Ben Shapiro on COVID restrictions: 'Public policy being driven by political considerations'
Ben Shapiro weighs in on Gavin Newsom's plan to ease coronavirus restrictions and reopen the state of California
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Conservative author Ben Shapiro blasted a Harvard psychology professor's argument Thursday that evangelical Christians' belief in an afterlife is largely responsible for the widespread push to end coronavirus shutdowns across America.
"Belief in an afterlife is a malignant delusion," Steven Pinker tweeted, "since it devalues actual lives and discourages action that would make them longer, safer, and happier. Exhibit A: What’s really behind Republicans wanting a swift reopening? Evangelicals."
Pinker linked to a Washington Post column arguing that "Christian fundamentalism is often fatalistic."
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Shapiro, who is Jewish, called Pinker's argument "ridiculous on its face."
"So if I believe that my actions don't merely matter here on earth but in eternity, my actions are somehow devalued?" he tweeted in response. "Also, please explain why my synagogue shut down BEFORE any governmental orders to do so if we don't care about actual life."
In the Post column linked by Pinker, contributing columnist Gary Abernathy cited a variety of New Testament verses as part of his argument that Christians didn't take coronavirus deaths as seriously as other groups.
"Evangelicals take it to heart when James reminds them, 'What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes,' or when Paul writes, 'I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us,' or when Jesus asks, rhetorically, 'Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?'"
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He added that "[a]s far as many evangelicals are concerned, life passes quickly, suffering is temporary and worrying solves nothing.
"That’s not a view that comports well with long stretches of earthly time spent waiting out business closures or stay-at-home orders. It should be no surprise that a person’s deepest beliefs about the world influence how they measure the risks they’re willing to take."
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