…I ranted in a conversation with a neighbor yesterday.  What, you may ask, is the hot topic of conversation in my neighborhood?  Why measles!  Yes measles.  An illness we have long had under control begins again to spread its ugliness.  One of the carefully identified Southern California hot spots is just blocks from my home.  And do not speak to me of immigrants.  Immigrants of all types and legalities have been bringing illness into this nation for a long time, but we have always been smart enough to make sure we were vaccinated against it so it never went anywhere.  But no more, now we have anti-vaxxers and social media to spread their stupidity.

One local school I know of has suffered under a whooping cough outbreak. Whooping cough! – another illness for which a perfectly good vaccine exists.  Oh, and did you know that it is possible polio is sticking its deadly head above ground again.  When it comes to polio ranting is not funny anymore, it’ll kill you or cripple you for life.

I do not know what is worse, the combination of stupidity, ignorance and superstition that anti-vaxxing represents or the utter selfishness inherent in it. You put those two things together and as you can see, the results are potentially deadly.  Vaccines are not cures, they are fortifications against disease.  One chink in the armor weakens the whole defense.  You know what is really irksome?  The same people that have refused to vaccinate and are therefore responsible for these outbreaks are going to demand that we care for those that are harmed by perfectly preventable illness.  It won’t be their fault for failing to vaccinate, it will be our duty as a caring culture to provide for them.  And we will because we are not inhuman, and their stupiduty, ignorance, superstition and selfishness will be rewarded.

I wish ill on no one, especially not this kind of ill, but the Lord Almighty has made us smarter than this.  It requires an act of will for these things to come back and haunt us – and that is just angering.

But I should not be surprised…

The Apostle Paul wrote to the Church in Rome a very, very long time ago:

For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. [emphasis added]

This was predictable.  And note what Paul says is the necessary condition for a profession of wisdom to disguise foolishness – not honoring God as God or giving thanks to Him.  This is not a government problem, this is a church problem.

And my anger becomes weeping….