Beyond ‘Plandemic’: A Christian Response to Conspiracies

If your social media newsfeeds are like ours, then they have been chock-full of conspiracy theories about the coronavirus and our government’s response to it. We see many of our Christian friends considering conspiracy theories—if not believing them, at least listening to them. Why are conspiracies so appealing right now?

The Plandemic video has captured wide attention with its false claims about the COVID-19 pandemic. The film stars Judy Mikovits, who used to be a legitimate medical researcher, but has since fallen afoul of the scientific establishment. She promotes the view that vaccines are harmful and that the novel coronavirus was manipulated by genetic engineers. The video has been removed from YouTube (which for some only provides evidence of how deep the conspiracy truly goes!). And it doesn’t take long to discover that Mikovits’ work was properly discredited.

Also last week there was a viral image going around Facebook claiming that no employees of Walmart, Amazon, Target, Costco, or Kroger have tested positive for COVID-19, so it is ridiculous that small businesses have to remain shut. It is so easy to make or share such a graphic, and it “seems correct” to people who are frustrated that businesses are restricted. But a quick fact check showed multiple actual news agencies reporting that many Walmarts have become epicenters of COVID breakouts and have had to be shut down.

We wish these kinds of conspiracies and spreading of false and dangerous information were limited to Facebook friends and fringe groups. But unfortunately that is not the case—Christian leaders are also fueling the flames.

When Conspiracies Are Fueled by Christians

As one example, several days ago, a senior leader at a prominent Christian organization sent out an “urgent” email about the pandemic. He made the disclaimer that he’s not speaking for his employer in this, but his platform and credibility for his audience comes from there. His 2700-word email was full of all-caps warnings and conspiracies about  the “very evil people” pushing “fake science and fake medicine.” His main argument is that Dr. Anthony Fauci and others are engaged in a demonic “globalist hoax” to deceive and control the population to lay the groundwork for a “new world order.” Add in further links like a lecture on the Illuminati, (“this is not conspiracy theory, but conspiracy fact”) and a self-filmed exposé under a QAnon banner, and…well, you have quite an email. Not only did the email contain advice that directly contradicts the overwhelming consensus of scientists and public health experts, but it urges prayer for “people to rise up in peaceful civil disobedience” against such guidelines.

When Christian leaders urge rejection of public health measures, we need to be blunt about the impact their words can have. An influential University of Washington model cited by the White House recently doubled the estimate for coronavirus deaths through August to a startling 137,000 (with an upper range approaching a quarter of a million), largely due to decreased social distancing and growing death totals. This is serious and life-threatening.

Nor can we say that advocates of fringe ideas are unintelligent. The chemist Linus Pauling was one of the greatest scientists of all time, yet he spent the later years of his life advocating that large doses of intravenous Vitamin C were an effective treatment for cancer—a fringe idea that he advocated right up until his own death (ironically yet tragically, from cancer). Pauling was a true genius and made passionate arguments that we nonspecialists would hardly have been equipped to rebut. And yet—crucially—he was unable to marshal the scientific evidence to convince the broader scientific community of which he was a part.

When we at BioLogos prioritize the consensus views of the credentialed scientific community, we don’t do so because we think any scientists are infallible. We do so precisely because we know they are not. The painstaking processes of the scientific community, from rigorous peer review to pointed questioning at a professional scientific conference, would have no reason to exist if scientists (collectively at least) were not acutely aware of their own ability to make mistakes and overlook competing explanations. And while none of these processes are themselves guarantees of infallibility, they are the best methods we have for weeding out errors and cohering around the scientific explanations most likely to be true. What’s amazing about science is that it’s continually self-correcting. Scientific errors are corrected by other scientists—hardly ever by an armchair commentator sitting down in front of a webcam.

Responding with Faith

Relying on expertise might sound elitist, but it is grounded in the biblical principle that we have different gifts. 1 Corinthians 12:14-26 reminds us that all parts of the “body,” from the most prominent to the most overlooked, serve an essential role as part of the greater whole. There’s no room in Christianity for disdain for the humble and often thankless work of sanitation workers, food producers, and truck drivers. But there’s likewise no room for dismissing the essential role of scientists, doctors, and public health experts. We all have a role to play: