Dr. Anthony Fauci: High Priest of Secular, "Scientific" Safety. Moses or Pharaoh?

With the demise of The Donald (Grant it O Lord!)Tony Fauci is arguably the most polarizing figure in the Culture War: adored by the Left as a Moses leading us through the Red Sea of Covid, despised by the right as a Pharaoh controlling and oppressing us. How can this happen to such a good guy? He is a dedicated humanitarian giving his life to protect us from disease; he is smart, competent, informed; he is sober, calm, steady in the chaos; he is charming, confident, non-defensive, unassuming; he (apparently) transcends partisan politics for the higher cause and amazingly succeeded in correcting the Trumpster without being fired. In many ways an admirable and exceptional man!

It is not the person of Fauci that provokes, but his caste, position, ideology, culture, religion...he is secular, "scientific" (snear quotes intentional) and safety-health obsessed.

SecularHe is a fallen-away Catholic. He has lost his faith. This is a sadness and a tragedy. He has replaced it with secular humanism: as passion for this-worldly health and safety and a reliance upon science and expertise to lead the way. He is hardly value-neutral but has a strong, hard philosophy, world view and belief system. As so often with ex-Catholics and even Liberal Catholics, he has a thinly disguised contempt for Catholicism straight and pure. For example, in late Spring 2020 as the Churchs started to open, he warned against reception of Holy Communion as too dangerous. At the same time he was easy on the BLM protestors. He had no statistics on covid reception at the altar rail and immunity at the protests. His warning was a value judgment. An honest Hindu, Jew, Muslim or Atheist may have hesitated to weigh into the dense thicket of Catholic liturgical practice but he did not flinch: he knows intimately and has rejected Catholic irrationality.

"Scientific"Clearly he is a serious scientist, but the Fauci we came to know in 2020 was functioning not as a sober researcher, but as a Public Health Administrator. He was managing social behavior and hysteria in a major pandemic. This had to be done by someone. He did it well...I think. He operated in the midst of uncertainty and he made sober decisions about policy. As in so many human decisions, especially those in authority, he made value-laden, "common sense" judgment calls on the basis of inadequate, changing, contradictory and fallible informtion. All that is unavoidable. The problem is: he and his cohort clothed his pronouncements in the sanctimonious infallibity of "Science." Follow the science. Follow the facts. Well the fact is the entire pandemic was saturated with uncertainty and still is: Where did it originate? How long does the immunity last? Can the vaccinated carry it? What does the vaccine do you the young in the long term? For example, early in the pandemic when there was a shortage of masks we were told the public did not need them. Later we were advised to wear two masks. The six-feet dogma now seems to be three-feet. Washing of surfaces a waste of time. I do not begrudge him any of these decisions: I would have done no better. But I would not have assumed the arrogance of scientific infallibility and efficacy.

SafetyOkay: here I become personal. In my careers as teacher, UPS supervisor and boarding home director I never hated anything as much as being in charge of the Safety Committee. The word "safety" is to me what "Niagra Falls" was to Abbot and Costello in that famous skit. Don't get me started! If anyone again sends me off with "Be Safe" I may beat him up! I want to say: "Screw that! I will NOT be safe! I will roll the dice...live on edge...go wild!" Why don't they say something like: "Be steadfast!" or simply "Courage!" or "Live boldly, magnanimously, exhuberantly!" or even "Protect your serentiy, your sobriety, your integrity!" The root cause of this obsession with safety is monotonous secularism: a loss of the splendor and delight of God, of supernatural realities, of the spiritual combat, of (capital H) Hope, of contrition, of infinite desire. It is SO boring: to be safe! This is why I am SO done with covid, and Fauci and safety! Any good, confirmed Catholic knows that " be safe" is SO pre-Pentecoste: it is the cowardly, wimpy apostles gathered in fear in the upper room afraid of the Jews and the Romans. After Pentecost, we have nothing to fear!

So: is Fauci Moses or Pharaoh? THe answer is clear. One of his first tasks in the Biden administration was to rejoin the World Health Organization and proclaim the Glad Tidings: the Mexico City policy was being reversed...Millions of USA tax dollars would be flowing over the world to kill innocent, powerless unborn. Fauci is not so much Pharaoh as a fallen-away Hebrew who is implementing Pharaoh's slaughter of the innocent. He never got to Pentecost! We need to pray for Anthony Fauci!