CNS- In his March 29 briefing on coronavirus, President Donald Trump alluded to the social consequences of not taking seriously the threat it poses. He mentioned the “massive” rates of drug use, depression, and suicide that might happen if he took a more relaxed approach to the disease.
Trump’s critics have played their “fact check game,” questioning how accurate his statement is. Even if we allow for hyperbole, Trump is right to call attention to these often neglected side effects associated with the stress and isolation engendered by a pandemic.
What Trump did not say is that one of the greatest tonics guarding against these conditions is religion; it is also true that those most at risk are non-believers. This is not a gray area: the studies are numerous and the findings are impressive. [The evidence is cited in my book “The Catholic Advantage: Why Health, Happiness, and Heaven Await the Faithful.”]
Dr. Harold G. Koenig is the nation’s leading scholar in the study of well-being. He teaches psychiatry and medicine at Duke University, and is the founding co-director of Duke’s Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health. He and his associates examined 278 studies on the relationship between religion and alcohol and drug use. They found that 86 percent of the studies concluded that the more religious a person was, the less likely he was to indulge. They also found that of the 185 studies on religion and drug abuse, the inverse relationship between religion and drugs was found 84 percent of the time. read more
Absolutely!
It’s hard for religion to play a greater role in people’s lives when they are being arrested for attending church services.
…actually, Trump should stress that our RIGHT to worship is a GOD given RIGHT, and NOT one that CAN be taken by MAN, as the Constitution merely ACKNOWLEDGES rights, NOT grants them…in other words, Mike DeWine, Bill DeBlasio, all you other Democrat pigs, HANDS OFF, you are mere MEN and VERY, VERY corrupt ones at THAT, so what WE worship, WHERE we worship, HOW we worship, and how MANY we worship with is none of your business and both Man’s Law and God’s Law are AGAINST you on this…
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
Amendment 1, U.S. Constitution
…The First Amendment does NOT go on to say “Except for times of panic that Democrats made up because the corrupt murderous woman THEY like didn’t win, as supported by their RINO lickspittle handmaidens and whipped into a frenzy by their wholly-owned media.
It’s pretty absolute.
And I don’t care what you say anyway, because…
“29 Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men.
30 The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on a tree.
31 Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.
32 And we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him.
33 When they heard that, they were cut to the heart, and took counsel to slay them.
34 Then stood there up one in the council, a Pharisee, named Gamaliel, a doctor of the law, had in reputation among all the people, and commanded to put the apostles forth a little space;
35 And said unto them, Ye men of Israel, take heed to yourselves what ye intend to do as touching these men.
36 For before these days rose up Theudas, boasting himself to be somebody; to whom a number of men, about four hundred, joined themselves: who was slain; and all, as many as obeyed him, were scattered, and brought to nought.
37 After this man rose up Judas of Galilee in the days of the taxing, and drew away much people after him: he also perished; and all, even as many as obeyed him, were dispersed.
38 And now I say unto you, Refrain from these men, and let them alone: for if this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nought:
39 But if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it; lest haply ye be found even to fight against God.
40 And to him they agreed: and when they had called the apostles, and beaten them, they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go.
41 And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name.
42 And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.
Acts 5:29-42
…in fact, the ONLY reason the Churches have closed is because the pastors are following another of the Lord’s commandments as regards obedience to secular authority when it does NOT conflict with God’s will, and have prayed to discover God’s will and what HE wants for His pastors to shepherd His flocks, NOT what Mike DeWine wants, and so the churches are closed only so long as God lays it on His pastor’s hearts, NOT because of a man-made law that isn’t even legal as a MAN’s law, as described above, but we WILL assemble when God commands us to assemble, and at that time, NO man will be able to STOP us…
“13 Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme;
14 Or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well.
15 For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men:
16 As free, and not using [your] liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, but as the servants of God.
17 Honour all [men]. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king.”
1 Peter 2:13-17
…only on God’s command do we yield. But this will not hold forever.
The Spirit will not be denied…
“23 Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;)
24 And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works:
25 Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.”
Hebrews 10:23-25
…The day is fast approaching indeed. We need to worship together MORE, not LESS.
And all this evil is occasion for REJOICING. Because…
“Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.
Revelation 12:12
The devil is flexing his Democrat muscles like a schoolyard bully, not in triumph, but in panic. He knows God is about to shut his circus act down, so he desperately trying to use his Democrat and RINO minions to advance his filthy banner into as many lives as possible, to try to dishearten God’s people and turn them against Him that he may have more company in the Lake of Fire.
…But if you read the REST of the back of the book…God WINS…
“3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.
4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.”
Revelation 21:3-4
…sorry, Mike. Sorry, Bill.
God wins.
…and nothing YOUR evil master drives you to do will change that…
If you have 40 minutes, here’s a message on corona from a point of view that likely won’t align with any you’ve heard before.
discerningthetimespublishing.com/ChinaVirus.mp3
…bear in mind that, absent the intervention of God, the history of mankind repeats. This is because the devil is NOT creative, so all he can ever do is repeat the same, simple tricks with a new generation and hope they refused to learn the lessons on their elders and that he can get them to ignore the Bible this time.
This is the devil’s ONLY hope.
To that end, while Donald Trump is NO Jesus Christ, because he is God’s select, the devil tries the same thing on HIM that he tried on Jesus.
The Democrats are the Pharasee, corrupt MEN who twisted God’s law into intricacies and incomprehensibility so they can interpret it to mean whatever they WANT it to mean, so they can rule the populace to their benefit at all times and enslave them to their will. The Pharasee took a dim view of it when one man came and challenged their power over Men by saying that THEIR laws were inferior to God’s laws, and out of hatred and spite and fear that they would lose their power, they made it their mission to destroy that one man by any means possible. If that meant whipping the population of Jerusalem up into a homicidal frenzy, so be it; the ends justify the means.
Our Pontius Pilate these days is played, collectively, by the RINOs and DIABLOs. They are men who hold power and gain riches without merit as secular rulers, and don’t really care about governance or good or evil one way or another, but are only concerned that the good times keep rolling, regardless of what happens in the rest of the world, and that their fortune and position are all that matters to them. They will do whatever it takes to maintain their own sinecure; if the easiest way to do that is to do good, they do good; if the easiest way to do that is to do evil, they do evil.
They DO NOT CARE beyond what serves THEY, THEMSELVES best in the moment. This is what Pilate meant when he said “What is truth” in John 18:38, that the truth did not matter, all that mattered was whatever he needed to do to make this disturbance go away. He admitted as much to the crowd when he revealed Jesus to them when he said “I find no fault in this man”, even tried to get them to relent, but no dice; and when it became manifest to him that the easiest thing to do was to sacrifice what he KNEW to be an innocent man, he was all, “Sorry about your luck” and ordered his men to perform an unjust act so he could get back to the baths and enjoying his unearned, fabulous life. This is what “republican” posers like Mitt Romney and Mike DeWine are about, they just want to preserve their power by any means necessary, and if their Democrat masters won’t accept anything less than an innocent man be unjustly persecuted, or even an entire innocent population, so be it; they never liked that guy ANYWAY, so if the Democrats want to burn the Country down to get to that one man, so be it, they’re good with it, party on Garth…
The Jewish people of Jerusalem are portrayed by the voters of America. They hailed this man as a liberator a scant few days before, saw him pull of miracles the Pharasee said could NEVER be done, and were prepared to follow him to the ends of the Earth, until the Pharasee brought him to trial on made-up charges and sent minions throughout the city to defame His name (played ably in our modern times by the media). The people alone would worship Jesus, but in the face of their masters telling lies about Him and what He did, they were collectively apt to the hands of the Pharasee and became a mob that would not be denied. The Democrats took this up a notch by using a disease to further panic the crowd, but the mechanisms of lying about the man that challenges their power and defaming him at every opportunity remain the same. The devil is not creative, it’s the same trick, different day.
…this is what makes the timing around Easter so ironic. Again, Donald Trump is NO Jesus, but he DOES have His anointing, and was given to us to allow a little more time to repent before all falls to the Antichrist that will be celebrated by the Democrats. As such, the devil thinks, “this worked pretty well against the Son of God, it should work like a TREAT against a mere MAN!”
…and so it WILL, eventually…
…we lose this battle, sooner or later.
I hate to say it, but the path is set by God, and God is no liar. Evil WILL rule this Earth and God’s presence WILL be withdrawn for a time.
“5 And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two months.
6 And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme his name, and his tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven.”
Revelation 13:5-6
…trick is, don’t BE here for that…
“In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.”
1 Corinthians 15:52
…so, obey the rule of some evil men for a quiet life that leads to the Lake of Fire, or do the bidding of the Lord and miss the mess that is CERTAIN to come. Be ruled by fools and evildoers, or worship the ONLY just man without sin. Be plagued by disease and vermin for a short but brutal time, before being burned forever, or be clothed in flesh incorruptible with the light of the Lord around you.
…you’re not making this very tempting, satan, not tempting at ALL…
governors are not congress…
Greater is He who is in me than he who is in the world.
God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power, of love and a sound mind.
How many times have God’s angels told people “fear not”?
God, the creator of the heavens and earth is all powerful. With that knowledge embedded deep in your heart you will not fear but will trust God.
Psalm 91 is a great one to read when in the middle of danger.
Not necessarily ‘religion’, but Faith.
It moves mountains.
“Not necessarily ‘religion’, but Faith.”
Faith is the opposite of Fear.
They are both a belief, Faith being a belief that good things are coming and Fear being a belief that bad things are coming.
And it is what we believe that governs how we live our lives, and how we live our lives determines what comes our way, what happens to us.
As was observed in Job 3:25 “For the thing that I fear comes upon me, and what I dread befalls me.”
grool, that was very good. Thank you for posting it.
Claudia, you are welcome. It is foolish, even dangerous, to claim things from God just because we can point to them in the Bible. Context is everything: much of what’s claimed by people today was not addressed to them but was meant for a specific people (not us) during a specific era of history (not now).
One extreme example, but a valid ones: West Virginia snake handlers and strychnine drinkers. If the miraculous promise they presume to claim was actually intended for thems, not one of them would ever have died. But that promise wasn’t to them.
People who practice orthodox Christian values have far lower incidence of mental illnesses. Most all reliable studies have shown that to be the case.