In a grotesque op/ed, The Federalist columnist Joy Pullmann proclaimed that Christians should welcome the cold finality of death from the coronavirus and should not seek the safety of the vaccine–because, she claims, Christians should welcome death in any form.
“Blaming people for contracting a catchy virus has been one of many widely deployed COVID manipulation tactics. That has shifted into blaming people for dying of a catchy virus after they decided their risks from taking the vaccines outweighed their risks from catching the disease,” Pullmann whines without mentioning the costs, personal impact, family tragedy and long-term generational change that a family member’s death causes.
Claiming that life–and death–are determined solely by God, Pullmann makes fallacious argument after fallacious argument against people taking the vaccine. Christians shouldn’t take it because if they contracted the coronavirus, God should be the one who decides who lives and dies, and humans should not interfere with God’s choice because He’s God, fer gawd’s sake.
It’s like arguing people shouldn’t get on lifeboats because God sunk the boat so everyone would drown.
BUT, Pullmann claims, Christians should crave death because God has made it a reward. You’re definitely gonna go to heaven if you are a Christian, Pullmann supposes, so embrace death! Do not try to avoid it! So don’t get a vaccine–which, Pullmann neglects to mention, God gave us the knowledge and skills to develop–because God wants you to die!
“For another thing, for Christians, death is good. Yes, death is also an evil — its existence is a result of sin,” Pullmann writes. “But, thanks be to God, Jesus Christ has redeemed even death. In his resurrection, Christ has transformed death into a portal to eternal life for Christians. What Satan meant for evil, God has transformed into good.”
Pullmann represents a portion of radical “christians” who claim that God will protect them from all risks, but if you should die, it’s either because (1) you weren’t worthy of God’s protection or (2) you were being recalled by God. Forget that God provided a solution to the problem through science and technology; it’s not God’s will that you use the tools He provides.
In the end, however, Pullman fails to explain why she has likely taken other vaccines–like smallpox, polio and MMR–so she could meet God sooner. Nor does she explain the vaccine status of her six kids, to whom God made her their earthly protector, their mother. She failed her God in that way, just like she failed God in celebrating His medical gifts to us.