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| Donald Trump defends this woman, so conservative evangelical groups are also defending her. |
Eager to play the central role in what's becoming a political version of the German legend of Faust (a philosopher who sells his soul to the devil), conservative evangelicals groups have given a bit more of their soul to Donald Trump in return for political power. In all honesty, these groups never had that much of a soul, if any to begin with, but I think they've given so much of what they do have to Trump that they're down to soul "stamps." This latest spiritual capitulation involve an incident on Monday. I think you know what I'm talking about, but I will give a short recap:
The far right publication Breitbart streamed a press conference involving individuals claiming to be medical professionals who proceeded to push insane conspiracies about COVID-19 cures.
According to NBC News:
A dozen doctors delivered speeches in front of the U.S. Capitol on Monday to a small crowd, claiming without evidence that the coronavirus could be cured and that widely accepted efforts to slow its spread were unnecessary and dangerous. It was the latest video to go viral from apparent experts, quietly backed by dark money political organizations, evangelizing treatments for or opinions about the coronavirus that most doctors, public health officials and epidemiologists have roundly decried as dangerous misinformation.
. . . Dressed in white coats with "America's Frontline Doctors" stitched on the chest, the stars of the Facebook video claimed that business and school closings, social distancing and even masks were not needed, because hydroxychloroquine, a drug commonly used to treat malaria, could both prevent and cure the coronavirus. In fact, the FDA has warned against using hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19, citing serious health effects and the conclusions from randomized clinical trials that have shown little benefit from the treatment. "We don't need masks. There is a cure!" said Dr. Stella Immanuel, a licensed pediatrician from Houston.
In one of the event's most fiery speeches, Immanuel, who claims to have effectively treated 350 COVID-19 patients with hydroxychloroquine out of her medical clinic, but declined to provide data, referred to doctors who declined to treat patients with hydroxychloroquine as "good Nazis" and "fake doctors," and called published research "fake science."
Backed by a huge amount of dark money and intense coordination by right-wing groups, high-profile personalities and folks on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and other social media sources, the press conference went viral. The social media entities mentioned (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc) deleted the video in an intense battle with folks who kept reposting it. It received millions of hits and lots of press mostly because of Immanuel, a Houston physician with a sordid reputation for the following:
Immanuel, a pediatrician and a religious minister, has a history of making bizarre claims about medical topics and other issues. She has often claimed that gynecological problems like cysts and endometriosis are in fact caused by people having sex in their dreams with demons and witches. She alleges alien DNA is currently used in medical treatments, and that scientists are cooking up a vaccine to prevent people from being religious. And, despite appearing in Washington, D.C. to lobby Congress on Monday, she has said that the government is run in part not by humans but by “reptilians” and other aliens.
. . . In sermons posted on YouTube and articles on her website, Immanuel claims that medical issues like endometriosis, cysts, infertility, and impotence are caused by sex with “spirit husbands” and “spirit wives”—a phenomenon Immanuel describes essentially as witches and demons having sex with people in a dreamworld. “They are responsible for serious gynecological problems,” Immanuel said. “We call them all kinds of names—endometriosis, we call them molar pregnancies, we call them fibroids, we call them cysts, but most of them are evil deposits from the spirit husband,” Immanuel said of the medical issues in a 2013 sermon. “They are responsible for miscarriages, impotence—men that can’t get it up.”
Needless to say, there has been a lot of fallback - the majority negative - on the press conference and Immanuel. Many on Twitter are calling her 'Doctor Demon Semen' (a name which I hope will trend).
The press conference in general was no doubt done in support of Donald Trump. Believe it or not (who am I kidding), he actually defended it and Immanuel a day later:
“I can tell you this, she was on air along with many other doctors,” he said. “They were big fans of hydroxychloroquine and I thought she was very impressive in the sense that from where she came, I don't know which country she comes from, but she said that she's had tremendous success with hundreds of different patients, and I thought her voice was an important voice, but I know nothing about her.”
And where Trump goes, conservative evangelical groups go. Although in this particular case, one group decided to step lightly around the mess. On early Wednesday, the Family Research Council tweeted the following, making sure to not mention Immanuel but whining instead about censorship:
Not to be outdone, the American Family Association went full throttle in defending not only the press conference, but Immanuel by name via its news site, One News Now. The news site devoted two articles to Immanuel, including this one:
Dr. Stella Immanuel was among those who spoke. "I came here to Washington, DC, to tell America nobody needs to get sick. This virus has a cure. It is called hydroxychloroquine, zinc and Zithromax," she stated. "You don't need masks. There is a cure. You don't need people to be locked down. There is prevention and there is a cure."
Dr. Immanuel, a practicing pediatrician from Alexandria, Louisiana, said she's had enough of letting research doctors lead the response to the coronavirus. "We treat them and they live. None has died," she continued. "There is no way I can treat 350 patients and counting and nobody is dead and they all did better – and you're going to tell me that you treated 20 people [or] 40 people and it didn't work." She had some especially harsh words for her colleagues who she says are letting politics run their practices: "I tell all of you doctors that are sitting down and watching Americans die: you're like the good Germans that watched Jews get killed and do not speak up."
In neither the article which featured the above snippet nor the other one did One News Now say a word about Immanuel's past claims.
This latest public display of wanton ignorance by conservative evangelical groups would be hilarious and a pleasure for me to spotlight if it weren't for the fact that it hinders fighting a pandemic which has already infected over four million Americans and killed over 150,000. It underscores how much of a mockery conservative evangelical groups are making of themselves and their "values" for the political power given to them by Trump. If there is ever a time America needs some credible spiritual guidance, it's now. But conservative evangelicals groups are unable to give the country this guidance. They are too busy holding their hands out to Donald Trump in a relationship not unlike that of an escort negotiating the price for his or her "evening company."
But it does make me think. I've heard so many conservative evangelical leaders claim that God made Donald Trump president. Maybe they're right, but not for the reasons they claim. There is an old adage in the black church which says "the Lord moves in mysterious ways."
On the risk of sounding of presumptuous, if God did choose Trump to be president, perhaps one reason was to see how low conservative evangelical groups would stoop to attain and retain power that he gives them. Maybe God is showing America just how phony these folks are. It would make sense.
Since Trump became president, groups like the Family Research Council and the American Family Association, not to mention conservative evangelical leaders, have made excuses for his bad behavior. And they've even told lies (bad lies) in defense of his many negative excesses. So finally, here they are - supporting not only Trump's defense of an obvious quack, but defending her themselves in spite of the fact that her claims could be putting millions of Americans in danger.
Maybe the object here is to see how fast conservative evangelical groups moved from "Character counts." to "Fuck that shit! We've got real power now!"
And the sad thing? I don't think conservative evangelical groups have reached rock bottom. Seems to me that they will reach rock bottom when they have an epiphany realizing how much of an embarrassment they've made of themselves. And knowing the egos in that bunch, I don't see the epiphany coming any time soon.
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