Russell Moore's New York Times Article

Self-quarantine shelter-in-place order day five. Yesterday I said it was day five but actually it was day four and today is day five. I'm getting very confused living in isolation like this. Every day seems the same as the last and I just don't know what's what, what's up, what's down, what's left, what's right, I'm not sure.

Show Intro, Self-Promotion, and Moving to New Hampshire

Hello there this is AD Robles and you're listening to AD on the Fight Laugh Feast Network. All right all right. Well if you have not watched me on YouTube I'm doing a series of videos it's a little bit of a different style than I've done.

All of them are coming live from my bunker and it's we're talking a lot about the coronavirus we're talking about economics which is what something we'll get into a little bit today as well and all kinds of really good videos have been put out the last few days so go ahead and check it out on YouTube.

Also if you haven't considered becoming a Fight Laugh Feast Club member please consider doing so. Use the show code robles r-o-b-l-e-s. And also one more thing please excuse the shameless self-promotion here but my no despair t-shirts are still on sale absolutely perfect for a situation like this where there is lots of despair and you can see despair 24 -7 if you wanted to on Drudge Report, on Facebook, your friends, even friends that typically are pretty level-headed there a lot despair out there today baby but you can reject the despair in your life but also in your apparel no despair 2020.

Baby let's get into today's video now. Sorry I sorry I didn't upload yesterday. I moved recently I don't know if you knew this but actually I moved from the decent state of Vermont to the great state of New Hampshire over the weekend and so this week has been chaotic lots of unpacking.

You could probably see behind me boxes and things like that. It probably looks a mess but that's because I'm currently in the process of unpacking so that's an ongoing thing and I'll probably be in that mode for a bit here but um but yeah so that's why I didn't upload yesterday.

Sorry about that but I'm making it up for you today by doing something I was not planning on doing. I saw that Dr. Russell Moore my favorite evangelical he posted a well he wrote an article for the New York Times which is not that surprising because he basically has the same worldview as the New York Times with minor exceptions.

But yeah he wrote an article and it's about the coronavirus thing and the economy and things like that and I was not planning on reading it. I clicked it at first just to see what the you know first few sentences says see if it grabbed me you know I do that from time to time but then you had to put your email address in there for the New York Times to have it and I didn't want to do that.

I don't want to click strange links and stuff like that. Somebody sent me an article from the website lamb's reign and I was like dude I don't click strange links come on man that's a joke. But anyway uh so yeah I didn't want to read it and then now I'm going to because I want to make up for my missing the upload yesterday so I'm going to read the Russell Moore article.

I have not read it yet. I heard it's a gem and I'm going to respond to it but essentially what it seems to me like this article is making the uh the argument about how the economy is less important than preserving human lives which I've done a number of videos on this week.

I think that's a really stupid argument and I'm just going to come out and say that I think that's a very stupid argument because the economy is part and parcel of human life and only a real elitist could make an argument like that because when it comes down to shutting down the economy it's a big mistake first of all a huge mistake and it doesn't actually save lives.

Instead it just transfers the lives that are being ruined essentially destroyed things like that. And it does it in the worst possible way because at the end of the day a guy like me I'm middle class I can survive a few months of the economy shutting down most likely.

And I'm not saying I definitely could but I I probably could. You know I've got enough money socked away I can find something to do. I you know I'm a young guy I could put myself in harm's way if I needed to you know to make some money things like that.

Rich people can definitely survive it. You know I saw a Dennis Prager video yesterday where he said my life's not being ruined. And that's right. I mean rich people can survive you know a tremendous economic downturn.

But the people who can't are the poor people the the most vulnerable among us. And so if you make an argument like you should shut the economy down because uh you know you're just one or a few extra bucks in your stock portfolio what they're what they're doing is they're betraying.

They don't know how poor people actually live. They live paycheck to paycheck they rely on these service industries that have been shut down at the stroke of a pen and they're put at risk. And even if you say well Americans aren't going to be put at risk because we've got a social net welfare program and stuff like that.

Okay fine granted let's just say Americans aren't put at risk which is actually not true. It's it's it's that's bogus. But uh how many countries rely on the American economy being strong. How many poor countries.

Ethiopia. How many places do we send missionaries that rely on us having the income and the ability and the capacity to do that. And uh someone down the chain is going to lose their lives because of this economic shutdown.

And so if you think on this level you either are thinking uh at like a child you're not thinking a few steps ahead. You don't really care to think a few steps ahead. Or um you're just an elitist. You just don't know how poor people live.

You don't know how poor people get by. I do I have my family is uh I come from a family that was very poor. My father uh got out my father got out of that kind of situation. So I didn't grow up uh in dire straits.

But many in my family have and so um you know I do know how poor people live. And so anyway let's read this article let's see if Russell Moore goes down that road he almost certainly will. And let's start right now.

Russell Moore on Human Life, the Economy, and the Image of God

Opinion. God doesn't want us to sacrifice the old. Okay. Christianity teaches that every single human life is valuable even during a pandemic. By Russell Moore. Mr. Moore is the president of the ethics.

Okay here we go. When it is suggested that lives should be saved or sacrificed based on the perceived quality of those lives. Something of our very humanity is lost when it's suggested that lives should be sacrificed.

Oh my goodness what is going on here. This is not the article itself. This is a picture of the article which is giving me a problem here. Okay my grandmother always kept several freezers and multiple pantries loaded down with food and hid emergency cash in a cubbyhole behind the medicine.

As a child I rolled my eyes at these habits. But she would say if you had lived through the great depression you would understand. I now realize that when I or my children are elderly we will be saying similar similar things to our own grandchildren.

If you live through the great pandemic you would understand. I hope that lessons we take from our country's experience with COVID aren't about food or spreading germs but about how we treat the most vulnerable among us.

A pandemic is no time to turn our eyes away from the sanctity of human life. I agree. Let's continue. We are already are hearing talk about weighing the value of human life against the health of the nation's economy and the strength of the stock market.

It's true that a depression would cause untold suffering for people around the world hitting the poor the hardest. Still each human life is more significant than a trillion dollar gross domestic product.

Stocks and bonds are important. Yes. But human beings are created in the image of god. This. Okay. So so I'm just trying to think of how I'm gonna I'm gonna respond to this because he knows. He knows.

He knows Russell Moore knows he's not. He's not an idiot. And the way he's even written this paragraph he knows what he's saying here. Because he said it's true that a great depression would cause untold suffering for people around the world hitting the poor the hardest.

And he says still each human life is more significant than a trillion dollar gross domestic product. While that's true he already has told you. He knows that the gross domestic product is part and parcel of human life and human flourishing and human thriving.

And if you have a great depression it'll hurt the poor the hardest. So he's trying to to hold this together where he understands that. But he's still pitting the economy against people. You can't do that.

The economy is nothing but the the the the aggregate of human action. It's what human beings do. We are an economic creature. We engage in commerce. That's part of our lives. One of my friends on Facebook Michael Foster said that an attack on someone's livelihood is an attack on their life.

And that is definitely the biblical view. That is the biblical view. And it seems like Russell Moore knows that. So why is he still trying to pit that against each other. I don't understand. Stocks and bonds are important.

Yes. But human beings are created in the image of God. Yes. But people like stocks and bonds are not important disconnected from people though. You know you know what I mean. He again he tries to make this seem like it's sort of like this like stock and stocks and bonds are over here and they're this thing over here and people are over here.

Stocks and bonds are meaningless except for their connection to people. And so I just don't understand this. Why is he muddying the waters here. This is this is our leader. Right. This is our ethics and religious liberties leader.

And instead of instead of uh clearing up the confusion he's adding to the confusion here. This is so convoluted. I just this is how Russell Moore writes. I've reviewed a number of Russell Moore articles and the confusion that this man spreads has to be intentional because he is not a stupid man.

He intentionally confuses issues confuses issues every single day. I just cannot I cannot fathom writing in this way. But anyway let's continue. We must also reject suggestions that make it that it makes sense to prioritize the care of those who are young and healthy over those who are elderly and have disabilities.

Such considerations turn human lives into check marks on a page rather than the sacred mystery that they are. When we entertain these ideas something of our very humanity is lost. So I I understand what he's saying.

I understand what he's saying. But you you you have to entertain these kinds of ideas because we don't have infinite resources. Right. And so let's just say I was a doctor. Right. And I had and here in here in the 80 robust bunker I had a few hospital beds and I was a doctor and people were sick and they came to my door.

Right. And I had three hospital beds three ventilators here in my bunker. I don't. So don't come to my bunker looking for a ventilator. But let's say four people came to my door. Four people came to my door and they're all just as equally sick and they all desperately need this ventilator.

And there's no way for me to use to one ventilator for two people. Let's just make this as simple as possible. There's no way for me to to figure it out. I have someone has to not have the ventilator.

What do I do. What do I do. How do I make that decision. Because someone is going to be left without a ventilator. And so how do I make that decision. The only way to make that decision is to start thinking about the extenuating circumstances.

Does this person have a family. Does this person have a more of a fighting chance to get by without the ventilator. Is this older person need it more. Does this younger person need it more. Like there you have to start thinking about these things that are they're pretty icky.

We don't want to think about them. We'd like to think that we'd have enough ventilators for everybody but we don't. But we don't and so so so if you reject the suggestion to think about these he's saying reject even the consideration because that that means that we're losing something of our humanity.

This is this is childish. This is embarrassing. This is embarrassing because this is how a child thinks and god bless him a child. It's like well why don't we have enough. Why can't we have enough ventilators.

And you ask your child that. And why doesn't everyone. Because children often why doesn't everyone have enough money. And it's like you have to explain that to a child resources aren't infinite. That's why not everyone has enough money.

And so that's why we help them. If we if we have and someone else doesn't have we share. That's what the bible says. If someone has food you share it with someone who doesn't. If you have clothes share it with someone who doesn't.

You know there's a there's inequalities here and that's a fact of life. And so we need to do the best we can. I've heard some stories horrible stories horrible stories about how essentially people and doctors in italy have have to leave people to die.

They have to say we can't do anything for you. You have to go home. And they know when they send them home they're gonna die. That's not losing your humanity. That's dealing with the situation in reality.

What planet does russell moore live on. What planet does he live on. I've heard i've heard some doctors that this is the way they say. This is the way they say. They say look this is what the decision that they've made.

They say look if we have to have a choice we don't want to have to make this choice. But if we have a choice and we've got an 85 year old you know who's all his family has passed away and then we've got a 30 year old with three kids and a wife and they both need the ventilator.

We're gonna give it to the 30 year old. And that decision sucks. Man nobody wants to make that decision. But the decision has to be made somehow. I mean this is childish man this is really childish. This is really embarrassing.

I don't know what else to say about that. But let's just continue social distancing and shelter in place. Initiatives are hugely disruptive. That is true. People who need to be working and who cannot work from home are suffering.

That's why we need both the government at work. Both the government at work to enable us to help one another through this time. And that's why we need a vibrant civil society to empower people to care for one another.

Government at work. That's socialist right there isn't it. Vulnerability is not a diminishment of the human experience but it's part of that experience. Those of us in the christian tradition believe that god molded us from dust and breathed into us the breath of life.

Moreover we bear witness that every human life is fragile. We are all of us creatures and not gods. We are in need of air and water and one another. A generation ago the essayist and novelist wendell berry told us that the great challenge of our time would be whether we would see life as a machine or as a miracle.

The same is true now. The value of human life is not determined on a balance sheet. We cannot coldly make decisions as to how many people we are willing to lose since we are all going to die of something.

This is stupid. This is stupid. We cannot coldly make decisions. Who's coldly making decisions. The decisions are cold. That's true when you have to decide. When you have one ventilator and you have five patients who need it.

You have to make a decision. And that decision is a decision of life and death. You have it in your hands. What do you do. You have to do something. What do you do. This is this. This makes me angry. I'm sorry guys that this episode's turned out this way.

I thought it was going to be a a jovial episode. You know. Because every oftentimes when i review russell moore stuff i oftentimes i'll make a big joke of it because because it's it's funny. I mean it's funny.

But this is this makes me so angry. Hold on a second. Sorry. I just needed a minute. This is this is the leadership that we have. I just i don't even know what to say about it. I don't even know what to say.

Guys i'm speechless. I i can't fathom that this is the best that we can do. This is the leader of the erlc the biggest denomination of christians in the united states. And this is their ethics. This is where they look for ethics information someone to clear up the difficult the difficult choices.

I uh me on our reform jellicle show matt williams said that you know one thing that he would really like to see is some work on how do i balance you know caring for my neighbor but also caring for my family.

I don't want to necessarily bring the virus back home to my family but i do want to protect or i do want to provide for my neighbors. Like that's a good question that we need some ethical clarity there.

Right. That's a good one. But instead we're getting this. I mean if if a child spoke like this you'd be like okay and encourage them to think deeper about it. And you'd encourage them to to to to to to consider the the reality of life.

And sometimes it's cold sometimes it's brutal. What do you do when five people need a ventilator and you have one. What do you do. One thing you definitely don't do is look to russell moore for help because he thinks like a child.

A life in a nursing home is worth living. A life in a hospital quarantine ward is worth. Is a life worth living. The lives of our grandparents the lives of the disabled the lives of the terminally ill.

These are all lives worth living. We will not be able to save every life. Many will die. Not only of the obviously vulnerable but among those who are seemingly young and strong. But every life lost must grip us with a sense of lament that death itself is not natural but is as the bible tells us an enemy to be withstood and ultimately undone.

Yes obviously. Thank you for taking that brave stance dr russell moore. Because there's a whole wealth of christians out there that are like old people who cares. You should be ashamed of yourself dr russell moore.

Every single one of us that is shocked at how we shut down the economy risking lives all around the world. Not just here in the united states all around the world among the most vulnerable risking lives by shutting down the economy when you do not have to number one and you don't have the authority to do it.

We're talking christian ethics here. Right. Tell me where the bible gives the government the authority to shut down commerce. It does not. It does not to shut down worship. It does not. This is what we need.

We need biblical meat here. Instead we're getting childish nonsense. There is no christian that says a nursing home. Life is not a life knife life worth living. There is no christian that says a life in a hospital quarantine ward is not worth living.

Why why why why waste your words in a pagan uh in a pagan publication. Why waste your words like this. They need truth. They don't need gobbledygook. This is not hypothetical for me. Let me let me let me let me break this down for you dr russell moore.

I've got grandparents that are very sick. They will likely die very soon anyway. I don't want them to catch coronavirus because that'll just speed it up. I i want my grandparents to live their lives are a life worth living even though they might die this year anyway i want them to live as long as possible.

I want them in my life. And if they catch the coronavirus there's a good chance that they will be done now. They'll be in glory and that's great. But i want them here. I want them here. I've got an uncle who has severe diabetes.

He did it to himself. He did it to himself. You know man we ought to take control of our own health in the areas that we can. If he catches the coronavirus he will likely be dead. I don't want him to die.

I don't want him to die. You might not know this about me but i have chronic asthma every time i get sick. I have severe asthma. If i catch the coronavirus i am in a risk category. There's a good chance that me at 37 with three kids under five it could be the end of me.

It could be the end of me. My life is worth living. It's not hypothetical for me dr russell moore but the reality is i do have to love my neighbor. And that requires if you're gonna love your neighbor.

This is what an ethicist a christian ethicist should be focused on here instead of this nonsense. If i'm gonna love my neighbor the way to do it is to follow the commands of god and to follow god's system and his word and all that kind of stuff.

And so i have to think about everybody not just me and my family and my old and my elderly. I have to think about the poor who in this crisis when the economic economy is shut down their lives are at risk and people will die because of this economic shutdown.

People will die because of this economic shutdown. And for some reason an elitist like you doesn't seem to really care because you know this is putting people's lives at risk. You said so in this article.

But still you want to think like a child and say well every life is precious. And so of course we have to quarantine when the government says so this is pathetic russell moore let me finish the article.

That means we must listen to medical experts and do everything possible to avoid catastrophe. We see right now in italy and elsewhere we must get back to work. The economy is back on his feet. But we'll only do that when we must get back to work get the economy back on his feet.

But we can only do that when doing so will not kill the vulnerable and overwhelm our hospitals our doctors our nurses and our communities. You are a child dr russell moore a child because you make it you you try to make this a simple thing.

It's not a simple thing. You say we can only restart the economy when it will kill the vulnerable. But by the way russell moore you've already said that when you stop the economy that'll hurt the vulnerable and i will take it a step further.

It'll also kill the vulnerable. So you're trading lives for lives here. You're trading lives for lives here. And the lives that you're willing to put at risk are the poor the most vulnerable economically in favor of i don't know people with pre-existing conditions elderly people.

So you're you're trading lives for lives. I'm saying we don't have to make that trade. We let god decide by obeying his commandments by loving our neighbor according to his standard. We can't just love our neighbor any way we want.

We have to love him according to god's standards. And then god decides how this ends for us. God decides. And so if i'm scared of being sick because i have asthma but god commands me if i have food to share it with someone who doesn't.

And i know my neighbor over here on this side is sick with the coronavirus and needs food. I'm gonna go over there and give him some food. Now i'll take precautions if i have to but i can't say well my life is worth more than his.

And so therefore i'm not gonna share my food because i don't want to catch that corona. That would be an ethical dilemma. We need guidance there. But instead what you're telling us is that basically the progressive talking point the economy is not as important as lives.

The economy is lives because it's people that that matter in the economy it's human action. It's not just this other thing out there. That's how children think. That's how children think. And then he's like well we got to listen to medical experts.

Yeah well medical experts don't all agree on this. So which ones do we listen to. We listen to the ones that are basically want to you know you to shut down the economy. That's the ones we listen to according to russell moore.

Why. Why you haven't told us why. You just are assuming it. You see every single time we do anything there's a cost-benefit analysis that we that we do. This is how adults think by the way dr russell moore not children.

Every single time we do every anything there's a cost-benefit analysis. Duck cuomo the other day said even if we save just one life through these drastic measures it'll be worth it. No you're a liar dr or not.

Dr cuomo. Governor cuomo you're a liar because if we really did think that way we couldn't have an economy at all. Because if you order an iphone on amazon and dr russell moore i'm sure you have an iphone or something like that.

A couple things at play here dr russell moore with your iphone you put probably children's lives at risk in the minds that that mine for the silicone and the different components of your iphone you put their lives at risk.

And so by ordering that iphone you're actually not caring about that life. Right. That's how we're doing this. We're playing stupid games right. Also the the truck that brings your iphone to your house the ups truck or the fedex truck is barreling down the highway at 70 miles an hour this way while there's other cars barreling down this way and there's only like 10 feet between them.

And so you're putting those people's lives at risk that are that are traveling in the opposite direction of that truck. Because we're playing stupid games here. Right. Because anything you do to put a life at risk it's not worth it.

Because they're made in the image of god. Right for the economy. Right. So dr russell moore why do you engage in any economics. All of it puts lives at risk all of it by the way close your church down.

Russell moore tell your elders to close your church down every flu season. Because every flu season you put elderly's lives at risk. You put my life at risk. I have asthma. If i catch the flu there's a good chance that i could be dead.

There's a good chance i could be dead. Why don't you care about my life. Russell moore. Is not my life worth more than the gdp of the united states or your economic fortunes. We could play these stupid games all day because these are games that children play.

Because they don't think ahead. They're not capable. We teach them to think ahead. We we teach them how to plan and do cost benefit analysis and things like that. It's it's fashionable to write an article like this at this particular time in the new york times it's fashionable.

You'll. You'll get some attaboys from the pagans. You certainly will. But this is not how a christian ought to think. A christian needs to think in a nuanced way. A question. A christian needs to think without partiality.

A christian has to think a couple steps ahead. Because the bible shows us what to do in situations like this. It shows us what to do. We trust god with the results. But what we do is we obey christ when you're in a rock and a hard place which so many of us are right now.

What do you do. What do you do. Do you listen to the experts. Is that what the bible says when you're in between a rock and a hard place. You listen to the experts. Yeah you listen to the pagan experts.

They don't know the difference between a penis and a vagina. They don't know the difference between between uh you know uh a creature that evolved from pond scum and and a creature that was made in the image of god.

God breathed into him uh the breath of life. They don't know the difference between that. But somehow they they know exactly what to do in this situation. Absolutely no. When you're in between a rock and a hard place.

Obey christ. That's what we do. Sometimes it's very easy to determine how to obey christ. Sometimes it's a little more difficult. But what we need from leaders. And russell moore. You're not capable of this.

You're compromised. I'm not asking you to do this because you won't do this. But what we need from leaders is to have someone decipher the biblical commands and apply them to our current situations. You're not willing to do that.

I don't know if you're capable of doing it or not. And i don't care the end of the day. This this kind of childish thinking needs to be rejected by christians. Eventually you have to move on from the milk into solid food.

Closing Appeal for Better Christian Ethics and Final Sign-Off

Guys let me just end it right here. Because i was not expecting this to be a little ranty. I'm shocked at the level of this of this article. This is this is this is beyond anything i could have imagined.

This is a live. There's a real reaction here. Boys ladies and gentlemen i got a lot of female listeners as well. I i just i i'm just gonna end it there. I'm just gonna end it there. And i was gonna end with a joke.

But i'm just i'm not in the mood right now. So sorry about that guys. Um i hope this doesn't give you a downer. There are better leaders out there than russell moore. There are better people out there than russell moore.

You want you want someone that can that can help you apply the commands of god to these complex situations. There's tons of people out there. Uh toby man toby sumter a series in the proverbs stuff like that.

Doug wilson's doing good stuff. James white's doing good stuff. Oh man let me just say let me give these guys a plug. I saw i saw. Um uh the the uh the founders guys askel and jared longshore do a video about coronavirus and meeting as a church and stuff like that.

Man god bless those guys those guys are worth listening to. They're worth listening to. Josh somer check him out on youtube. He's worth listening to as well. Anyway i hope you found this podcast helpful and sorry for the god bless.

Don't forget to tune in next week on thursday for ad on the fight laugh feast network.