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. 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 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.

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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 of 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'm 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 uh yeah he wrote an article um 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 um 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 probably could you know I've got enough money socked away I can find something to do 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 yeah you should shut the economy down because uh you know you're just one 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 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 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 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 cubby hole 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 a 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 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 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 understand what he's saying

I understand what he's saying but 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 two one ventilator for two people let's just make this as simple as possible there's no way for me to to figure it 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