[Vision2020] Doug Wilson's very own denomination

[Nicholas Gier]

Greetings:
Thanks, Tom, for posting this. This is the "denomination" that Wilson set
up after he found himself unwanted by conservative Calvinist organizations.
This news release sounds like it could have been written by Dale Courtney,
who wrote about this in his last column.  For those who don't get the
DNews, it is appended below.
My second column will address his puzzling conflation of the efforts of
Singapore and Sweden.  All that they have in common is that each nation
avoided lock-down, the similarities end there.
Here is an excerpt from a draft of my column.

Dale Courtney has now written two columns on the coronavirus—one praising
Singapore (April 1) and now one extoling Sweden (April 15), which is ironic
because in a previous column (March 18), he called its government a “savage
master.” Yes, it is true that both nations have avoided lock-down, but that
is where the similarities end.

Along with its East Asian neighbors, Singapore has done comprehensive
testing, tracing, and strict quarantine for those infected. (Staying at
home without being tested is not quarantine. You may have it and you may
infect your love ones.) Like most of the U.S., Sweden has tested only those
who have shown symptoms, and this insufficient response has led a mortality
rate of 9 percent, while Singapore’s is .3 percent.

You can read more on April 23.  Until then be safe and ignore anything that
Trump says. I'm counting on Gov. Little to stay the course.

nfg
 In my last column (“Singapore made the right moves regarding COVID-19”), I
am highly critical of the United States’ handling of the coronavirus
pandemic. To protect Americans from this deadly virus, the government
decided to shut down the entire country except for “essential” workers. But
who gets to decide who is essential? And essential to what? And to whom?
Naturally, government defined essential workers as those essential to the
government itself. That disastrous distinction has brought about the
unemployment of more than 17 million Americans to date. This point was made
exceptionally clear when Washington Gov. Jay Inslee ordered all
construction in Washington stopped, except on government projects, because
government construction is essential whereas private construction is not.
Rather than isolating the infected, quarantining the exposed and those
especially vulnerable, and social distancing everyone else, America is
treating everyone as infected. Apart from essential workers, everyone is
locked down.

Yet that great capitalist nation of Sweden has taken a completely different
approach. Children continue attending school, and adults keep working and
enjoying pubs. The streets of Stockholm are as busy now as they were last
spring, filled with people drinking on restaurant patios.
What medical testing is Sweden doing to allow this to happen? They are only
testing people with symptoms of the virus who need immediate medical
treatment. Swedish climate activist, Greta Thunberg, posted on her 24 March
Instagram account that she and her dad came down with the Covid-19 virus:
“My dad experienced the same symptoms, but much more intense and with a
fever. In Sweden you can not test yourself for COVID-19 unless you’re in
need of emergent medical treatment. Everyone feeling ill are told to stay
at home and isolate themselves. I have therefore not been tested for
COVID-19, but it’s extremely likely that I’ve had it, given the combined
symptoms and circumstances.”
The vast majority of Swedes are untested, just as in the U.S. But since
they only test to confirm the disease, their outbreak appears worse
numerically.
Swedes are being criticized for not taking starker measures. We seem to
think that the harsher the lockdown, the more the government cares for its
citizens. But what about the 17 million Americans thrown out of jobs over
the last three weeks? For politicians, that is collateral damage.
Curiously, no one receiving a government paycheck is deemed nonessential
and laid off. Meanwhile, unemployment of unessential Americans hit 14.7
percent and is projected to reach 25 percent.

One factor no one discusses is the impact caused by unemployment. A famous
study commissioned during the economic depression of 1974-1975 by the Joint
Economic Committee of Congress and conducted by Dr. Harvey Brenner showed
that for every 1-percent increase in unemployment, 40,000 people die. That
number has been confirmed in Japan, Australia, New Zealand, the UK and
other Western European countries. These studies looked at the effect of
unemployment on suicides, heart attacks, strokes, alcohol poisoning, drug
overdoses, violence, etc.
The unemployment rate in the U.S. went from 3.5 percent before the COVID-19
lockdown to a projected 25 percent. Per Brenner’s research, 860,000
nonessential Americans may die — more than 15 times than from the virus
itself.
If death is the ultimate impact of unemployment, how many more are impacted
in lesser but profound ways? Many have to deal with the consequences of
domestic violence, failed marriages, childhood trauma, increase in crime,
etc.
Others turn to drugs and alcohol to relieve the pain and boredom. Wedding
ceremonies and funerals have been shut down, and those dying of coronavirus
are forced to die alone.
Virgil has a famous proverb: aegrescit medendo, or “the cure is worse than
the disease.” The course taken by our politicians is significantly more
harmful than if we had taken the common-sense approach to pandemics:
isolate the infected, quarantine the vulnerable and exposed, and carry on
with life as normal with sensible precautions against the virus.
It appears the lockdown will be lifted incrementally during May and June,
but the second wave of coronavirus is predicted to immediately follow. When
that happens, we need to insist that politicians not lock down Americans
they deem to be nonessential but take the common-sense approach to the
pandemic.
Dale Courtney served 20 years in nuclear engineering aboard submarines and
15 years as a graduate school instructor. He now spends his spare time
chasing his grandchildren around the Palouse.
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