there is any pressure, usually there's not. If it's in church, there's not.

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But if there is pressure, it's to wear the mask, depending on what state you're in and all that. So who's really the weaker and who's really the stronger brother?

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Who's the stronger brother when it comes to resisting tyranny?

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You know, this is kind of an arbitrary designation that they make here on the weaker and the stronger brother.

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And it is a bit out of context here too. I don't think you can take the Adiophra and just apply it to this.

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I think that specifically, now, if you wanna say there's a conscience issue and it's specifically about being tempted into violating your conscience, but, you know, some people, that would be the violation of conscience.

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They really wanna take a stand against this intrusion. And they believe that putting the mask on would be against their conscience.

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What do you say to them? So that doesn't work. Number four, to use freedom for the sake of the gospel.

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This one's gotta be, this is so typical gospel coalition, right, to say this. American Christians are sometimes prone to understanding freedom in a way more shaped by the

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U .S. Constitution rather than by the Bible. Okay, well, show me where the Bible and the U .S. Constitution are in disagreement.

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But it's no knock on the beauty and legitimacy of man -made freedoms to suggest that scripture sometimes calls us to give up these freedoms.

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Okay, man -made freedoms. Yeah, this person does not understand our system of government. It's not supposed to be based on man -made freedoms.

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That's the very concept of an inalienable right is that this isn't from man. This is from God, and this is something that actually is worth defending, even with your life at times, and that has happened.

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So this is basic just fail from the beginning. Paul seems to give up his freedom for the sake of loving others.

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For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win some, win more, win more of them.

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And that's in 1 Corinthians 8. In 1 Corinthians 9, to the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I become all things to all people, that I might win some, for the sake of the gospel.

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So they're saying there's missional power in this. Now let's go, let's real quick, let's go to 1 Corinthians 8. See what verses, 13, 19, 20.

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So let's start verse, let's see. Do I say the, we'll go back up.

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This is my defense to those who would examine me. This is verse three, 1 Corinthians 9. Do we have the right to eat and drink?

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Do we not have the right to take along a believing wife, as do the other apostles and brothers of the Lord in Cephas?

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Or is it only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working for a living?

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So what's he talking about there? That he has the right to work, to work for a living.

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Who serves as a soldier at his own expense, plants a vineyard without eating any of its fruit, or tends a flock without getting some of the milk?

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Do I say these things on human authority? Does not the law say the name, say the same?

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For it is written in the law of Moses, you shall not muzzle an ox as it treads out the grain. Interesting that he brings up a case law from the

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Old Testament. I wonder if the Old Testament case laws on quarantine and sickness would apply.

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Does he not certainly speak for our sake? It was written for our sake, because the plowman should plow in hope that the thresher thresh in hope for sharing the crop.

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If we have some spiritual things among you, it is too much if we reap material things from you.

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If others share this rightful claim on you, do not we even more. Nevertheless, we have not made use of this right, but we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ.

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So what are they saying here? They deserve to get paid, to put it bluntly.

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They have the right to get paid, they've worked, but they're actually gonna forego that, in some respect here.

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Do you not know that those who are employed in the temple service get their food from the temple? So he's constantly, he's arguing this.

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In the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living from the guy of the gospel. But I have made no use of any of these rights, nor am

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I willing these things to secure any such provision, for I would rather die than anyone deprive me of my ground for boasting, for I preach the gospel.

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So here's the main thing. Let's see, he goes in verse 19. Though I am free from all,

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I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became a Jew in order to win the Jews. To those under the law

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I became as under the law. So what he's trying to do is not cause an offense. To the customs, that would offend the

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Jews. That's the I have become all things to all people. I'm trying to not become an unnecessary offense to people.

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And for the Jews, that might mean, that's doing things that would be contrary to the things that they would have grown up with in their civil, not their civil, but their ceremonial law.

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Things that made them distinctly Jewish. So his main point in this whole passage, though, is like, here's why

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I am foregoing things that I know, and it's a personal choice of his. Things that would be due to me.

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Things that would be natural for me to claim as my own. I'm not gonna do that because I have a higher goal and a purpose here.

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Now, is this a universal call? Do you see that in what I just read? A universal call to surrender, on principle, all some rights that exist.

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All the ability to provide for yourself. That's a responsibility God has given us.

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And Paul's obviously fulfilling that in other ways. He's a tent maker. So it's not like he's not still working somewhere, but he's choosing himself not to take a payment for preaching the gospel when he would be within his rights to do so.

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And that's a donation, is what that is. I mean, we do this all the time in other ways. Donating your time, donating your work.

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Someone could accuse you of wanting to do something for sordid gain. Have you ever had that? Someone said, well, you're just getting an advantage off of something.

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And you say, okay, no, look, I'll prove to you that's not what I'm doing, and I don't wanna cause an offense. I actually care for you.

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I'm not trying to get anything from you. And there's nothing wrong with that.

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But that's not a concession that rights are manmade.

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And it's also not a concession, a universal concession that rights must always be given up for the weaker brother or something.

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That would make the weaker brother actually the stronger brother, because then the stronger brother is the one that can make you always give up your rights no matter what, because all he has to say is, my conscience is offended.

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I mean, this is how the social justice warriors do what they do. I'm offended by that. You gotta rip that down.

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You gotta fire that person. Are they the weaker brother or the stronger brother? So this is kind of, in my opinion, an out of context argument to make this.

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Freedom for the sake of the gospel. So here's the jump. There's a lot at stake for Christian witness during COVID.

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We want the unbelieving world to look at Christians as, we don't want them to look at us as reckless virus super spreaders.

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So in other words, the perception that they have, we should not correct that perception. We instead need to make sure that we are living within the boundaries of the prevailing narrative, which of course comes from people who wanna enact the great reset and want all sorts of things that we would disagree with as Christians, but I digress.

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We need to go along with that because of the reputation. Now, there are times, wisdom would dictate, there are times that you have to choose your battles and that's very true.

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And you can't fight everything all at once. And so you're gonna choose not to make an issue out of one thing because there are other things.

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There are 10 other things you need to do. That's a practical situation.

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That's an assessment that you make in a situation, but this is not a situation where, you know, you're, where you should feel forced into.

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I must go against, if you have the conviction I do, I must go against what

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I know to be scientifically valid. I must go against what

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I perceive to be a threat from civil institution, the government.

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And I have to all do this because of a fake narrative that I don't believe in. Instead, actually, maybe you would have an opportunity if you weren't wearing the mask in a certain situation to explain to someone why you're not doing it.

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Now, if that person's paranoid, you may not get that opportunity, but this is, these four arguments, in my opinion, fail.

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They're not rooted in anything. I mean, it would be more interesting if you wanted to make a biblical argument here, what would actually be interesting would be to go back to looking at what scripture says about jurisprudence, well, about the boundaries of government authority, about going back to the

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Old Testament, find out what do you do in the case of disease. I would think actually link, like this article does not do so, but link to actual data that could give people some good information about whether or not the masks are helping or not.

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It doesn't touch on any of the actual issues that are causing people to disagree with one another, that are causing this fault line to emerge.

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It's sidestepping all of them, which is what Gospel Coalition does. They sidestep issues that are controversial and try to take this supposed third way, what it always ends up being, taking the side somehow of the progressives.

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If you practically do what the progressives do, they just try to give you different logic for getting there, but that's the effect of it.

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So that's my assessment of this article, four reasons to wear a mask, even if you hate it. And I will be coming out with something,

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Lord willing, soon on this, if evangelicals and Southern Baptists in particular can kind of cool it down for a little bit with the social justice fight, that would be nice.

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And I will try to get to this, because I know this is where you guys are at. You're facing these kinds of questions.

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Many of you have already thought through them, but I'm giving you raw, just off the top of my head, shooting from the hip, this is what